From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V4 #140 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk JMDL Digest Saturday, April 3 1999 Volume 04 : Number 140 Joni the Joni Mitchell Internet Community Glossary project. Send a blank message to for all the details. ------- The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at http://www.jonimitchell.com and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, original interviews and essays, lyrics, and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Mark Isham News with Joni - Jimi - Miles ["Kakki" ] songs that stop me in my tracks ["raymond" ] Jazz Takes on Joni Mitchell ["Kakki" ] (now NJC) Re: a boho goes to Chicago [Phyliss Ward ] Re: a boho goes to Chicago [Scott and Jody ] Re: The dreggs I LOVE ["Eric Taylor" ] Re: Most/Least List ["Eric Taylor" ] Re[3]: ("NJCNACTIMTFPIFAOGFTTH") WIN a FREE TRIP to HAWAII - REALLY! ["Er] Re: Billie Holiday (VLJC) - long [Mark or Travis Subject: Mark Isham News with Joni - Jimi - Miles Just received the "Noise" newsletter in the mail from Mark Isham's music company. A nice blurb on "Painting with Words and Music" is prominently featured in two places. Mark has a couple of interesting works coming out. The album "The Silent Way Project - Miles Davis Remembered" is being released by Columbia on May 25th. He has also contributed a cover version of "Stone Free" on the "Searching For Jimi Hendrix" tribute album and video which will be released April 20th. There is a very intriguing line-up on this tribute including Cassandra Wilson, Roseanne Cash, Los Lobos, and Laurie Anderson. He is one prolific artist, having also scored three films currently out - At First Sight, Varsity Blues, and October Sky. Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 18:45:55 -0800 From: "raymond" Subject: songs that stop me in my tracks At the moment, "Stay in Touch" sends me off somewhere I don't know where..and "Electricity" is a close second, and "My Secret Place" rounds it off. Pretty consistently, "Same Situation" and "Ray's Dad's Cadillac" I prefer to sidestep. Cathy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 19:30:10 -0800 From: "Kakki" Subject: Jazz Takes on Joni Mitchell Have been listening to David Lahm's amazing album "Jazz Takes on Joni Mitchell" (which arrived along with my "official" copy of "Painting" from CDNow a pronto 48 hours from order). I almost guarantee that no one has ever heard Joni's music this way. There are so many surprises it is difficult to express my reactions without resorting to superlatives - startling, inventive, brilliant. Some of the selections are also wonderfully surprising and include two versions of Solid Love, Song For Sharon, Edith and the Kingpin, Coyote, Blue Motel Room, Blonde in the Bleachers, Fiddle and the Drum and Shadows and Light. My faves on first listen are Edith (stunning) and Blonde in the Bleachers, which is absolutely gorgeous and reminds me of our friend Debussy and also Samuel Barber in some parts and soaring modern jazz in others and then segues into Lahm's own cacophanous improv composition, The Vamp from Hell. Fiddle and the Drum combines Celtic-tinged, fiddling violin with wah-wah trombone and rolling drums - (believe me, it is MUCH more lively and wonderful than Joni's original version!) Solid Love is swing, swing, swingin and Shadows and Light is exactly how one could imagine it played either in the highest church or the best jazz club in Kansas City or Chicago. Contributing to the album are Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, Thomas Chapin and 15 other musicians. A huge Bravo to David and thank you for letting us know of this release. Run, don't walk to get this one - it's fantabulous. Kakki NP: S&L by Lahm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 20:00:20 -0800 From: Phyliss Ward Subject: (now NJC) Re: a boho goes to Chicago You Go Guy! (But dodge those arrows!) CarltonCT@aol.com wrote: > With the self-enlightened interest of a self-promoter, I hope the list will > excuse me as I write to tell them that my play SELF HELP opens in Chicago this > June - -- Phyliss, friend in spirit pward@lightspeed.net http://www.bodywise.com/consultants/bpward ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 22:27:39 -0600 From: Scott and Jody Subject: Re: a boho goes to Chicago Clark, You Wrote: > I have no idea what the Chicago production will be like, but the most > frequent word used by the LA Critics was "hilarious" and it got only positive > reviews. I will be there for the previews, and I'd love to meet some > Chi-town Joniphiles. The play (as is) has some Joni content and is > completely informed by what I think is our mutual sensibility. It also is > very autobiographical, confessional and the best thing I've ever written. > Hope you can come see it! > Can't Wait!! Let us know where! I can only speak for myself, but knowing the other Chicago JMDL'rs As Much or Little As I do, there will be an enthusiastic audience :~) Best wishes, jody ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 23:33:42 -0500 From: "Eric Taylor" Subject: Re: The dreggs I LOVE Marcel DesteMDESTE1@aol.com wrote: <> I noticed how most everyone picked on Pirate of Penance and am listening to it right now. WOW, if Jewel had done that she would have won a Grammy! When I picked it as my least favorite on STAS I played the first 10 seconds of each song to refresh my memory. Had I listened to the whole damn thing I definately would have left *least favorite* blank. Perhaps the next time we vote on our favs we should use a scale from 1 to 10. No song Joni has ever done would get less than a 9 from me. E.T. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 00:00:13 -0500 From: "Eric Taylor" Subject: Re: Most/Least List Russell Bowden wrote: <> Turbulent Indigo will save your soul some day, Russell. It's the only album I've ever listened to every day for three solid years. The Sire of Sorrow is particularly great therapy..... seriously. Although you picked my two favs from Mingus I'll never understand why so many Joni lovers hate this album. And you haven't really lived until you've seen the Shadows & Light video! Best back-up band in modern history!! I swear Joni pioneered music videos with this one. And once you see it you will run out and buy the HDCD. E.T. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 00:17:39 -0500 From: "Eric Taylor" Subject: Re[3]: ("NJCNACTIMTFPIFAOGFTTH") WIN a FREE TRIP to HAWAII - REALLY! Heather wrote: <> Ladies & gentleman, straight & gay, it's not about sex. It's all ego.... E.T. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 22:10:18 -0800 From: Mark or Travis Subject: Re: Billie Holiday (VLJC) - long Bounced Message wrote: > Now, what about Lady Day? Clearly JM is a major fan of Holiday but when I > look through the shelves in the record shop I am totally bamboozled by the > number of different compilations, the different bands she recorded with and > so on. Is early better than late? Is there good Billie and bad Billie? > Where to begin? > > Also how much of 'Nothing can be done' on 'Painting.... is Billie Holiday > etc and how much is Joni and Larry? Sounds great anyway but I just > wondering if there were major changes to the original? I've only heard Joni's version a few times but from what I remember it doesn't sound like she's aping Billie at all. Billie's version is a bit sassier in my opinion and very different from Joni's. The arrangement is completely different if I remember right. It's hard to avoid comparisons to Lady Day for anyone who sings in a 'jazz' style. A lot of critics and jazz scholars credit Billie and Louis Armstrong with practically inventing jazz singing. Both Frank Sinatra & Tony Bennett have cited her as a major influence on their styles and you can hear her echoed in the delivery of many, many jazz and pop vocalists - Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole - many more. I certainly understand how you can be intimidated by the number of records you will find under 'Billie Holiday' in most of the larger record stores. I hestitated buying any of her music for a long time because I didn't know where to start. However, someone gave me a big old healthy shove by giving me a double record vinyl collection of some of the Verve recordings called 'All or Nothing At All'. I was intrigued and soon became hooked. There are several 'phases' of Billie's recordings. The first would be from 1933 up til about 1942 and includes her first recordings on the Brunswick & Vocalion record labels. Columbia released all of these as part of their Columbia Jazz Masters series. These are 9 cd's called 'The Quintessential Billie Holiday' and each cd has 16 or 17 songs on it - - a lot of music. The sound quality on some of these is not great, not surprising given the age of the recordings and the technology available at the time. Most sound pretty darn good, though, considering. Columbia did put out a double record vinyl set called 'God Bless the Child' that I think may be available on cd. This is a pretty good sampling of these recordings. The earliest ones tend to be the most spontaneous sounding and Billie as vocalist is really just another instrument in the ensemble. The later ones have a more 'arranged' sound with Billie as the vocalist being the featured artist. A lot of these sessions featured musicians from Count Basie's band as well as Benny Goodman and many other fine jazz musicians. Teddy Wilson played piano on a lot of them and in a lot of ways was pretty close to the ideal pianist to compliment Billie's sound. These records also contain a lot of Lester Young's carressing saxophone lines which embellish, augment & lovingly embrace Lady's free-swinging vocals. There are too many gems to ennumerate in this collection of music. From 1939 to 1944 Billie made 16 sides for the Commodore label. These include her first recording of 'Strange Fruit' and beautiful renditions of such classics as 'Embraceable You', 'I Cover the Waterfront', 'I'll Be Seeing You' and 'As Time Goes By'. The Commodore recordings are available on a single cd simply called 'Billie Holiday, the Commodore records'. I highly recommend this one. It is sublime. The sound quality isn't great (but not bad either). The performances are exceptional. During the mid-40's and early 50's Billie recorded for Decca. There is a box set (I think it's 3 cds) of the Decca recordings that includes alternate takes of some songs. If you want a good sampling I recommend a cd called 'Billie Holiday From the Original Decca Masters'. It includes 'Lover Man', 'Crazy He Calls Me', 'Solitude', 'God Bless the Child' and 'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do'. Some of the more upbeat Decca sides have big horn sections and Billie sounds very sassy on these. A lot of the ballads have strings and a few have backup vocals by a group that sound sort of like Manhattan Transfer. (This vocal group sounds incongruous with Billie's style to me.) These are probably the most commercial sounding records in Billie's catalogue. Many of the ballads are very slow and langorous, having a dreamy quality to them which is quite beautiful. The sound quality on the Deccas is pretty good overall. The last major group of Billie's records was done for Clef (now Verve) in the 50's. Billie always had a whiskey voice but by this time it was downright gravelly. The Verve's are mostly small ensembles of some of the finest jazz players of the day - Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Rowles, Charlie Shavers, Ben Webster, Paul Quinichette (who was often likened to Lester Young) to name just a few. Billie re-recorded a lot of her old standbys and took on some wonderful standards that she hadn't recorded before. The song Joni sang, 'Comes Love', was recorded during this period. It is included on a very good compilation called 'The Silver Collection'. This is a nice sampling of the Verve sessions. There is also a 2 cd collection called 'Lady in Autumn' that has some of the best of the Verves on it. Verve did put out a box set of 10 cds several years ago. It includes all the studio recordings plus 'Billy Holiday at Jazz at the Philharmonic' (also released on cd as 'Compact Jazz Billie Holiday Live') which contains live recordings from the 40's (all of which are sublime) and a few from the late 50's. The Verve box set also includes 'The Essential Billie Holiday' which is a recording of a Carnegie Hall concert from 1956 with selected readings from Billie's 'autobiography', 'Lady Sings the Blues'. I believe all of the individual cds in this box set are available as single cds. As I said before, Lady's voice had deteriorated quite a bit by the time she made these records. But to me this just adds an extra dimension to her singing. She was maybe even more expressive in the 50's than in her early years. The Verve records understandably have the best sound quality of Billie's catalogue. The Columbia recording 'Lady in Satin' is kind of a coda to Lady's recording career. It was recorded with orchestral & vocal arrangements done by Ray Ellis. The tape tree where Joni names 12 artists that she admires has the song 'You've Changed' on it which is from 'Lady in Satin' and is one of the best cuts from this record. It was recorded in 1958 about a year before her death and her voice sounds very damaged. This is not one of my favorite records of Billie's - the contrast of the ethereal arrangements and that ravaged voice doesn't sit well with me - but I do like 'You've Changed' and 'I'm a Fool to Want You'. The voice, the arrangements - everything seems to fit together on these two very beautiful but very haunting & melancholy songs. There are also many compilations of live recordings of varying quality - mostly taken from radio performances. On some of these Billie sounds pretty out of it and they don't represent her at her best. One of the better examples is 'Billie Holiday at Storeyville' which was recorded for radio at the Storeyville Club in Boston. An exceptionally good collection of live recordings is a disk called 'Miss Brown to You' which has my very favorite rendition of 'Good Morning Heartache' - sung very intimately with just a piano accompaniment - and a performance of 'Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans' recorded at Carnegie Hall with Louis Armstrong that is a lot of fun. The sound quality is sometimes poor on several of the cuts from this record but there are some classic Lady Day performances on it. Ok, that's more than most of you ever wanted to read about Billie Holiday and to some of you it's not anything you didn't know already. But the guy asked and if the truth be told, I've been dying to write a good, long-winded post about Billie's records for a long time. I apologize to those of you who are bored or know all of this stuff already. And if I've included any misinformation in here, please, please let me know. Mark in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 01:19:04 EST From: Dflahm@aol.com Subject: Re: Re[2]: ("NJCNACTIMTFPIFAOGFTTH") WIN a FREE TRIP to HAWAII - REALLY! Help me. What is the gatekeepers reference? I try to stay on top of current phrases and usage but this one stumps me completely. LAHM ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V4 #140 ************************** There is now a JMDL tape trading list. Interested traders can get more details at http://www.jmdl.com/trading ------- The Song and Album Voting Booths are open again! Cast your votes by clicking the links at http://www.jmdl.com/gallery username: jimdle password: siquomb ------- Don't forget about these ongoing projects: FAQ Project: Help compile the JMDL FAQ. 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