Recently, I was visiting my friend at her parents house and her younger brother, he is 14, is an excellent bass player. I asked him who his biggest influence was and wouldn't you know it he said Jaco Pastorious. Stunned and impressed I asked if he listened to Joni Mitchell and he said no, so I went out to the store later that day and bought him Shadows and Light, and Hejira. Just goes to show that there is no such thing as age discrimination when it comes to the ability to appreciate great music and musicians. >From: "Mark or Travis" >Reply-To: "Mark or Travis" >To: "Don Rowe" , , >Subject: Re: Collaboration? >Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 18:25:06 -0700 > > > Just my dos pesos. Of course, if you mean Joni > > doesn't need someone like a Lerner needed Lowe, Rogers > > needed Hammerstein etc. -- I'd agree! ;-) > > > > Don Rowe > >That's what I meant. I don't think there has been a downward slide in >her writing and she doesn't need anyone to help her with it. > >Of course the contributions of musicians like Jaco & Charles Mingus >have been vital to some of Joni's records. I do recall reading that >Joni came up with most of the arrangements for Court & Spark and >pretty much insisted that the musicians stick to what she gave them. >But undoubtedly Tom Scott and the other players contributed something >of themselves to the project. Joni hasn't yet made a record where >she's the sole performer and I'm not sure I would like it if she did. >But I'm just curious enough & enough in awe of her talent that I won't >say I hope she never does. But I do agree that she has to have >learned from & been enriched by the musicians she's worked with. >Particularly the musicians that have the kind of presence that Mingus, >Jaco, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter & Brian Blade have. Of course >there are many others. > >But I do think that 'Mingus' was not an easy record for her to make & >I don't think that collaborating with a composer or lyricist comes >naturally to her. I do agree with Bob, that there was probably some >emotional baggage that came with the recording of the albums that >Klein was a major player on. But I still refuse to believe that she >would allow him to significantly affect or alter her artistic vision >for those records. Like them or not, they are Joni Mitchell >recordings. Ultimately she was responsible for what went on them. > >Mark in Seattle ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
