FRIDAY MOVIE SUGGESTION NIGHT: "SHADOWS & LIGHT": JONI MITCHELL IN CONCERT!

"Every picture has its shadows and light..."

---Joni Mitchell

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Another first for my "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" feature is a true concert film that follows two previous films that are music-based in theme (with a spacer in between). I doubt anyone will feel betrayed if they give this one a spin. The year is 1979 and showcasing a career begun a decade earlier, Joni Mitchell’s "SHADOWS AND LIGHT" marks her highly controversial evolution into the Jazz arena. As I mentioned in an earlier BLOG post, Joni could have easily cashed in on remaining a strict folk musician. Like her live CD "Miles of Aisles", where Joni plays out her Folk period music, this DVD finds her hand-picking an all-new back up band lineup that cannot escape mention. We have Pat Metheny on the guitar, Lyle Mays on the keys, Don Alias on drums, and Michael Brecker on the sax and a very, very rare appearance of the late Jaco Pastorius on bass, in what is one of the few commercially available films of his live playing. The set list kicks off with “In France They Kiss on Main Street”, from her CD "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" and is joined by “Edith and the Kingpin”, “Coyote”--a lyrical treat from the CD "Hejira" and one commercial hit you'll probably recall from the CD "Court & Spark", "Free Man in Paris”. The film carries sonic treasures like Joni's solo on "Amelia" that I find to be magical and the memorable “Black Crow”. It's worth a mention that the late Jazz genius Charles Mingus shocked Joni by approaching her to finish some of his musical work as his life was slipping away. And we are given a pair of her lyrical arrangements for classic Charles Mingus tunes, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the severely under-rated "Mingus" CD and a humorous “Dry Cleaner From Des Moines”.

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Pat Metheny fans will not be disappointed and since Jaco Pastorious was the recent focus of my "Fun Guitarist Profile", the late bass player--thankfully--looks to be in peak physical form and pulls out a treat: with his personal rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone From the Sun” by creating layers of sound with his digital delay before tearing into an over-driven assault of machine gun harmonics. I owe a debt of gratitude and respect to have seen this young man as a kid in a small auditorium with the legendary fusion band Weather Report, and I must tell each of you that I knew then and there that what I was witnessing was sheer genius in Jaco that today has garnered respect from the most aspiring bassists. His senseless murder in Miami was a shock to so many and he is sorely missed to this day.

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Lastly, I want to mention ahead of time that Joni also directed this film--an outdoor concert and there are film clips from the 1950's such as Chuck Berry and the late James Dean Classic, "Rebel Without A Cause". At the time, Joni had completed an interview in Billboard where she declared Rock & Roll dead as audiences once knew it. So, I'm sure the subtext the following year may have been to interweave her statement about creative freedom. Having said that, this is a real "Supergroup" of more modern Jazz Legends and the concert itself is one that I hope you'll appreciate as a fine summertime choice.

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ENJOY!