I've just been reading about a 70th birthday celebration concert for Joni Mitchell which was held in Toronto in June last year, 2013, where the likes of Rufus Wainwright (I'd love to hear his version of Joni's "All I Want" which he sang there) and others sang her songs, and Joni - who had not toured since 2000 - also took to the stage and sang three songs.  |
| Laurel Canyon Joni |
She has been having health problems, as detailed in her interview with UNCUT magazine some months ago, see Joni label for details on that and my other posts on her, including that time I met her back in 1972 (all of 40 years ago!) in Kings Road, Chelsea, when we were both in our mid-20s. Well I am 68 now ... but Joni continues to rule the roost. I liked those 3 concerts of hers I saw in 1970, 1972 and that Jazzy new Joni in 1974 when I rushed back from Milan and Paris to catch her London Victoria concert .... I love too that recent box of her first 10 albums nicely reproduced as mini-gatefold albums. Good to see her back in the limelight again.
Joni has been caustic about the music business in interviews over the last decade or so, as she stepped back from the limelight of touring and recording. Her 2000 album BOTH SIDES NOW is still stunning as she returns to her old hits and does some interesting covers,
and its still a thrill to return to those seminal albums like BLUE, COURT AND SPARK, THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS, HEJIRA, DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER, WILD THINGS RUN FREE and all the others.... was anyone more effortlessly groovy moving from folk to jazz - no wonder the likes of Prince and Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter were fascinated, as she introduced us to Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny and others, as in that 1980 SHADOWS AND LIGHT concert tour, now on dvd - it too was a gatefold double album (I loved that version of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"). Joni toured so much in the '70s and '80s and '90s its no wonder her first live double album in 1974 (which I loved at the time) is titled MILES OF AISLES.Below: here's the link to the interview ! This interview with Jian Ghomeshi is the one printed in UNCUT Magazine!
 |
| Ritzy lady, still smoking! |
No comments:
Post a Comment