Jean-Luc Ponty’s Musical Mirror Tells Where He Can Still Improve : Performance: French contemporary-jazz violinist, who will play tonight in Anaheim, takes stock on tour--away from audience pressure.

Jean-Luc Ponty was in the middle of a musical self-examination when reached by phone earlier this week, in his Seattle hotel: The contemporary-jazz violinist was listening to tapes of his band’s concert the previous night in Portland.

“It’s a bit like looking at oneself in the mirror,” the 47-year-old French-born Los Angeles resident chuckled in a French accent.

“I make notes of everyone’s mistakes, including my own, though I prefer not to count them.”

Ponty--who, as part of a six-week leg in his 1989-90 world tour will play tonight at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim and Saturday and Sunday at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles--finds this aural poking around helpful.

“Sometimes what we play sounds quite different from what we imagine on stage, so it’s very useful to improve the show,” he said. “I tape every night, mostly at the beginning of a tour. If we play really bad, or really well, then I want to check it out on tape.”

You will not hear many mistakes from Ponty, who has been a jazzman, in one form or another, for more than 20 years. In a manner somewhat akin to Fred Astaire’s approach to his filmed dance routines, Ponty rehearses extensively before he embarks on a tour.

“That way, the first day doesn’t sound like it’s the first day, it sounds like we’re already rolling,” he said. “Still, once on stage, there’s the pressure of the audience and so on.” Hence, the taping.

The violinist, who graduated from the Conservatoire du Paris at age 17, is touring with a crew of familiar colleagues. Drummer Rayford Griffin, bassist Baron Browne, guitarist Jamie Glaser and keyboardist Wally Minko have all traveled with Ponty; additionally, Glaser has appeared with the violinist off and on since the late ‘70s, Griffin and Browne steadily since the early ‘80s. The fivesome also recorded Ponty’s recent “Storytelling” album. This familiarity eases many of the potential strains that accompany the art of music-making.

“It’s a nice combination,” Ponty said. “They work as unit, there’s no one trying to pull the cover to himself. They really work for the music first. And when I bring them new music, it goes much faster because it’s already a band.”

Ponty had so much fun on his last world tour with his partners that he felt he had to get them into the studio to “capture the energy and excitement they had while playing on the road,” he said.

The result is “Storytelling.”

“It’s more of a basic album: just go in the studio and play, with very little adding of studio embellishments, if you like,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to prove anything, in terms of composition or performance. I just wanted to have fun.”

Ponty, who uses both a Zeta solid-body electronic violin and a traditional Barcus-Berry open-bodied model on stage, composes at home either at the Synclavier (an electronic keyboard that’s hooked up to a computer) or the piano.

“I’ll usually improvise for a while and then play it back, and if I find an interesting idea, I develop it into a tune,” he said.

The violinist also gets inspiration from his environment, as was the case with “Amazon Forest,” off the new release. “I was in this huge botanical garden in Rio de Janeiro in May, 1988,” he recalled. “The place had luxurious, jungle-type vegetation, a rich and varied beauty, and as I was walking around--there were very few other people there--I started hearing this music in my head. I kept singing it all the way back to the hotel so I wouldn’t lose it,” he said, laughing. “I took that beginning fragment and developed it into what you hear on the record.”

A world tour that takes Ponty away from his wife and family for weeks at a time is just another facet of the musical life that Ponty willingly accepts.

“I love performing, and since I have to go on the road to perform, I go on the road,” he said. “But if I had a choice between Cleveland and Tahiti in December, naturally I’d go to Tahiti. But since to perform I have to go to Cleveland, I’ll be delighted to be there in December.”

With a career that has included about 20 solo releases and appearances on record and in person with the likes of Frank Zappa, Stephane Grappelli, Elton John and George Duke, Ponty feels blessed. “Music gives me one of the greatest satisfactions in my life,” he said. “Together with my wife and family, that’s the only thing so dear.

“I feel lucky,” and here he paused, gathering his words, “to have been able to do something I love and make a living with it. It’s an incredible fulfillment. Plus, music is therapy for me.”

He added, laughing out loud: “I might be a mental case if it wasn’t for music relieving my emotions.”

Jean-Luc Ponty plays at 8 tonight at the Celebrity Theatre, 201 E. Broadway, Anaheim. Tickets: $20. Information: (714) 999-9536.