By David Rowell
Over the course of his long recording and touring life with the progressive-rock band Yes, singer Jon Anderson saw firsthand the delicacy of band dynamics. For the 17 studio albums he recorded with Yes, the endless tours that followed, Yes saw more turnover than a telemarketing firm.
A staple of classic-rock radio, occasional hit makers, and having sold out venues all around the world, Yes has long epitomized a band that soldiered on despite, er, "Fragile" relations. So you can bet that when Anderson formed his first post-Yes band last year, the Anderson Ponty Band, with violin marvel Jean Luc Ponty, he knew what he was getting into.
"I thought it was the best time in my life to get together with a group and sing with a band and get that feeling again," says Anderson, 71. "It's been 10 years since I was with Yes, and I've been doing all my solo work and things, but I just had this feeling: One time, come on, let's do it. As I said to Jean Luc, 'Better late than never,' because we kept saying we were going to work together."
"Better Late Than Never," in fact, is the name of the band's debut recording, released earlier this fall.
In some ways, the collaboration was decades in the making. Yes played some shows with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 1970s, and that particular incarnation of the fiery jazz-fusion band featured Ponty on violin. "I remember when I first met Jean Luc playing with Mahavishnu - I wanted to sing with Mahavishnu. That was my dream at that moment. So here I am playing with a band that can do Mahavisnhu. It's amazing."
Last year, working with musician Michael Lewis, who had gotten Ponty to play on one of his tracks, Anderson was reawakened to the power of Ponty's soaring violin. Inspired, he decided to go back to some of Ponty's work from the 1970s and added vocals, with new lyrics, to the instrumental music and then sent those along.
Ponty, who played with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention in the early 1970s, has been recording and touring with his own band for 40 years, establishing himself as one of the most eminent and influential figures in the jazz-rock scene. The 73-year-old violinist has long admired Yes, and he was struck by what he heard in Anderson's additions to his music.
"He was not just singing the melodies already played by instruments but came up with his own melodies," Ponty writes in an email, "so totally in the mood and rhythm and feel of each piece." Ponty thought these vocal melodies added another dimension to the songs and called Anderson, telling him how delighted he was and that they should get together.
But instead of going into the studio first, they recorded a show at the Aspen Opera House, in Colorado. That performance was the foundation for the new record. Parts have since been re-recorded; others were thrown out (original guitarist Jamie Dunlap's work was scrapped entirely) and replaced by new material. A painting painted over. About half the songs are from Ponty's back catalog, and the other half are re-imagined Yes favorites.
The band is rounded out by drummer Rayford Griffin, keyboardist Wally Minko, guitarist Jamie Glaser and Baron Browne on bass, who couldn't make the tour and is being replaced by Keith Jones. In one moment, Ponty's violin drifts over these tracks like a breeze; in others it saws through or fires notes across arrangements like shooting stars.
"When he plays the violin, he's actually singing and using the violin as his voice," Anderson says. "And me singing and him playing the violin, it's like this beautiful duet all through the show."
"Jon can be very spontaneous and improvise a new melody and lyrics on the spot," Ponty adds. "So our live performances have a balance of classic progressive rock and instrumental jams."
On the album, their collaboration fuses various styles and moods-reggae, acoustic jazz, rock - and the playing is exceptional, especially by the oldest members. "I have had a long career already filled with many exciting projects," Ponty says, "but this one is so unexpected, so stimulating and so new for me." And he's interested to see how the music can evolve during this first tour.
On vocals, Anderson has lost remarkably little from the time he was singing about mountains coming out of the sky in "Roundabout" in 1971 and showing up in regular rotation on MTV with Yes's smash hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in the 80s. So how has his voice survived so fully intact after making his debut with Yes back in 1968?
"Well, I'm in love - I'm in love with life, I'm in love with my wife," Anderson explains. "I'm in love with music. I feel very, very energized. Working with Jean Luc is such a treat. In your lifetime you meet so many wonderful people, musicians, and this guy's the best. You get to 70 years old, you reflect on everything. I think what comes through is a great thankfulness and sort of a humbling feeling that I'm still able to make music and enjoy life and work with great people."
As the Anderson Ponty Band ramps up, Yes, which no longer has any original members in tow, will soon head for the high seas on their annual Cruise to the Edge adventure. In May, the band released a new box set of recordings, "Progeny," from their "Close to the Edge" tour in 1972 - seven complete concerts, with identical set lists, that show the full, surprisingly raw power of the band in all its pomp and sonic exploration.
"It was just the best time of the band musically," Anderson says. "We were just discovering a new world, with 'Close to the Edge' and 'Fragile,' especially ... Years later you reflect and just realize there was so much energy within the band and so much beautiful harmony, which created a great period for Yes."
But this past June came devastating news for Yes fans everywhere, with bassist and founding member Chris Squire, who was the only Yes member to play on every album and tour, succumbing to leukemia. When Anderson heard the news, "I was the first to call him, to get in touch and say, 'Thank you,'" he says. "I had to say, 'Whatever you're going through, I want to thank you so deeply because I wouldn't be doing what I do without you. It was 35 years of my life, and I thank you deeply. And take care of yourself.' And we kept in touch two or three times before he passed away. I said, 'We're musical brothers, Chris, no matter what we all go through in life.' "
There was such an outpouring from fans and multiple stories in the mainstream press that lauded Squire's role not only in Yes but his influence in rock music in general, and that attention may have contributed to Yes receiving its second nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in October. (It was first nominated in 2013 and skipped over last year.) If Yes were to be inducted, Anderson says he would be more than open to re-connecting with the band for the ceremony.
"Oh yeah, of course, you always enjoy the idea of getting together for that moment in time," he says. Though diehard fans might see that moment without Squire on stage as bittersweet, Anderson takes a more cosmic view: "Chris will be there - don't worry about it. He'll be there for sure."
In the meantime, while awaiting word from the Hall, Yes fans can find new Yes music not from the band itself, but in the final two tracks of "Better Late Than Never"'- "I See You Messenger" and "New New World," which were produced after the Aspen concert. Those two tracks not only ably demonstrate what the Anderson Ponty Band is capable of in the studio, but they brim with the hallmarks of Yes in-miniature: a symphonic approach to the keyboards, cascading vocal layers, elevated solos, Anderson's typically dreamy, buoyant lyrics. Musical daring.
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