Did anyone get this trilogy of threefers?
"three... oranges
three... lemons
three... plums"
BTW, I'm reading photocopies made by the late Wally B. for a friend of
spirit. (Thanks! I'll take good care of them and return them safely!)
(Les-meister: I'll be checking with you to see if I can start typing from
this stack but so far, Wally already beat me to the punch.)
ANYWAY!! It seems that the "Mingus" project wasn't panned by everyone.
Maybe the most important Jazz magazine of all is "down beat". Out of a
possible 5 stars for excellent, downbeat rated "Mingus"....... (wait for
it)..... five stars.
The review by Leonard Feather begins, "This is a wonderful piece of work."
Mr. Feather recognized (of course) that Joni's is perfectly channeling Annie
Ross's "Farmer's Market" when she wrote "Dry Cleaner From Des Moines". Of
"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" Mister Feather says,
"Joni's lyrics, quite frankly, are profound: in the first five words, she
manages to weave the song's original subject (Lester Young) and its composer
into an epic framework of great emotional power:
'When Charlie speaks of Lester/You know someone great has gone/the sweetest
swinging music man/had a porky-pig hat on/A bright star in a dark age/when
the bandstands had a thousand ways of refusing a black man/admission./ Black
musicians/In those days they put him in an underdog position/Cellars and
chitlins.' "
There's more of course, and the late Wally B. already posted it, so go to:
www.jonimitchell.com/downbeat79.html
If you don't have time, rest assured that down beat "got" Mingus even if
Joni doesn't REMEMBER it that way!! You go girl! We love you!!
Lama
