From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V3 #288 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk JMDL Digest Monday, August 3 1998 Volume 03 : Number 288 TapeTree 7 sign-up is closing on Sunday, August 2nd. Go to to sign up ------- The Official 1998 Joni Mitchell Internet Community Shirts are available now. Go to for all the details. ------- The New England Labor Day Weekend JoniFest is coming soon! Send a blank message to for all the details. ------- Trivia buffs! We are compiling an in-depth trivia database on all things Joni. Send your bit of trivia - or your questions you would like answered - to ------- And don't forget about JoniFest 1999! Reserve your spot with a $25 fee. Only 100 rooms have been reserved. Send a blank message to for more info. ------- The Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Joni's paintings, original essays, lyrics and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at and contains Joni-related interviews, articles, member gallery, info on the archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Cocteau Twins (NJC) [evian ] Re : NJC The Charts (was Joni's Helplessly Hoping) [Jason Maloney ] re: Joni in today's NY Times (long) [Robert Holliston ] Re: lyrics, even cocteau twins lyrics! (njc) ["Reuben Bell3" ] Enquiring Minds Want to Know-Inaurato [Jerry Notaro ] RE: Joni and cocaine [Howard Motyl ] Re: Blue CD releases (short!) [Mark Domyancich ] Joni as Movie Star? [Steve Dulson ] J D Souther (NJC) [Steve Dulson ] SJC:Stan Rogers? [Chilihead2@aol.com] Re: J D Souther (NJC) [Bill Dollinger ] shameless self-promotion Pt Deux NJC [Howard Motyl ] Re: Joni PR & web stuff (LONG). ["Reuben Bell3" ] RE: Joni and cocaine [Bill Dollinger ] Joni, Gillian and Commercial Sense (VLJC) [Steve Dulson Subject: Cocteau Twins (NJC) Speaking of the Cocteau Twins, does anyone have any idea what the lyrics to "the Spangle Maker" are? Evian ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 10:45:20 +0100 From: Jason Maloney Subject: Re : NJC The Charts (was Joni's Helplessly Hoping) Michael, Hey, hang on there! Who's "trashing" the R'n'B acts you mentioned? All I was pointing out was that the likes of Wyclef, Eryka etc have spawned "second-generation" copies that just aren't as "good", and it's those acts that are clogging up the UK (not US) charts. My reference to the US singles/albums market was in deference to the BUSINESS practices and perceived viabilties of the single format. In the UK, singles are "loss-leaders" and the companies use them to increase sales on (what are here) vastly over-priced CD albums. "Monster-sellers" isn't a derogatory term in my book - merely a reference to the large number of copies they have sold - but I'm sorry if that's how you interpreted it..... I agree with your comments on the "terrible" rock music that is so popular in the states these days, but my post wasn't really dealing the US market as such - the bands you mentioned don't mean anything over here (thankfully!). Anyway, thanks for your opinions - you can always be guaranteed some healthy debate here on the JMDL, it seems. Jason. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 02:55:34 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Crosby-CPR - Joni Marketing While reading Julie's post about new marketing strategies for Joni via the internet, the first thing that came to mind was how well the Crosby, Stills & Nash web site http://www.alpha.nl/CSN/ promotes their albums. It includes frequent updates from Crosby and Nash themselves on what they are up to in the studio and also offers direct ordering of the CDs. Crosby has been on my mind anyway since I just got the CPR album which came out in the record stores a few weeks ago. This is not only the best album I have heard this year - I totally flipped over it on the very first listen - it is some of the best Crosby I've ever heard. His son James Raymond and Jeff Pevar are major talents. (Raymond has worked with many top artists including Tom Scott). Crosby says that they threw some "Joni and Sting (influences) in the album for seasoning." Some of Crosby's lyrics on this album are somehow so reminiscent of Joni to me that I found myself re-checking the liner notes just to see if there had been any collaboration with her. I recommend this album most highly. The CSN website seems to indicate that the CPR album is only available in the U.S. at this point, awaiting arrangements with foreign distribution but the album can be ordered through either the CSN or CPR web sites. Check out http://www.crosbycpr.com Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 05:13:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Robert Holliston Subject: re: Joni in today's NY Times (long) Thank you, Deb Messling, for pointing out this article! I stopped by our local Chapters and picked up a copy of the Sunday NY Times (something I don't ordinarily do, as it costs $7.50 here). There is a wonderful photo of Joni, and an article that attempts to give her work some long-overdue recognition. There is also, however, an article by someone whose sins of omission seriously undermine his credibility, and I would like to share a few of my concerns with the list. Albert Innaurato, who is described as a playwright who writes frequently about music, writes (and Deb quotes this): > With all respect to the estimable Ned Rorem and the magnificent Francis > Poulenc, it could be argued Mitchell is one of the great song composers of > the 20th century, more impressive for writing her own words. Like Franz > Schubert's, her music erupts from a deeply felt, idiosyncratic emotional > life, outside the mainstream. Schubert was probably a homosexual. Both his > great song cycles, "Winterreise" and "Die Schoene Mullerin," and the >majority > of his songs to poems by others deal with blighted love. First of all, a great many of Schubert's songs deal with subjects other than blighted love (but if the majority do, that makes him no different from any other song composer). That last sentence, by the way, allows the reader to infer that Schubert wrote the poems for the song cycles: he didn't, Muller did. Why, by the way, is it necessary to express respect for anyone, living or dead, in order to call Joni Mitchell a great 20th-century [singer-] songwriter? Just asking.... Speculation about Schubert's sexuality has been rife for decades: there is no conclusive evidence that he was gay. Interesting, though, that the writer chose to emphasize this so that Joni and Franz can be equally "outside the mainstream" - i.e., she's a woman, he's a fag. Even more interesting that he cited Rorem and Poulenc, but neglected to mention that both are (in the case of Poulenc, were) openly homosexual. Maybe he felt it would weaken his argument, but do any of you think that Ned Rorem is more mainstream than Joni Mitchell, especially during her early-to-mid 1970s period of success? What Rorem and Poulenc do is different to what Joni does. They are composers in the traditional, centuries-honored sense: i.e., they provide a more or less definitive score so that future generations of musicians can perform their works more or less as they intended them to be performed (without having to listen to recordings). Both of these composers have said in interviews that they have very little patience for performers who deviate at all from what is written on the page. Joni does not think like this: she has frequently claimed a lack of interest in music theory (I'd like to call her on that someday, because it strikes me that she is very aware of and concerned with the technical aspects of her music). But so far, she writes for herself, as a singer-songwriter, and not as a composer, who writes for other people (no matter if the composer also plays his/her music during his/her lifetime). And as for the comparison with Schubert - well, I consider it pretty specious. Schubert, after all, also composed really great symphonies and chamber music and piano sonatas (all of which Mr. Innaurato conveniently ignores). Innaurato writes, > There was an Eve of opera [Barbara Strozzi's] wonderful and often > daring settings of texts from operas demonstrate a big talent, far beyond > the short dance forms favored by her male colleagues. This statement manages to insult everyone: Strozzi, her colleagues, and listeners who happen to like 17th-century Baroque music. Strozzi's music is listened to today because it is very good music: after 350 years, posterity is kind only to the great, so she doesn't need any special pleading, especially if it is at the expense of her contemporaries. But, her male colleagues *do* include Claudio Monteverdi, who is without question the most important Italian composer of both the late Renaissance and the early Baroque. Later, Innaurato writes, > Still, where a singer can sing her own songs on a permanent document like an > LP or a CD, there is always hope. No musician reading the scores for Laura > Nyro's songs would realize just from the notes how original and magical a > cantata like "New York Tendaberry" is And, except for the recent (and very welcome) tabulatures, no future interpreter of Joni's music will stand a chance, either. A few of the vocal lines in the Court and Spark songbook are written an octave higher than they sound - it would take an operatically trained singer to handle the high tessitura, and it would sound ridiculous in any case. The accompaniments also bear little if any resemblance to what we hear in the early recordings - thank goodness for tabulature! There are a lot of women composers who have made significant contributions to 20th-century music: Elizabeth Machonchy, Elisabeth Lutyens, and Thea Musgrave come to mind, and there are many others (Innaurato did mention the unique Lili Boulanger, who was already a great composer before she died at the untimely age of 23). There are also a lot of male composers who have had to fight for recognition - another reason Innaurato's argument is faulty: we are, for better or worse, living in an age in which our mass audiences are no longer interested in ("classical") contemporary music. This is the first time in music history that this has been the case, and none of us will ever know how things turn out (check back in two hundred years....) This is of course also the first time in the several centuries of music history that we have access to recordings as concrete documents - again, check back in two hundred years to evaluate fully what impact they have.... These are my thoughts, and I submit them honestly if not humbly - sorry, I consider the writer of this article, one Mr. Albert Innaurato, to be a dishonest and self-serving idiot, unworthy of Joni Mitchell, Franz Schubert, Laura Nyro, Ned Rorem, Francis Poulenc, Tracy Chapman, Lili Boulanger, Barbara Strozzi, and if I've forgotten anyone, let me know. Sincerely, Roberto ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 09:19:24 -0400 From: "Eric Jaimes" Subject: Alcohol/drugs/Great American Principles (NJC) OK. Here goes, I am making time to put my two cents in on this subject. I hope no one takes offense. First off, I've been through the "drug thing." Was sent to a rehab when I was 18 after using everything from cocaine to mescaline to valium and reefer for three years. I hurt a lot of people during that time, but no one more than myself. Still, I have no regrets about having done it. Mescaline and other hallucinogens in particular provided me with some most excellent, creative moments. Obviously you can't stay on that path too long. I've known people that did - - they are either dead or required years in prison to learn their lesson. But as far as all these organizations such as AA which say "oh, it's a DISEASE," this is nothing more than the Great American Principle of accepting NO responsibility for one's own actions. Personally, I find the precept somewhere between pathetic and hilarious. I have no doubt that this would irritate someone like you who writes: "I would like to state, for the record, that I believe the AMA currently consider substance dependence and alcohol dependence a disease. This is a real conflict with the insurance companies and the Vet Administration that have and may still consider drug / alcohol dependence a "self inflicted" disorder. This keeps many from receiving treatment services. (Detox excluded)" If people aren't receiving treatment services, then it's our rehabilition programs that need to be rehabilitated. Just because someone takes responsibility for their actions doesn't mean that they don't need help just as badly as someone who was "victimized" by this "terrible disease." People need to accept responsibility for their own actions. That's my opinon, anyway. That was the first step for me. Eric ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 09:31:12 -0400 From: Jerry Notaro Subject: Re: Two Songs From Rare Tape And what could they possibly mean by: All songs are original compositions barring the final track, which was originally recorded by Judy Collins. Duh! Jerry np: S&L ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 09:52:36 -0400 From: "Reuben Bell3" Subject: Re: lyrics, even cocteau twins lyrics! (njc) The Cocteau Twins lyrics get easier to decipher on their more recent albums: Heaven Or Las Vegas, Four-Calendar Cafe, and Milk and Kisses. The Twins broke up, by the way, a couple of years ago. I saw them on their final tour in London in 1996, and they absolutely blew me away. I would highly reccomend them to anyone even slightly interested. Very ethereal and wonderful. Reuben ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 15:13:58 +0100 (BST) From: Howard Wright Subject: Blue HDCD vs. original Blue CD release (longish) I know this is out of date ... I'm still behind on digests. As far as I know, my CD player does not have the extra HDCD chip/decoder thingy, although it is a recent model (bought it last year). My vague understanding of this is that the HDCDs will still offer some difference in performance on my player (over the "normal" CD releases), but the difference would be larger on a CD player that has the extra HDCD gizmo. After buying the Hits/Misses HDCDs I did a few side by side comparisons of original CD releases of tracks, and the new HDCD versions. I compared Hejira, Free Man in Paris, Chelsea Morning and one or two others. The difficult part is to get the listening volume of the two versions to be about the same, to make it a fair test. The HDCD versions are consistently much louder, so I had to reduce the playback volume of these by 4 or 5 "notches". After much scrunching of eyebrows, and several switchings between different versions, I convinced myself that there might just be an audible difference. Hejira sounded a bit crisper on HDCD, though the difference seemed non existent on some other tracks. To do a proper test, you really need to be able to switch quickly and easily between the two versions. For me it was: Stop - eject Cd - put Cd back in case - get other CD out - put in tray - close tray ..... press play - errrr, what track was I listening to again... ??? From: briano@interisland.net (Odlum, Brian) Subject: Re: Blue HDCD ReMaster >We listened to three different versions of Beethoven's 5th symphony, 4th >movement. Since I used to play in a professional orchestra, I knew this >work almost by heart. Only one of the recordings did any justice to >Beethoven's score IMO. One of the recordings was horribly out of tune, >full of audible errors, and so badly interpreted it was painful to listen >to [no grammar police please]. It was this recording that my boss loved >most however, because to his ears it had the best "sound". The recording >that I liked the best, for the orchestra's brilliant technique and >interpretation, was third on the boss's list. >From that day forward my >boss considered me to be an "audio imbecile", one who possesses impaired >hearing ability. This is an interesting story, and just goes to show that different people will judge a piece of music by totally different standards. The bottom line (for me) in all of this, no matter what hi-fi you have, is: If you like the sound of it, go for it! If you prefer your slightly scratched vinyl copy of Blue to the all-singing all dancing HDCD version, that's great! All that matters is that you prefer it. If Brian's boss did actually think of Brian as an "audio imbecile", that is pretty narrow minded. It is clear that the two of you were judging totally different things - one was going for pure "sound quality" (regardless of musical interpretation), and the other was going for musical interpretation (regardless of "sound quality"). Maybe it's not surprising they preferred different pieces. I'll always go for power of performance over sound quality (why else would I be so crazy about Neil Young's "Tonight's The Night" ?!?) >To human ears, the "improvement" of the HDCD standard (by itself) is not >very important when one listens to Joni Mitchell recordings. Her music >(generally speaking) comes nowhere close to challenging the envelope of >the standard, especially early works like Blue. The frequency range and >dynamic range of this work represent a small part of the hearing >spectrum. Without wanting to get too boringly technical, most audio recordings will have sounds that are close to the high-frequency limit of human hearing (roughly 20 kHz). Every pitched sound has a fundamental pitch, and a whole series of harmonics stacked on top. The frequencies of the harmonics are twice, three times, four times (etc) the freq. of the fundamental. So when you play the top E string of a guitar, the fundamental is 330 Hz, but you will typically have 20-30 harmonics as well, meaning you have frequencies stretching up to at least 10 kHz. So you don't have to sing/play a very high note to have harmonics coming out at 15 or 20 kHz. >Objectively, there is *some* difference, which audio analysis equipment >can verify. Whether or not one can actually *hear* any difference is a >COMPLETELY SUBJECTIVE issue and is not resolvable by discussion. Absolutely! We shouldn't even expect people to agree on whether performance X is "better" than performance Y of the same piece. Howard ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 10:14:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Dollinger Subject: SpamSpamSpam, baked beans and spam. It has been written: >I'm sure it's tasty from what I know of Fred. . . >and how nice nobody calls this spamming! let all interests flourish say I. Why would anyone call this spamming? I am sure that Fred's music is of interest to many jmdlers, and I personally have heard rave reviews! As a fan of the non-joni content of the list, I am keenly interested in hearing about the projects or achievements of my fellow jmdlers. And thank god most of us know how to discuss projects and achievements without ever becoming tedious or desperate. btw, this thread has me chuckling to remember the old Monty Python skit about Spam, Spam, Spam.... Bill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 15:19:44 +0100 (BST) From: Howard Wright Subject: Blue CD releases (short!) Forgot to mention: Last year, I bought Blue on CD, and had to take it back to the store 3 times to replace it because the first half second or so of "All I Want" was missing! All the replacements had exactly the same problem, so I had to give up in the end. I still don't have Blue on CD! This is probably just a problem with the particular batch of CDs that were pressed, but it made me wonder. Did anyone else (especially those in the UK) come across dud Blue CDs ? Someone also mentioned the poor quality of C&S on CD. I have this one, and it is probably the worst quality CD I own. Not all tracks are bad, but parts of Trouble Child are pretty rough sounding. Howard ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 10:27:06 -0400 From: Jerry Notaro Subject: Enquiring Minds Want to Know-Inaurato Albert Francis Innaurato SOURCE: Who's Who in America, 50th Edition, 49th Edition, 48th Edition; Who's Who in Entertainment, 1st Edition LENGTH: 208 words * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PERSONAL INFORMATION * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * son of Albert and Mary (Walker) I. GENDER: Male BIRTH-DATE: June 2, 1947 BIRTHPLACE: Phila. ADDRESS: Home: 325 W 22nd St, New York, NY, 10011-2668, Office: Arthur B Greene, 101 Park Ave Fl 43, New York, NY, 10178 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CAREER INFORMATION * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * OCCUPATION: 5260 - playwright CAREER:adj. prof. Columbia U., Princeton U., 1987-89; instr. Yale Sch. Drama, 1993; lectr. Met. Opera Guild. POSITIONS HELD:playwright- in-residence, Playwright's Horizons, N.Y.C., 1983; playwright-in-residence, Pub. Theatre, N.Y.C., 1977; playwright-in-residence, Circle Repertory Theatre, N.Y.C., 1979 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B.F.A., Calif. Inst. Arts, Los, 1972; M.F.A., Yale U., 1975 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * OTHER INFORMATION * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CREATIVE WORKS: Author: plays Earthworms, 1974, Gemini, 1977 (Obie award 1977, played on Broadway over 4 yrs.), The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie, 1977 (Obie award), Passione, 1980, Verna the USO Girl, PBS, 1980 (Emmy award), Gus and Al, 1988 (pub. in Best Plays of 1988-89), Magda and Callas, 1988; author, dir.: Coming of Age in Soho, 1985; Best Plays of Albert Innaurato, pub. 1987; contbr. articles on opera to N.Y. Times, Opera News, Vanity Fair, New Republic, other jours. AWARDS: Guggenheim grantee, 1976; Rockefeller grantee, 1977; Nat. Endowment for Arts grantee, 1986, 89; Drama League award, 1987. MEMBERSHIPS: Mem. Dramatists Guild, Writers Guild Am. NAME: Albert Innaurato PERSONAL: Born June 2, 1948, in Philadelphia, PA; son of Albert and Mary (Walker) Innaurato. ADDRESSES: HOME--325 W. 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011. AGENT--c/o George Lane, William Morris Agency, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. EDUCATION: California Institute of the Arts, B.F.A., 1972; Yale University School of Drama, M.F.A., 1975. CAREER: Playwright and director. Playwright in residence, New York Shakespeare Festival, Public Theatre, New York City, 1977, Circle Repertory Company, New York City, 1979, and Playwright's Horizons, New York City, 1983. MEMBERSHIPS: Dramatists Guild, Writers Guild of America. AWARDS: Guggenheim grant in playwriting, 1976; two Obie Awards, both 1977, for The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie and Gemini; Rockefeller grant in Playwriting, 1977. CREDITS: PRINCIPAL STAGE WORK director, The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie, Broadway production, New York City, 1973. WRITINGS: PLAYS "Summit," and "Lytton Strachey Lucubrates de Rerum Sexualium," unproduced. (with Christopher Durang) I Don't Generally Like Poetry but Have You Read 'Trees'? (musical), Yale Cabaret, 1972. The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie, Yale, 1973, Playwrights Horizons, New York City, 1976, Astor Place Theatre, New York City, 1977, produced in London, 1978, produced again at Playwrights Horizons, New York City, 1983, published by Dramatists Play Service, 1977. Earthworms, produced, 1974. Gemini, Little Theatre (now the Helen Hayes Theatre), New York City, 1976-80, published by Dramatists Play Service, 1977. Ulysses in Traction, Circle Repertory Theatre, New York City, 1977. published by Dramatists Play Service, 1978. (with Christopher Durang) The Idiots Karamazov (musical), produced in New York City, 1974, published by Dramatists Play Service, 1980. Passione, Morosco Theatre, New York City, 1980, published by Dramatists Play Service, 1981. Also, Coming of Age in Soho, produced at the Public Theatre, New York City. BOOKS (With an introduction by the playwright) Bizarre Behavior: Six Plays, Avon Books, 1980. July 13, 1997, Sunday, Late Edition - Final NAME: Will Crutchfield CATEGORY: Music SECTION: Section 2; Page 28; Column 1; Arts and Leisure Desk LENGTH: 1744 words HEADLINE: CLASSICAL MUSIC; Invoking Callas in an Operatic Field of Dreams BYLINE: By ALBERT INNAURATO; Albert Innaurato writes and lectures about music. His play "Dreading Thekla" will be presented this month at the Williamstown Theater Festival. BODY: AREN'T WE ALL A LITTLE SICK of Maria Callas by now? Not of Callas the Glenn Gould of opera, a mixture of maniac and medium, but of Callas the all-purpose soap-opera diva. Well, Will Crutchfield isn't. Mr. Crutchfield -- once a young music critic at The New York Times and elsewhere, and now, at 40, an enterprising conductor -- offers Callas as the sacred cow behind his newest brainstorm, "Bel Canto at Caramoor." The series begins on Saturday evening in Katonah, N.Y., with a semistaged performance of Rossini's "Donna del Lago," featuring the rising singers Vivica Genaux, Bruce Fowler and Marguerite Krull and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Mr. Crutchfield, newly named the director of opera at the Caramoor International Music Festival, has a pedagogic agenda, hoping that the festival will prove a fertile field of dreams for the revival not only of a repertory but also of a kind of singing that has all but disappeared. Although "bel canto" means, first and foremost, "beautiful singing," Callas never had a beautiful voice. She began as a wild roarer and first electrified the world by alternating Wagner's "Walkure" with a quintessential bel canto opera, Bellini's florid "I Puritani": polar opposites, it was claimed with only partial justification. But later she specialized in bel canto repertory, becoming a great Norma (Bellini) and reviving the long-dead operas "Il Pirata" (Bellini) and "Poliuto" (Donizetti). Her instrument collapsing, she grew more elegant, using coloristic and rhythmic genius to make music that often wasn't there -- as, in some of this material, she had to. (An inane waltz in the big duet in "Poliuto" becomes, in her voice, something magically elegiac.) And indeed, many of the works bruited about for the future at Caramoor - -- some by Meyerbeer, Verdi's "Ernani" and "Un Giorno di Regno," Donizetti's "Pia de' Tolomei" and "Belisario" -- may not rank high in everyone's musical pantheon. But the suggestion that any of this music is worthless outrages Mr. Crutchfield. "These are major composers with serious artistic aims measured by any yardstick at all," he said. "I maintain that no thinking musician can hold a dismissive opinion of these composers. Certainly none should, not since Callas." There is a touch of Italianate fury to the North Carolinian Mr. Crutchfield as he defends this repertory. He is apt to run to the piano in mid-sentence to demonstrate his points. He makes a spirited case for the way in which Donizetti's harmonic rhythm in the Sextet scene from "Lucia de Lammermoor" influenced the more radical Schubert. True, Schubert took an effect prepared by Donizetti through monotonous repetition and collapsed it into a heart-stopping instant. Is that leap the difference between a genius and a talent? Mr. Crutchfield receives the suggestion with a look that would have done my Sicilian grandfather proud. We are in Mr. Crutchfield's studio on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, distinguished by a barber's chair, several daunting mirrors leaning against high white walls, a chandelier, a menacing tree, and dirty, streaked windows. At one point, a large, shadowy woman donning a robe across the way looks up. "Oh, we're sound-proofed," Mr. Crutchfield cries. Looking rather Brahmsian, with flowing red hair and beard, he segues, using his penetrating tenor to show how Verdi lifted the famous quartet from "Rigoletto" almost whole-cloth from the Nemorino and Belcore's duet in Act II of Donizetti's "Elisir d'Amore." MR. CRUTCHFIELD IS WHAT in science-fiction they call a shape shifter. He is a gifted writer about opera and vocal music, but he has made the usually impossible leap from the page to the podium. "It wasn't that big a leap," he said, a mite defensively. "Writing was more of a detour. As a kid I was doing the usual things aspiring conductors do, accompanying choruses, coaching singers, playing recitals -- lots of recitals. I started writing for The New Haven Register to help make ends meet, and The Times got interested. But I never thought I could do that forever, so in a way conducting was more of a continuation than a leap." Music critics love to bury the hatchet -- in one another -- and although Mr. Crutchfield has been favorably reviewed in The Times, some other critics are skeptical. Like many fledgling conductors, Mr. Crutchfield has had misadventures. One former Brother-in-Apollo wonders about the clarity of Mr. Crutchfield's beat and the quality of his ear. "Never lend him a record," he added. "I loaned him one of my precious babies, and it came back covered in peanut butter." Mr. Crutchfield responded with dignity: "I don't eat peanut butter. They can say what they like about the conducting, but that really wounds me." It is likely that he has things to learn, but at 40, he is barely in knee pants in a profession in which people routinely work into their 80's. And having given his share of criticism, he takes that leveled at him with humility and only occasional eye-rolling. "My career has gone faster than I thought it would," he said. "This is my 31st opera production. The first one was in '91. I just conducted a St. Luke's benefit concert and will be working with them a lot. I haven't been pressuring my managers to beat the drums. I think there are enough people already going faster than they should." Symphonic repertory may come in time, but Mr. Crutchfield paraphrased Sir Georg Solti and Herbert von Karajan about the value of starting in opera: "The opera house is the foundation of symphonic technique. In opera, if you're the conductor and get lost, everything just stops. Symphony orchestras can take care of themselves." As for the opera at hand, "La Donna del Lago" is more imposing than the average bel canto work. Written in 1819 and based on Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake," it is possibly Rossini's most tuneful opera. It stems from a peculiar fascination with things English on the part of all the Italian bel canto composers. (Donizetti wrote a librettist asking him to seek inspiration in works by "Saksperre, Bayron, Bulwer Litton or Valter Scott.") Rossini's orchestral writing is endlessly inventive, with a marvelous clarinet part, horns that must be poetic and virtuosic by turns, and shrewdly managed string accompaniments. One could write a short treatise on Rossini's use of double bass, trombone and harp; no wonder just about everyone who came later, including Schubert and Berlioz, copied or extended his effects. There is also some compositional witchery, as in the finale to Act I, where a number of memorable melodies are brought together in daring, reckless and thrilling counterpoint that Wagner would have envied. In true 19th-century fashion, Mr. Crutchfield has cast and coached the singers, put together his own version, added for Ms. Genaux and Ms. Krull a difficult duet from another Rossini opera, "Bianca e Falliero" (following the composer's own practice when reviving "La Donna del Lago") and written recitatives. (As usual, Rossini employed a hack to do that; Mr. Crutchfield has tried to better that formulaic freelancer.) MR. CRUTCHFIELD'S mode of operation has more to do with music-making than with career-making. Actually, "conductors," as we understand the term, emerged only gradually after the 1890's. To watch Mr. Crutchfield in action is to see what was done as a matter of course from Monteverdi to Mahler. He knows not just the notes but also the voices. He works out breathing, helps with rhythms and explains the musical and expressive use of ornaments, both those written and those he helps his singers invent. All this is what composers and their trusted deputies did when opera was a living art form, and its absence in today's opera houses contributes to what is too often dreary. "Working with Will is a revelation," said Ms. Krull, a soprano with a degree in piano from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, who supported herself as a coach and rehearsal pianist before singing full time. She met Mr. Crutchfield playing for one of his rehearsals. Her definition of bel canto? "A smooth legato and line and portamento and vibrato." Mr. Crutchfield concurs. In many circles, portamento and vibrato are filthy words, used only in condemnation and, in any case, wrongly defined. (A vibrato, natural in a healthy voice, is not a wobble or inaccurate pitching. Portamento, carrying the sound through an interval, is not approximate sliding around.) But these aspects of singing -- indeed, singing in a passionate, even exhibitionistic way -- were banished from the often arbitrary early-music movement when it got around to opera, and they have largely disappeared from all serious singing. Most modern conductors regard singers as Alfred Hitchcock did actors: marionettes, there to take orders and stay out of the way. But in opera, singers and composers have a common meeting ground: the vocal line. Both the bel canto repertory and most opera of all periods requires a creative input from the singer. And there lies Mr. Crutchfield's biggest challenge. Can he mold highly intelligent American conservatory graduates into virtuosic firebrands able to take the reins as did the great personalities who inspired the bel canto composers? And can he create a climate receptive to that sort of singer? After all, ours is the culture of Julia Roberts, not Bette Davis. Trying to manufacture vocal Frankensteins, using the Callas CD's as guts, might seem to invite mockery. But it is as viable a way to propel opera into the next century as counting on audiences to enjoy the worst because they don't know any better, or courting "new audiences" by setting "Carmen" on futuristic dung heaps, or hiring the doubtfully equipped to set the dubious to ditties (say, the life of Jacqueline Onassis, reflected in a glass campily). Too many opera "professionals" root their solutions in ignorance, even dislike of the form. Mr. Crutchfield and his singers act out of love. Survival in the fragmented, fund-starved and esthetically schizophrenic world of American opera is thought to be rooted in a flight from "tradition." Using the long-past bel canto operas to strike a blow for the future is, well, quixotic. But opera needs frenzy from audiences to grow or even last. Mr. Crutchfield, a mixture of wild man, scholar, artist, doer and dreamer, boyishly ageless, an irresistible enthusiast and an adventurer, might just be the person to churn some up. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:01:37 -0700 From: Steve Dulson Subject: Joni PR Julie wrote: >I can't help but feel that part of the problem lies in the fact that >people like Laura Nyro and Joni are reclusive/stubborn by nature and put >too much trust in expecting business "professionals" to do thier jobs >effectively. At Kakki's place after the May 29 taping, I asked Robbie Cavolina "Does Joni know there are people like us (meaning the jmdlers) out there?" "She does now," he answered, "She didn't for a long time. Her management has made some really bad decisions over the years, really kept her insulated, but that's changing." As best I can remember Robbie's words...Kakki? ############################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com "The Tinker's Own" http://members.aol.com/tinkersown/home.html "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 09:53:32 -0500 From: Howard Motyl Subject: RE: Joni and cocaine Bill Dollinger wrote: >I always considered hejira to >be influenced by cocaine use, with its references >to the white lines of the free free way and >the pills and powders, and the snowy landscape >as a metaphor. I wrote: I always feel like a big curmudgeon here when I spout off over someone's interpretation of lyrics or images. But I am really perplexed by this one: cocaine is a big influence? Why on this album are all these metaphors meant to refer to drugs? Does JM refer to other drugs on other albums? (Besides alcohol.) Does acid influence DJRD? The white lines on the freeway referring to cocaine? I suppose they could but strangely enough--there are actual white lines on the freeway and the song is about prisoners of those white lines--the hitchers, drivers, all those taking refuge in the roads. The *whole album* is about a journey, being on the road, about taking refuge in the roads, searching for truths. And one of the constants on that search are the white lines that lead her into the future, the unknown future, on the freeways. Those white lines are a comfort because they are familiar and those familiar white lines are leading her into an uncertain future. Even when there are curves in the road, there are still those familiar white lines. I can't argue with pills and powders because she says it straight out. She is observing all the people searching like she is searching and while her search is done on the road, others use drugs to get them through this passion play. Snowy landscapes? Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder but our JM has not become "one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century" by having such clumsy, not to mention too-obvious, references to cocaine. Please. Isn't a more textured interpretation to see this as about relationships gone cold, love freezing up. Or even that she is looking at this part of her life as dead and cold while she looks forward to the thaw of spring and finding new love. (All I really want to do right now is find another lover.) for all my arguments, I quote the following lines, that need no interpretation because they say what the author is saying. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes the meaning is right there in the words. "I'm travelling in some vehicle, sitting in some cafe, a defector from the petty wars, that shell-shock love away." Isn't this what Hejira is all about? A woman in the prime of her life, a woman who finds solace in the road all her life, finds solace in it once more as she sorts through her life, meeting different kinds of people along the way, who help her sort out what is important in her life. Howard ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 10:01:05 -0500 From: Mark Domyancich Subject: Re: Blue CD releases (short!) This is slightly off-subject, but I have bought a few Joni CDs and the liner notes are bent in half! There's a big crease where it was now. It looks like someone took them out, sat on them briefly, put it back in the CD and wrapped it up for sale. Court and Spark was like this. Anyone else have a similar experience? On the subject of the poor quality of C & S, my sister had an 'un-HDCDed' copy of it and there were a few parts that were poor. On Free Man In Paris-slight break in "Everybody's in it for their own gain You can't please them all..." You can still hear it on my HDCD copy. Also, the guitar on C & S is really quiet/muffled which doesn't help the transcriber (Well, it doesn't matter now cus they are all transcribed!) ____________________________________ | Mark Domyancich | | Harpua@revealed.net | | http://home.revealed.net/Harpua/ | |__________________________________| ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:07:48 -0700 From: Steve Dulson Subject: Joni as Movie Star? Alan Larson asked: >Or is she kind of like JD Salinger, who never wanted Catcher in >the Rye made into a movie, and would run screaming from the idea of crossing >into another genre like that? Please forgive me if I mention the tapings again - I'm really not trying to rub anything in! I got a very strong impression that the very long "Woodstock"-introing story Joni told (topless, in bed, knitting when strange woman walks into her hotel room) was done both nights to sort-of feature her acting/story-telling/vocal mimicry abilities to a Hollywood crowd, with the goal of opening up some genre-crossing oppotunities for her. Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.... ############################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com "The Tinker's Own" http://members.aol.com/tinkersown/home.html "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:12:54 -0700 From: Steve Dulson Subject: J D Souther (NJC) Mark in Seattle asked about J D Souther. I really liked J D! His first album (on Asylum) "John David Souther" is definitely the place to start. He was one of the best of the '70s "angstmiesters". His work with the Souther- Hillman-Furay band was OK....he also had at least one more solo album out....I havn't heard anything from him in quite a while. He also co-wrote parts of the Eagles "Desperado" album, I believe, and is one of the dead outlaws on the cover. Give him a try! ############################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com "The Tinker's Own" http://members.aol.com/tinkersown/home.html "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 11:35:37 EDT From: Chilihead2@aol.com Subject: SJC:Stan Rogers? Hi List, Does anyone know anything about Stan Rogers? In a song called "So Blue", he writes, I want to listen to Joni Mitchell on the radio and make love...." Apparently he was Canadian and died young. - -Brian ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 11:39:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Dollinger Subject: Re: J D Souther (NJC) Another great one to pick up by Souther is Black Rose. Many of his songs were covered by Linda Ronstadt, who sings a wonderful harmony on the cut If You Have Crying Eyes. Also featured on this is his Faithless Love, covered on Linda's Heart Like A Wheel. Bill On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Steve Dulson wrote: > Mark in Seattle asked about J D Souther. > > I really liked J D! His first album (on Asylum) "John David > Souther" is definitely the place to start. He was one of the > best of the '70s "angstmiesters". His work with the Souther- > Hillman-Furay band was OK....he also had at least one more > solo album out....I havn't heard anything from him in quite > a while. > > He also co-wrote parts of the Eagles "Desperado" album, I believe, > and is one of the dead outlaws on the cover. > > Give him a try! > > > ############################################################## > Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com > "The Tinker's Own" > http://members.aol.com/tinkersown/home.html > "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" > http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ > > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 10:44:48 -0500 From: Howard Motyl Subject: shameless self-promotion Pt Deux NJC The video I produced, wrote and directed called "Image of An Assassination" is the seventh highest selling video in the country. I only wish I had a piece of it. I could pay off a few bills . . . - -- Howard Motyl Producer, MPI Teleproductions http://www.mpimedia.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 11:52:03 -0400 From: "Reuben Bell3" Subject: Re: Joni PR & web stuff (LONG). I can't help but feel that the internet community has to have some sort of a positive effect on artists. It can eliminate the gap between an artist and his/her fans. If Joni were a bit more computer oriented, she'd be able to jump in here with us and see first hand this aspect of the support she's got amongst the civilians. On another note, the recent Cocteau Twins thread has had me very interested. As a longtime fan of theirs as well, it has been neat to come in contact with them throught their website (band member Simon Raymonde is a regular contributer to the bulletin board as well as the website: one web fan even posted some poetry she had written on the site that Simon ended up using as the lyric for a song on his first solo album, "Blame Someone Else" - the track is called "Muscle and Want", btw.) There's another band that has recently benefited from its internet contacts, The Creatures (Siouxsie and Budge, formerly of Siouxsie and the Banshees). They are currently touring the U.S with no album to support, and I feel that part of the tour's success has been due to the fact that the fans are in contact with one another and keeping track of what's going on. My rambling point is that the internet community could make up for some of Joni's lack of recent PR if she uses it to her advantage. Skip the middle man and go straight to the fans. I realize that not everyone is internet friendly, but enough of us are that our voice is strong enough to make a difference. I for one am looking forward to the TTT blitz: I hope they do it right. Reuben ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 12:06:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Dollinger Subject: RE: Joni and cocaine On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Howard Motyl wrote: > I always feel like a big curmudgeon here when I spout off over someone's > interpretation of lyrics or images. But I am really perplexed by this > one: cocaine is a big influence? Why on this album are all these > metaphors meant to refer to drugs? Does JM refer to other drugs on > other albums? (Besides alcohol.) Does acid influence DJRD? Actually, if you read my words, I said "influenced by cocaine." Joni has directly referred to this regarding the writing of Song For Sharon. All these metaphors??? There are many other themes being explored in hejira - please do not mischaracterize my post. >Does JM refer to other drugs Poppy poison, poppy tourniquet Some turn to Jesus, some turn to heroin Acid booze and ass Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire >Does acid influence djrd? - -I guess you'd have to look to the series of books by the late Carlos Castenada for that answer. > The white lines on the freeway referring to cocaine? I suppose they > could but strangely enough--there are actual white lines on the freeway > and the song is about prisoners of those white lines--the hitchers, > drivers, all those taking refuge in the roads. I see it as a comparison. But perhaps cocaine was not prevalent in the 70's L.A. music scene. The *whole album* is > about a journey, being on the road, about taking refuge in the roads, > searching for truths. And one of the constants on that search are the > white lines that lead her into the future, the unknown future, on the > freeways. Those white lines are a comfort because they are familiar and > those familiar white lines are leading her into an uncertain future. > Even when there are curves in the road, there are still those familiar > white lines. > She is observing all the people searching like she is searching and > while her search is done on the road, others use drugs to get them > through this passion play. Interesting opinion. Mine is different. Bill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:45:59 -0700 From: Steve Dulson Subject: Joni, Gillian and Commercial Sense (VLJC) Listening to Gillian Welch's new "Hell Among The Yearlings" CD caused me to reflect on a parallel with Joni. This post turned into mostly a review of the GW CD, so skip it at will. For Joni to release "Mingus" made zero commercial sense, but absolute artistic sense. At that point in her career she had started to lose her mainstream audience, with "HOSL" and "DJRD". She could still have recorded "C & S II" and won much of that audience, and the airplay, back, but she chose not to. She followed, as she almost always has, her artistic heart. For Gillian to release "Hell Among The Yearlings" makes zero commercial sense, but absolute artistic sense. Her first CD, "Revival", was a brilliant mix of nouveau old-time country folk music, sparingly produced by T-Bone Burnett. So I can picture her management plotting the next CD..."OK Gillian, we're going to get you some high profile session players, you need to write a few more rockers, we'll get Emmylou to do a couple of duets with you, line up an MYV spot..." Instead, "Hell Among The Yearlings" is even starker than "Revival", The only back up musician is Burnett himself, who adds understated piano and organ to one track. On the only track with bass and drums, those instruments are played by Gillian and partner David Rawlings. And the songs! In "Caleb Meyer", a woman cuts the throat of a man who is trying to rape her. In "One Morning" a woman sees her son, "the boy of my breast", ride home mortally wounded. This is real Top 40 stuff, right? There are three songs (maybe too many?) about, well, drugs, "My Morphine" being the most explicit. And you could swear that "Winter's Come and Gone" could have been a hit for the Carter Family in the '20s. The CD is a real stunner. Zero, zero, zero commercial potential. It'll get airplay on the folkie shows on college and public radio. It'll sell maybe 80,000 copies, mostly to poeple who see Gillian and David play live. That's it. But it deserves to be far more widely heard. Gillian and David will be on "Morning Becomes Eclectic" this Friday, if you want to tune in, on the radio or the web, and are at the Troubadour in LA Wednesday and in Solana Beach Thursday. ############################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA steve@psitech.com "The Tinker's Own" http://members.aol.com/tinkersown/home.html "Southern California Dulcimer Heritage" http://members.aol.com/scdulcimer/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 12:32:14 -0500 From: "Julie Z. Webb" Subject: Re: shameless self-promotion Pt Deux NJC At 10:44 AM 8/3/98 -0500, Howard wrote: >The video I produced, wrote and directed called "Image of An >Assassination" is the seventh highest selling video in the country. I >only wish I had a piece of it. I could pay off a few bills . . . Wowie Howie, Aplause, aplause, good news for you and your company. What part did you have in the process? -JulieZW, who sees Chicago Jmdlers are starting to grow in numbers: Howard Moytl, Doug Stapleton, Fred Simon, Paul's from the Windy City, and whatever happened to "Stephanie from Chicago?" What a group of creative people might I add....Am I missing anybody? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 12:29:53 EDT From: LRFye@aol.com Subject: Re: Blue on MOA WallyK wrote: > Have you noticed that Joni skips "ass" after "needles, guns and.." on the MAO version of "Blue"? The word Joni skipped was "grass," presumably because there was a lot of lightin' up going on at the show ... Lori in San Antonio ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V3 #288 ************************** Post messages to the list at Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe joni-digest" to ------- Siquomb, isn't she?