[2] While still a member of the orchestra in Paris, Ponty picked up a side job playing clarinet (which his father had taught him) for a college jazz band that regularly performed at local parties.

At that time, Ponty was leading a dual musical life: rehearsing and performing with the orchestra while also playing jazz at clubs throughout Paris.

With a powerful sound that eschewed vibrato, Ponty distinguished himself with bebop phrasing and a punchy style influenced more by horn players than by anything previously tried on the violin.

He performed on stage in Basel, Switzerland, with string players Stuff Smith, Stéphane Grappelli, and Svend Asmussen.

John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet invited Ponty to perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1967,[1] which led to a recording contract with the World Pacific label and the albums Electric Connection (1969) with the Gerald Wilson Big Band and Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio (1969).

At the urging of Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, who wanted him to join their tour, Ponty emigrated with his wife and two young daughters to the United States and made his home in Los Angeles.

[1] He continued to work on a variety of projects – including two of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra albums Apocalypse (1974) and Visions of the Emerald Beyond (1975) and tours until 1975,[1] when he signed with Atlantic.

On Tchokola (Epic, 1991) Ponty combined acoustic and electric violins for the first time with polyrhythmic sounds of West Africa.

In 1995, he joined guitarist Al Di Meola and bassist Stanley Clarke to record an acoustic album, The Rite of Strings.

He reunited his American band in 1996 for live performances following the release of a double album for Atlantic titled Le Voyage: The Jean-Luc Ponty Anthology.

In January 2003, he toured India for the first time, seven shows in six major cities for the Global Music Festival organized by Indian violinist L. Subramaniam.

In 2006, he reunited Jean-Luc Ponty & His Band and toured in the U.S., Chile, Venezuela, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, The Middle East and India; they recorded a studio album called The Atacama Experience (2007) with guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Philip Catherine.

In April 2012, Ponty performed in an acoustic trio with Clarke and guitarist Bireli Lagrene for the second set of a concert at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris to celebrate five decades in music.

In March of 2014, Jon Anderson, the lead singer of Yes announced he was forming a new band with Jean Luc Ponty as the result of a mutual friend, Michael Lewis.