LO'S PICK OF THE DAY - "Modern Times Blues" by Jean-Luc Ponty from his 1984 release; "Open Mind"

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Originally featured on Inside MusiCast as my Pick of The Day

What a perfect title this is. It describes where I was in 1984 / 85.

Today, my husband and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary.

We both LOVE music. In fact, that was one of the main things that attracted me to him. This intense love of music of a higher level. But more from the technical side versus from how I related to music, which was more emotional.

Before meeting him, I was all about Motown, Soul, 70's Rock, Soft Rock, Disco and New Wave / Punk. Which I still love today.

Getting to know my husband, I learned he had seen just about every one, from the Police to Santana to Journey and more.

One thing he was very passionate about was Jazz Fusion and experimental. I'm pretty sure that at some time or another I would have learned about great artists like Pat Metheny, Stanley Clark, Weather Report, Al Di Meola, Azymuth, Jeff Lorber, Yellowjackets and Jean-Luc Ponty and SCORES of others. But my husband was the one who "OPENED MY MIND" to a whole other world of music that was full of ear candy. Totally musician driven.

Thinking about our early years brought this track to mind.

"Modern Time Blues" - Still after all these years, it totally takes my breath away. I don't know too much about the tech stuff, but I understand Jean-Luc, an over the top violinist, was totally experimenting with those early synths and sequencers, which I'm sure our friend Steve Porcaro and Casey Young could tell us what it took to build those sounds from the ground up.

The rhythm from the beginning, gets you going. Add to the space agey tones of the synth, Jean-Luc on violin and guest guitarist extraordinaire on guitar; George Benson, dueling or communicating back and forth.

There's so much funk in this song with that Pearl Django twist.

What a great tune to revisit.

This Pick is dedicated to my husband. He had no idea that introducing me to a whole different level of music back then would take me to where I am today in being a correspondent here at IMC.

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