I really liked what Fred wrote because it made me feel a little better about something that I have been feeling sensitive about for awhile now.
"Cover" was not in my musical vocabulary until a couple of years after joining JMDL. Since learning what this term means, I have become aware of what seems to be an element of disdain among some (many?) JMDLers for anyone who doesn't "cover" Joni's music "creatively" and this awareness has led to a sense of discomfort about performing Joni's music anymore anywhere. In all the years that I played guitar and sang Joni's songs, it never occurred to me to try to elaborate on or make changes to her beautiful (and IMO, perfect) music. I was never trying to "be" or "become" Joni by singing her songs (I don't have her vocal chords and I would never dream of dressing up in a blonde wig and wearing a beret! :^D). For me, it has always been just a great pleasure to try to recreate her beautiful guitar sounds and sing along in my own voice. For me, singing/performing is a meditative process - an opportunity to get beyond myself to convey the message/meaning of whatever song as best I can - and I have always felt a sense of peace and healing in that process, especially with Joni's music. Each time I sing a song is a new chance to do it better than ever before. It is not a competitive thing or an imitative thing, but a process - a personal process that I sometimes share if I perform for someone. Something that really bugs me here is all the comparison that goes on. This artist is better than that one, that artist is trying to be like so and so, and on and on. I think it is true that all of us cannot avoid being influenced by all of the events/things/people/songs that we grow up with, but we each have our own unique interpretation and expression, and I think that we all deserve to be respected and valued if we are trying to bring beauty into the world in however limited a fashion. Rickie Lee Jones has a solid base of people who think she is the best musician who ever walked the face of the earth, just as most people here feel that way about Joni, and other people I know feel that way about Natalie Merchant, Jewel, Brittany Spears, Madonna, Bob Dylan, etc. Marian Vienna On Mon, 3 Dec 2001 23:58:31 EST Fred <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>17. Keith Jarrett - All I Want: Surprisingly, nothing very creative here >>from piano virtuouso Jarrett. One of his earlier recordings, it's pretty >>enough and gets the job done and that's about it. > There's much more here than meets the ear. Creativity, in covers, > can be a highly overrated commodity; too many covers are too damn > "creative," by which I mean that the "creativity" supersedes the song. > Yeah, a radical reworking can sometimes work, but often all a song > needs is the firm stamp of the cover artist's own voice. With Jarrett it's > the latter; the thing is, that stamp is somewhat masked by the fact that > the song itself lays squarely on the broad intersection of Joni's and > Jarrett's melodic/harmonic language. I think that's a big part of why > he played it: to demonstrate the hipness of Joni's music, just as it is, > with no further "hipping it up." He recognized a kinship in her music and > celebrates by just "singing" her song in his voice, which shares so many > characteristics with hers. Also, few jazz musicians at that time were > investigating the current popular songs as alternative jazz vehicles to > decades of Gershwin, Porter, etc. - -Fred
