Yes frontman Jon Anderson, at right, teams with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty for a new project that comes to town on Thursday.
It may be “fall back” time on the daylight-savings clock, but this Thursday promises a breath of “prog spring” in Red Bank as two leading players of the 1970s progressive-rock scene team up at the Count Basie Theatre.
Devotees of the stadium-filling British band Yes will recall Jon Anderson as the angelic-toned frontman of the group’s most classic lineups. He was the voice behind their best-known signatures of the ’70s (“Roundabout,” “All Good People”) and ’80s (“Owner of a Lonely Heart”).
Health problems sidelined Anderson from the Yes tours of recent years (in favor of a singer who had done time in a Yes cover band), and with the band’s future uncertain following the passing of founding bass player/ bandleader Chris Squire, the fit-and-working-again singer has joined forces with French-born fusion master Jean-Luc Ponty, the electrified violinist whose genre crossings have numbered collaborations with Frank Zappa and John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra among his celebrated jazz albums.
The AndersonPonty Band rolls into Red Bank with a set of new songs (from the recent release Better Late Than Never), rearranged favorites, and the potential for some improv’d delights. Take it here for tickets to the 8 pm event ($25 – $99, with a VIP upgrade option available for $50) — and monitor the Basie’s website for details on upcoming shows featuring the Jersey Shore’s own Dead On Live (October 30), plus celeb chef demos, live game shows and much more.
