From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2007 #409 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/onlyjoni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com Unsubscribe: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe onlyJMDL Digest Friday, December 28 2007 Volume 2007 : Number 409 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Broken record [Eric Taylor ] HOHOHO!!! ["P. Henry" ] Re: This Is Your Brain On Music (Yes, JC) [Dave Blackburn ] Sounds of summer- possible Joni/Dino Valenti appearance [ Subject: Broken record Hey all ye Joni lovers: Sometimes I feel like a broken record. I listened to SHINE again today, probably for the hundredth time, and I must just reiterate WHAT a geogeous masterpiece it is! I am relishing harmonizing to it and am ever amazed by Joni's musicianship, but particularly her lyrics on this one. The piano playing alone reduces me to puddle of mush. It was Hejira, DJRD and Mingus which made me realize what an incredible artist we are dealing with, and Turbulent Indigo certainly was the icing on the cake. But SHINE OH MY This is my favorite album of her outstanding career! This Place alone is up there with Otis & Marlena. Bad Dreams Are Good reminds me so much of Down To You only much more important and timely. And Night Of The Iguana might be her greatest work yet (i am totally addicted to it, like I was DJRD and Hejira when they were more relevent). And Hana. Move over Amelia! Of course I realize that this flies in the face of die-hard Joni lovers who wish she didn't smoke ciggeretts and still sounded like she was 20 yo. It will take 100 years for most people to catch up to the pure genius of Joni Mitchell. Meanwhile I am in complete awe of by far the most talented & significant artist of our age. Sorry if this offends anyone but I have been in love with Joni's music ever since Blue was released so I think I know what I'm talking about. Just hoping humanity survives this massive mess! :-! ET ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:11:54 +1000 (ChST) From: "P. Henry" Subject: HOHOHO!!! What do you get if you cross an insomniac, an agnostic, and a dyslexic? Someone who stays awake at night wondering if there really is a dog. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:15:34 -0800 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: Re: This Is Your Brain On Music (Yes, JC) Kenny, Thanks for sharing the passages from your Xmas book that relate to Joni. My new favorite word is "Phonogenic"! I do wish critics would stop harping on Joni's "avant-garde" and harmonically advanced chords though. Very little of her songwriting uses advanced harmony (Paprika Plains is another story entirely) but for someone who will always be mis-cast as a folk singer her choice of chords is striking. They don't always conform to the diatonic chord scale (though many do: River, Night Ride Home etc) but the harmony is neither complex or hard to play. Again you have to take the perception of the untrained blonde folkie into account. As soon as she started working with musicians from a jazz background there was no more talk of "Joni's weird chords". Her guitar VOICINGS however are what are special, because of the tunings. She can get clusters of closely spaced notes to ring together when using the alternate tunings and that certainly gives her harmony a fresh sound for guitar fans. The fact that Joni loves chord suspensions ("chords of inquiry") is also notable as it gave her music a floaty airy quality but it's certainly nothing she invented. And it is actually what is sorely lacking from "Shine". Lastly it must be said that Joni's harmony is completely different between her guitar and piano writing. Almost none of the chords she uses on piano she plays on guitar and vice versa. That is of interest to me anyway. On piano for example her early 70's writing is chock full of the major 9 no 3rd chord (G/C or B/E for ex) which was a staple of Steely Dan around the same time, but she barely uses it once in her entire body of guitar songs. Dave B (chord-o-phile) On Dec 27, 2007, at 12:00 AM, onlyJMDL Digest wrote: > Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:45:35 EST > From: PassScribe@aol.com > Subject: This Is Your Brain On Music (Yes, JC) > > Hi, and belated holiday greetings for those who observe such > occasions as > Christmas, Hanukuh, Quanza, etc. > and a Happy New Year to all. > > I received a book for Christmas, from a very good friend of mine, > called This > Is Your Brain On Music; an extremely well-written treatise on how > music > affects humans, by Daniel J. Levitin. I don't know if anyone has > ever mentioned > anything from this book on the list before; it's copyright 2006 but > the first > printing appears to be Sept., 2007. Allow me to quote some passages > that I think > our JoniListas will appreciate (condensed to save time & space) > beginning on > page 212: > > "Francis Crick turned his lack of training into a positive aspect > of his > life's work. Unbound by scientific dogma, he was free- completely > free, he wrote- > to open his mind and discover science. When an artist brings this > freedom, > this tabula rasa, to music, the results can be astounding. Many of > the greatest > musicians of our era lacked formal training, including Sinatra, Louis > Armstrong, John Coltrane (etc., etc.) and Joni Mitchell." (Also > mentions classical > composers). > > "Joni Mitchell had sung in choirs in public school, but had never > taken > guitar lessons or any other kind of music lessons. Her music has a > unique quality > that has been variously described as avant-garde, ethereal, and as > bridging > classical, folk, jazz, and rock. Joni uses a lot of alternate > tunings; that is, > instead of tuning the guitar in the customary way, she tunes the > strings to > pitches of her own choosing. This doesn't mean that she plays notes > that other > people don't- there are still only twelve notes in a chromatic > scale- but it > does mean that she can easily reach with her fingers combinations > of notes that > other guitarists can't reach (regardless of the size of their hands)." > > (Then, a whole thing on playing the guitar, on musicians Joni has > worked > with, etc.) Then, he mentions an interview he did with Joni, over > dinner, where > she talked about how she made her first album (among other things): > > "'When I first started out,' she said, 'the record company wanted > to give me > a producer, someone who had experience churning out hit records. > But David > (Crosby) said, "Don't let them- a producer will ruin you. Let's > tell them that > I'll produce it for you; they'll trust me." So basically, Crosby > put his name as > producer to keep the record company out of my way so that I could > make the > music the way that I wanted to.'" > > "'But then the musicians came in and they all had ideas about how > they wanted > to play. On my record! The worse were the bass players because they > always > wanted to know what the root of the chord was' (he then explains > the root of a > chord and how Joni throws notes together in ways that aren't easily > labeled). > 'The bass players wanted to know the root because that's what > they've been > taught to play. But I said, "Just play something that sounds good, > don't worry > about what the root is." And they said, "We can't do that- we have > to play the > root or it won't sound right."'" > > (Then more about music theory and chords, etc.) Then, > > "All of the bass players Joni worked with before Jaco insisted on > playing > roots, or what they perceived to be roots. The brilliance of Jaco, > Joni said, is > that he instinctively knew to wander around the possibilty space, > reinforcing > the different chord interpretations with equal emphasis, sublimely > holding the > ambiguity in a delicate, suspended balance. Jaco allowed Joni to > have bass > guitar on her songs without destroying one of their most expansive > qualities. > This, then, we figured out at dinner that night, was one of the > secrets of why > Joni's music sounds unlike anyone else's- its harmonic complexity > born out of > her strict insistence that the music not be anchored to a single > harmonic > interpretation. Add in her compelling, phonogenic voice, and we > become immersed in > an auditory world, a soundscape unlike any other." > > The only fault I've found with the book so far is that, in the > index, when it > directs you to certain pages to access references to certain > artists, those > referenced pages are sometimes wrong. That aside, I highly > recommend this book > for anyone who loves music (and to read the work of someone who > obviously > regards Joni as very special... just as we do.) > > Kenny B ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:15:02 -0800 (PST) From: Monika Bogdanowicz Subject: Joni's exit not to be thankfully I was just thinking about how wonderful it is to still have Joni making music especially after she said she had retired. I know I've told you folks this before but I'll tell you again. One of the first things I read when I started getting into Joni was that she was done with music. Oh, how it filled me with sadness! It was an aching sadness even though there was still much of my Joni journey to be traveled! It was the sort of sadness when you lose touch with a good friend and something, somewhere reminds you of him/her, flooding you with all those warm memories you'll never again have. Now granted I had no Joni memories (unlike a good load of you folks who have been with Joni for years! Oh how I envy you!) but that is the sort of feeling I had. Anyway, more over, I was thinking about Joni's comment on the first time she said she wanted to retire from music. When did Joni say she first had the "urge" to retire? She got the urge for going but she didn't go. Didn't she say it was right after For The Roses when she was starting to feel a little fed up with the music business or whatever? Can you imagine if she stopped recording then? It would have been a nice, good five album run but man oh man look at what we would have missed! A life without the Hissing Of Summer Lawns or Hejira is a not a life worth living! Anyway, my apologies for this seemingly pointless email. I was just letting my stream of thoughts on Joni flow to those who may be able to take a swim in that stream and understand what I am saying. Shine on JMDL, shine on. -Monika NR (now reading): Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf - --------------------------------- Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:58:33 +0000 (GMT) From: Subject: Re: This Is Your Brain On Music (Yes, JC) Kenny, thanks for mentioning this book. I read it recently and found it fascinating. I'd been meaning to post about it, but lent the book to a coworker right after I finished it and so couldn't post the quotes about Joni. He absolutely nails what's special about her music, possibly better than anyone else I've read. Next, I want to read the Oliver Sacks book "Musicophilia." I don't think it mentions Joni, though. lots of love, Anne ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:10:51 -0800 From: Subject: Sounds of summer- possible Joni/Dino Valenti appearance Oh bah, Jerry! Hyperbole? ;-) I first heard Get Together at around age 15 and I thought it was sooo beautiful. It is still one of my favorite songs of all time. But I know it has been overdone some. Think I heard the Youngbloods version first, although the original Jefferson Airplanes' also recorded it. Darice is so lucky in that she actually knows or hangs with some of the people who originally recorded it. Ahhh. I didn't know until now that Joni recorded it in venues other than Big Sur. Great to hear. It's one of the best. Kakki ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2007 #409 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she? (http://www.siquomb.com/siquomb.cfm)