Mark or Travis
Fri, 06 Apr 2001 18:15:34 -0700
> I'm not an expert on Mingus, but I'm an expert on correcting people!
My
> understanding from the press accounts was that Mingus indeed wrote
all his
> compositions on "Mingus" except Pork Pie Hat with the Joni project
in mind.
> I think he had working names of Joni 1, Joni 2, etc.
Deb is absolutely right. Here is a quote from Cameron Crowe's
interview with Joni for Rolling Stone in 1979:
Mingus had written what would later become his last six melodies
("Joni I-VI, " he called them), and he wanted Mitchell to write and
sing the lyrics for them. She spent the last year and a half working
on the project, her first collaboration, working mostly in her
apartment in New York's Regency Hotel.
I wonder what happened to the other 3 melodies? If you leave out
GBPPH which we've already established was written long before Joni's
collaboration with Mingus, that leaves only 3 melodies that were
actually penned by Charles Mingus on Joni's recording: 'Chair In the
Sky', 'Sweet Sucker Dance' and 'Dry Cleaner From Des Moines'. I
wonder if she ever tackled the other three? Oh for those missing
demos!
Mark in Seattle