For prog-rock veterans, new CD is 'Better Late Than Never'

By singer Jon Anderson's own admission, he and jazz-rock violinist Jean-Luc Ponty "have been around the block more than a few times." But younger generations of musicians have nothing on them when it comes to embracing modern technology to create and support their art.

Both artistically and financially, the duo's new CD, "Better Late Than Never," released under the banner of the Anderson Ponty Band, is a product of the digital universe.

"Through the Internet, I'm able to make music with people everywhere, and I was working with a friend of mine, Michael Lewis, on a couple of songs a few years ago, and early on he said he knew Jon-Luc Ponty, and Jon-Luc was going to play on one of our songs, which was kind of cool," explained the gossamer-voiced Anderson, beloved in this neck of the woods for the decades he spent as the singer/co-composer of progressive-rock giant Yes. He was speaking from Stroudsburg, the Pocono Mountains town where the band rehearsed for its upcoming tour, which kicks off there tonight, and Tuesday hits Glenside's Keswick Theatre.

"So, there was [Ponty] playing on songs, and I thought, the sound of his violin is so cool, and I'm sure there's more to this than meets the eye. So I contacted him and said I was going to send him a couple ideas.

"What I did was get a couple of his pieces of music from the '70s and '80s, and actually just sang some ideas on them. To me, it was a revelation, like it was meant to be. It sounded really connected."

All of this, continued Anderson, who on Sunday turns 71, was conducted via the Internet. As a matter of fact, the two spent "four or five months" collaborating in cyberspace before they convened at Ponty's Aspen, Colo., studio to record their CD.

But that's only half the digital story: The album was financed through a Kickstarter campaign.

"So many people were interested in helping finance the project," Anderson said. "The Kickstarter people were fantastic."

The title of the album - which contains new compositions as well as reworked versions of such Yes signatures as "Roundabout," "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Wondrous Stories" - refers to the extended time it took to complete. According to Anderson, he and Ponty were hoping to release the album, and to tour behind it, late last winter, but the recording process took longer than anticipated.

The two musicians weren't total strangers when they entered the studio. "We met in the '70s a couple of times," Anderson recalled. "And we bumped into each other at a reception in Paris in the mid-'80s." But once they got to work in the same room, "it was like meeting a brother."

That Anderson is still singing at all is something of a miracle. For years, he has been plagued by health problems, from a broken back he suffered falling off a ladder 12 years ago to more recent diverticulosis and sinus issues. The former, he said, actually caused him to be declared clinically dead and put him in a four-day coma. This led to his 2008 dismissal from Yes, which he co-founded with late bassist Chris Squire in 1968.

The sinus condition developed less than a year ago. But he declared himself today to be "better than ever."

Anderson declined to speak at length about Squire's death from a rare form of leukemia this past June. But while there was friction caused by his being fired from Yes, Anderson did acknowledge that he was in touch with the groundbreaking bassist in the days before his passing.

"We were musical brothers, you know? He was Darth Vader and I was Obe-Wan Kenobi," he said with a chuckle. "I [emailed] him, 'I wouldn't be doing what I do but for you.' He emailed me back: 'I was going to tell you the same thing, Jon.' "

Keswick Theatre, 291 Keswick Ave., Glenside, 8 p.m. Tuesday, $63-$79, 800-840-9227, keswicktheatre.com.

On Twitter: @chuckdarrow