Last night Coyote Rick and I attended the lecture on Joni's music given by Professor Bowman.( sorry I can't remember his first name) Mags also drove all the way from Hamilton to join us, which was quite a delight. Dr. Bowman did an excellent job of explaining the evolution of Joni's music. I wish I could have had a music appreciation teacher in college that was as interesting and enthusiastic as Dr. Bowman.
He didn't tell us anything that most of us already knew regarding the musical periods of Joni's life. On the list we might discuss Joni's "electronic" or "pop" periods when someone starts a thread on one of Joni's albums. We can also go to Wally/Jim's page to learn a great deal about Joni's life. What was so wonderful about last night was that Dr. Bowman did this in 90 minutes using samples of all of her CD's. For example he would be talking how Joni would started using her voice as an instrument. He would play a few bars from "Car on a Hill" and point out where she would use this technique. Like I said, any diehard Joni fan would know all this, but it's great when you can discuss Joni's music in a "live" situation. It was a fascinating experience, and Dr. Bowman knows his Joni music!!! The lecture was followed by a 75 minute compilation of Joni videos and interviews. We had seen most of these before, but it was wonderful to view them on the big screen. It was another GREAT Joni evening. BTW, we found out that Tuesday night's performance of the "Tribute in Song" WAS recorded. The tape has to be sent to the participating artists, and I'm sure a lot of red tape is involved, but maybe one day we'll all get a chance to hear that wonderful evening. Time to get ready for the unveiling of "Joni's star" at noon. Hopefully we'll get some good photos. Wish us luck! Jimmy (and Coyote Rick) in Toronto...........I love the Canadians
