Image
by Jack Robinson
JONI:
A Tribute to the Legendary Joni Mitchell
featuring
Katie Noonan, Wendy Matthews, Kristin Berardi, Tania Bowra, Louise Perryman, Virna
Sanzone and Rachel Gaudry
"Joni Mitchell sounds like no other.
Her song writing is unmatched. Her musicality and phrasing is inimitable. Her
integrity is luminous. She continues to make beautiful, relevant music 40 years
after her career birth. Her songs still make me cry. For these reasons and many
more she is an inspiration of the highest order to me." Katie Noonan
Few
artists have shaped the landscape of popular music as much as Joni Mitchell. Her
poetry, insight and originality have influenced so many artists - artists as diverse
as Prince, Elvis Costello, Cat Power, Jeff Buckley, Madonna, and Bjork - that
contemporary song writing without her is unimaginable. To celebrate the career
of this legendary songwriter, seven of Australia's finest vocalists - Katie Noonan,
Wendy Matthews, Kristin Berardi, Tania Bowra, Louise Perryman, Virna Sanzone and
Rachel Gaudry - together with an exceptional 12-piece band, bring their own outstanding
musicality to much of the best-loved material from Mitchell's diverse career.
Sure
to please not only Joni fans but lovers of music and poetry alike, these concerts
will present the humanity of Joni's music and the power of her ongoing relevance
as a unique recording and visual artist.
"Aside from her beautiful
words and music, there is something intangible in Joni Mitchell's music which
takes me into a particular space of wonder and inspiration. Only Joni's music
does this for me and I guess that's why I hold it so close to my heart... Her
songs unfurl line by line and I get swept up in the story, the mood, the textures.
There is always something new to discover at each listening." Rachel
Gaudry
The singers will perform a dynamic cross-section of songs from Joni
Mitchell's early folk acoustic albums of the late 60's, through to her Grammy
winning 1991 release Night Ride Home, right up to her latest 2007 offering, Shine.
The set includes such classics as "Blue", "Chelsea Morning",
"Woodstock", "Hejira" and "Big Yellow Taxi" performed
in chronological order and tracing her career from early folk through to jazz-rock
and right up to the present.
"Growing up in Canada, my parents were
young people of the 60's and Joni Mitchell was a huge presence in our household.
I'm grateful I was born in her time because she influenced my musical tastes greatly.
She is a poet, seer and a pure of heart artist for what is now many generations
and I'm thrilled to be a part of this tribute." Wendy Matthews
About
Joni Mitchell:
"There are songwriters - and then there is Joni
Mitchell. Joni Mitchell has been writing and recording intelligent, literate,
poignant and insightful songs since 1968 and over four decades later can reasonably
be considered as one of the most important and influential recording artists of
that era. As an artist she has never stood still, continuing to push her songwriting
and music in a way that very few artists are able. On any number of occasions
she has refused to continue in a proven successful style, instead challenging
her audience to come with her on the artistic journey. Over the years she has
embraced rock, folk, pop and jazz, while her songs have ranged from songs of emotion
and romance through to environmental and social issues." Stuart Coupe,
Rock journalist
Joni Mitchell's career extends over 40 years and encompasses
several musical genres. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native
Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto. In the mid-1960s she
left for New York City and its rich folk music scene, recording her debut album
in 1968 and achieving fame first as a songwriter ("Urge for Going",
"Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides Now", "Woodstock")
and then as a singer in her own right. Finally settling in Southern California,
Mitchell played a key part in the folk rock movement then sweeping the musical
landscape. Blue, her starkly personal 1971 album, is regarded as one of the strongest
and most influential records of the time. Mitchell also had pop hits such as "Big
Yellow Taxi", "Free Man in Paris", and "Help Me", the
last two from 1974's best-selling Court and Spark.
Mitchell's soprano vocals,
distinctive harmonic guitar style, and piano arrangements all grew more complex
through the 1970s as she was deeply influenced by jazz, melding it with pop, folk
and rock on experimental albums like 1976's Hejira. She worked closely with jazz
greats including Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, and on a 1979
record released after his death, Charles Mingus. Joni Mitchell's work is highly
respected both by critics and fellow musicians. Rolling Stone magazine called
her "one of the greatest songwriters ever," while Allmusic said, "When
the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential
female recording artist of the late 20th century."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtpXlVRVLic
www.joni.com.au
TOUR
DATES:
Friday October 23: Melbourne, Arts Centre Hamer Hall
Bookings:1300
182183 www.artscentre.com.au or Ticketmaster: 136 100 Tickets on sale 15 July
Friday
October 30: Sydney, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
Bookings: 02 9250 7777
www.sydneyoperahouse.com or Ticketmaster 136 100 Tickets on sale 20 July
Wednesday
November 4: Brisbane, QPAC Concert Hall
Bookings: 136 246 or www.qtix.com.au
Tickets on sale 20 July
