August 17, 2011
Hollywood Bowl - Hollywood CA
guest performers: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Aimee Mann, Glen Hansard, Chaka Khan, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling
In the far-reaching realms of popular music, the work and influence of Joni Mitchell continues to capture and enlighten minds young and old. That inspiration was thriving on the evening of August 17, 2011, when an all-star collective of singers and musicians gathered at the Hollywood Bowl to pay tribute to Joni Mitchell and her explorations into jazz music, aptly titled Joni's Jazz
In the early 1970's, after the success of the landmark Blue and its follow-up For the Roses, Mitchell began to explore more complex arrangements of her music, fusing together her acoustic folk upbringing with her love for jazz music. This direction would take her to 1974's Court and Spark, one of her most critically acclaimed albums. The album acts as a bridge between her more acoustic-driven folk/pop-oriented work, and the experimentally structured yet tightly-arranged jazz-infused sounds that would dominate Joni's future releases - 
Joni's Jazz concentrated on these four albums - with selections from Court and Spark, Hejira, and Mingus performed for the first half, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns being performed in its entirety for the second - and features a who's-who of jazz and contemporary music. The legendary Herbie Hancock, who is currently the Los Angeles Phil Harmonic Creative Chair for Jazz and has worked with Joni on a number of projects, acted as both player and patron for the concert. To add to the comforting vibe of the event, a section of the stage next to the band was set up for Hancock, Shorter and the guest singers to relax while each one performed their number, with low-lit lamps and recliner chairs. Simply put, they had the best seats in the house. Hancock introduced the evening's program, and with his blessing and the sound of the first hauntingly hopeful piano chords of "Court of Spark" the evening's revelries began. Singer/songwriter Aimee Mann, with her smoky, commanding voice, introduced the revitalized sounds to the audience. The moment Greg Leisz's pedal-steel guitar rose out of the darkness, there was a collective excited shivering and sigh among the crowd: we were officially in Joni's territory.
Glen Hansard, member of the Frames and co-recipient of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song (for "Falling Slowly" from the film Once, co-written with Markéta Irglová), kept the evening rolling right along with his performance of Hejira's "Coyote" - singing the line "Coyote's in the coffee shop, staring a hole in his scrambled eggs..." with such intensity as though he was watching these events unfold before his very eyes. The motor pulse of the song was charged and addicting. In Kurt Elling's suede-swing performance of "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines" and "Black Crow" (from Mingus and Hejira), he gave the stark imagery of the "back crow flying in a blue sky" a vocal center in the eye of the swirling jazz hurricane, led by the stratospheric soloing of the incomparable Wayne Shorter.
Grammy Award-winning singer Cassandra Wilson provided one of the evenings most profound and moving moments, with her performance of Hejira's title track. With the band creating a pulsating meditation of percussion and guitar behind her, Wilson sang each line with cathartic perseverance, channeling Joni's pensive moments into the crowd. As the steel guitar and horns swelled and faded into each chord change, Wilson sang the lines "I am porous with travel fever, but I'm so happy to be on my own." with such passion and contentment. It felt as though the entire Hollywood Bowl audience was locked on to every word until the last note faded into a mighty applause.
The colorful presence of Chaka Khan brought an unique take to the observational "People's Parties" (from Court and Spark), sounding more like the lively hostess of the party than like the cool wallflower-like presence Mitchell presents in the original recording. On her take of Hejira's "Strange Boy" she emitted a sultry persona, adding a smile to the refrain of the title lyric.
The second half of the show was devoted to the 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns - as stated in the LP's liner notes, written by Mitchell: "This record is a total work conceived graphically, musically, lyrically and accidentally - as a whole. The performances were guided by the given compositional structures and the audibly inspired beauty of every player. The whole unfolded like a mystery." - The performers properly respected Mitchell's vision by performing the album's material start to finish; And with the steady strumming of an acoustic guitar and cymbal crashes, Cassandra Wilson began the performance with "In France They Kiss on Main Street" adding soul to the refrain of "Rolling, rolling, rock and rollin'..."
Beginning with playing the original African drum recording Mitchell sampled on the original recording, the band began a descent into the voodoo tribal rhythms of "The Jungle Line" Kurt Elling's vocal delivery breathed fire as he described the "mathematic circuits of the modern nights" and "cannibals of shuck and jive." Elling then shifted moods for "Edith and The Kingpin" by returning to a more crooner-like delivery, though never losing the grip of the lyrical shifts and slides.
Singing "Shades of Scarlet Conquering" and the title track, Aimee Mann's stark, attentive voice, probably the most similar timbre-wise to Joni's of all the singers, was well-suited for these songs. Glen Hansard sang the visual "The Boho Dance" with poise and experience, his leather-rough voice giving life to the "lady in a Paris dress with runs in her nylons..." and demanding to not "get sensitive on me, because I know you're just too proud."
"Shadows and Light" - one of Joni Mitchell's greatest compositions - ends The Hissing of Summer Lawns in a surrounding baptism of Mitchell's layered vocals and synthesizer. For this performance, Jon Cowherd sat at a small Harmonium, while Glen Hansard sang and conducted the band through the pauses and changes, creating a beautiful hymn of spiritual moment and balance between Joni's Mitchell's music, the performer's interpretation and homage, and the audience's receiving of it.
As the final chords faded into the dark Hollywood night, the artists gathered at the front of the stage to the sound of great applause. And they rightly earned it. The vocalist's each brought a unique point of view to Joni's words, and carried their stories and images along the compositions, rather than the words carrying them. They each brought a balanced mix of tribute, experience, and influence to the work. The placing of this concert in the hills of Hollywood (where Mitchell lived, wrote, and recorded most of her music throughout this point of her career), was a perfect choice, with the band bringing this music to life in the place where Joni Mitchell thrived and created, and enlightening those who came to hear it on what was certainly an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime evening.
~R
(Photos sourced from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-0819-jonis-jazz-pictures,0,1982598.photogallery)
