well i congratulate you for being smarter and more musically educated than
joni - i was definitely paraphrasing from memory - joni has also often said
she'll let others theoretically analyze her work, she is an intuitive.
IMO musicians cover her early work because it is easier.
peace, david
>
>
> Well, this wouldn't be the first time Joni's said something that doesn't
make
> sense. It may be true that her early songs are less jazz inflected than
later
> work, but (and this "but" is huge) many of the melodic and harmonic
> components of jazz are gleaned from European music in the first place;
> indeed, jazz is a fusion of European and African (among others) musical
> elements. Even more importantly (and in further contradiction to what Joni
> said), the greatest jazz composers (Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Wayne
> Shorter, just to name a very few) wrote very cohesive, songful melodies,
> accompanied by harmony significantly derived from European sources, and
their
> melodic/harmonic material is exceedingly inspired, memorable, and
inventive.
> Much of Joni's later work sounds flat and uninteresting in comparison to
> their compositions. It's got nothing to do with cultural differences, but
> rather with differences of compositional excellence. The idea that her
later
> songs contain "more melody and more complex harmonies" is just not
supported
> by the evidence, which can be investigated if one makes the effort to
analyze
> them theoretically.
>
> Incidentally, something I find instructive is that several recent jazz
> interpreters of Joni's songs (Fred Hersch, Joshua Redman, Dave Douglas,
David
> Lahm, Larry Goldings) have mainly concentrated on her earlier work.
>
> -Fred
