RIDGEFIELD - After nearly two decades of never say never, two icons spanning two abutting musical genres are producing beautiful songs and thrilling fans with the collaboration. Jean Luc Ponty, who was among the first and foremost pioneers of jazz violin, and Jon Anderson, the soaring voice and songwriter for the progressive rock group Yes, have been working together for several years.Better Late Than NeverThe Ridgefield Playhouse for a Monday evening show May 23 after a sold out session in the intimate theater last fall., and will be making their return to

Anderson Ponty Band, or APB, released an album of new and reworked Yes and Ponty material appropriately entitled

In late 2015, the

For the Yes frontman of 35 years, Andersons collaborations with interesting, even exotic, artists like Vangelis, Kitaro, and Milton Nascimento have been more the norm than the exception. But nearly 20 years after his first chance meeting with violin superstar Ponty, the pair finally committed to tour and record together.

During back-to-back call-ins to The Newtown Bee, the two artists spent almost as much time paying tribute to one another as they did talking about the music they are making together. After so many years, Ponty still expresses some surprise that a rock star of Anderson's stature knew who he was.

They first met in the mid-'70s during a two-night Yes concert stand in Texas with Ponty and Mahavishnu Orchestra opening the show. And he recalled their next meeting that sealed a friendship and sparked the idea of working together.

"I knew Jon well because of the success of Yes," Ponty said. "In my world of jazz rock, we were really open to progressive rock. So in the late '80s I was having a meeting at Atlantic records in Los Angeles and Jon just walked in. That's when he suggested we do a project together some day. That was proof to me he was very open minded to our kind of music.

"Then three years ago we crossed paths again when he asked me to play violin on a song a mutual friend was producing for Jon," Ponty continued, "so that's when the idea of putting a band together was back on the table."

"I've always been very open to work with him," Anderson said. "As time goes along you always dream of working with incredible people. And Jean-Luc is along that line of fantastic musicians, and a very beautiful man. We're very lucky to get together at this time in our lives."

While much of the conversation focused on the present, Anderson admitted that one of his most moving experiences during the APB shows is the opportunity to tribute a recently departed former band mate.

The Newtown Bee: I'd like to ask both about your favorite aspects of the live show.

Jon Anderson: As we developed the show, there was a particular Yes piece that we wanted to do, which was "And You And I," and we did the theme after the song. So I said when the theme is playing out, why don't you step out and evolve the piece, which he did with the keyboard player Wally. And suddenly there was this energy like from another world - that was when we payed homage to (the late Yes co-founder and bassist) Chris Squire. The thought of that music reaching out to the heavens makes it a very special part of the show every night.

Jean Luc Ponty: Whichever spot Jon suggests I intervene, he let's me play whatever I feel. While doing that I found a few things that were better than others, so I stick to those ideas I found which have become part of the arrangement we are playing live, with slightly different notes and rhythms. The idea was to take the best of each others music and to turn it into something different -  to start from the core and the essence of the song - and then to add sections of my songs where Jon can sing. And it works together. It's a different development that never existed in my songs before.

Bee: During last year's show at The Ridgefield Playhouse I got to sneak up to the front for a few minutes to watch, and you both looked like you were having the time of your lives.

Anderson: It is really very special. And we're working with some great musicians who Jean has known forever. I'm so grateful to be able to do what we do and so is Jean Luc. It's just heaven - musical heaven.

The new songs obviously are created around the instrument - the violin - and the vocal parts interplay with the violin. Also on his classic songs, I was dancing around his music in order to give him the space to create. I said after just a few shows that Jean Luc is singing with his violin and I'm singing with my voice.

Bee: Jean Luc, how did you approach fitting your instrument into the songs Jon brought forward for the new album project?

Ponty: I think I did the same as Jon did with my music. He found some spots in his songs where he said he wanted me to make an intervention. Performing with him is a lot like carrying on a dialogue. It's different from the way I play my own music. It's stimulating because I have to play off what he's singing. It's as though I was a singer myself, but giving it the voice of my violin. With Jon I feel more like I'm more in the role of a singer.

Bee: You had something of an unintended revolving door of guitar players there for awhile.Tell me a little bit about the process of putting the current touring band together? Is it still you two with Rayford Griffin, Wally Minko, Keith Jones and Jamie Glaser.

Jon Anderson: The band is perfect. You know our guitar player Jamie Dunlap who I'm a good friend of - he was also working for Disney so he found that coming to rehearsals was difficult because he was balancing the two. So when it came to plan the tour, he was really frustrated because his performances weren't as strong as he wanted them. He's very busy doing music for TV, so it was a natural progression to find someone Jean Luc knew.

So Jamie Glaser came in and he was like a wizard of the guitar. It's remarkable how he approaches the music. His mind set is fantastic. And Rayford is amazing on every level. If you listen to the recordings, his work is note perfect.

Keith came on and is a gem of a guy. Very spiritual and a great man. Now that I'm listening to the finished work, the playback of his beautiful playing. You can't really appreciate it when you're up on stage in the show.

Bee: The two of you seem to have quite a bond of trust. Did establishing that trust make it easier when you were each trying to discover ways to complement the other's material in the recording process?

Anderson: It was very easy for me because he's like a brother. He comes from the north of France in Brittany, and my great-great-grandparents are from Brittany, so there is a direct connection to that place and the French people.

The music of Brittany is fantastic. And we connected over the classical music he was brought up on, and the music I'm interested in designing in the future of my career, and we're actually working on a new project for the coming year.

What I think is we need to to is branch away from doing more Yes material, into some more modern and very far-reaching. When we talked about touring, we said we'd see how it was working with each other and how the audience receives it. Then we started talking about doing this with an orchestra. That would be kind of cool. We need to be thinking ahead instead of going back to older music - I think there's so much great music to come.

Ponty: Jon is so creative that just a day or two after we decided to try and do this project together he was already sending me recordings where he was improvising some singing melodies around some of my classics like "Mirage," and "Rhythms of Hope," and I said my God his voice goes so well together with the music. In the past I'd been approached by a few vocalists but it wasn't the same. Some were very good, but they were just singing words to my melodies. But Jon was taking things in the way of, well, magic.

There is something abstract about instrumental music that allows the mind to imagine. Jon finds a way to sing new melodies in different places that compliments the melodies of my songs and adds a new dimension. I thought at this stage of my life, it was a surprise to do my first project with a singer. And I said to him it's too bad we didn't do this when we first met years ago. And he says to me, better late than never, which became the title of our album before we ever started recording.

For tickets to see APB,  visit The Ridgefield Playhouse box office at 80 East Ridge, or call 203-438-5795.click here,

The Anderson Ponty Band's "One In The Rhythm Of Hope" is featured on their new album Better Late Than Never

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1lRrhCMx7I

The Anderson Ponty Band performs its version of "Owner of a Lonely Heart," which Jon Anderson co-wrote for Yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZw9jgHsRQ0

[mappress mapid="214"]