Joni Mitchell — Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter

★★★★✰

   One of songwriters and great folk-rock singers who reached great worldwide fame as performing artist is representative of great Canadian American tradition, bright stage personality and guitarist Joni Mitchell. She is famous as singer and well known as performer, but her creative effort in songwriting was on the first place from the very beginning. With strong roots in folk and folk rock, she was close to jazz scene as well. She started as songwriter and folk clubs singer in sixties, her debut album Song to a Seagull was produced by David Crosby and released in March 1968 by Reprise label. She was author of all songs, singer, played guitar and piano in all accompaniments and designed album cover. Bass guitarist Stephen Stills played only one song but became her constant coworker and playing much more on her next albums. Releasing every year new album in five years she became an icon of folk rock.
   Shortly after Mitchell’s first folk rock records reach commercial success, she started to widen stylistic attitude. Consequently, her name was increasingly falling into category of jazz vocalists. It’s interesting process she was keeping the same position towards popular ballad and narrative poetry of rock songs changing only some elements of her musical style. In early seventies it was still somehow risky idea to get against actual trends. Folk rock albums made her famous, so experiments with other styles could eventually cost her losing some of her fans. So, she was moving to folk and jazz crossover in a mild way, adding more and more interesting musicians, and staying herself the same artistic personality. She was recording and touring with super league of jazz musicians. As time goes by she had considerably more listeners on jazz and some other ambitious genres of rock and pop music, but she was still associated with folk rock.
   After the end of Vietnam war in seventies, with social change driven by economic crisis, many artists were searching for new solutions of art representation as a space for culture discourse. This perspective was perfect for continuing some trends popular in sixties. Renewed ideas were consumed as backward wave of folk music. Joni Mitchell as many others was still on top of popularity. It really didn’t matter how innovative she was and how far her new songs were behind borders of the style, she was still considered as folk singer. Like she was intending to confirm this stereotype, in many performances she was still a singer with a guitar, or even a bard with natural vocal technique and nice melodies. Sometimes it had to be a real challenge to reach it in such natural way, and many of her project were stylized to fulfill this idea. This tendency was present in live performances while not clearly visible in Mitchell’s studio recordings, where she was more ambitious on intellectual and artistic level.

Joni Mitchell — Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (1977)

  
   One of her best works, published in December 1977 double LP album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter was also the one scandalously underestimated. Recorded for Asylum label in London, New York and Hollywood with huge group of musicians and various arrangements. Definitely, most significant element besides of Joni Mitchell’s voice and guitars was sound of Jaco Pastorius’ fretless bass. As a sideman he gave this music electrifying power of jazz phrasing, finding perfect balance with leader’s voice. In late seventies his sound was iconic element of Weather Report sound. Musicians from this band were saxophonist Wayne Shorter, percussionists Manolo Badrena, and Alex Acuña. Others were also known for their contribution in fusion jazz guitarist Larry Carlton, percussionist Airto Moreira, movie music composer, pianist Michel Colombier, lead singer from funk band Rufus Chaka Khan and drummer John Guerin known from early Frank Zappa’s albums.
   Restricted use of jazz idioms on Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter was visionary. It sounded like jazz moved back to it’s popular music roots. Even in simple songs, for example in Jericho, where Jaco Pastorius bass and Joni Mitchell’s guitar with drums by John Guerin and bongos by Don Alias create thick and intensive instrumental layer. In this fabric soprano sax by Wayne Shorter is so discrete and colorful as it sounds like just extra sound dimension. This corresponds with unusual melody, full of unexpected changes, based on irregular, free verse poetry. It gives a mind-blowing effect. In opposite example Paprika Plains we receive expanded composition spanning whole side B of first LP. Similar group of musicians (except absence of congas and Joni Mitchell plays piano) and symphony orchestra orchestrated by Michael Gibbs gives this composition solid formal frame. Even final jazz solo by Wayne Shorter runs with the whole composition like a cadenza. The other side of musical experience are The Tenth World and Dreamland, both featuring essentially percussion band. For experimenting with styles, balancing ambitious musical creations with intense poetry this album deserves four stars. I am giving four and a half for personal input of Jaco Pastorius – this is one of his best accomplishments.

Michael Franks – Objects of Desire

★★★✰

   The jazz culture from the very beginning was a phenomenon rising on popular dance and song models, functioning and developing as a popular music in particular social environment, then established as an artistic quality in specific circumstances of modern change of the western civilization. Popular song melodies were among most active elements of early jazz. Melodic shape, textual references and some pure musical meanings associated with rhythmic patterns and harmonic changes were usual base for improvisation. Even modern jazz drew its energy of popular songs and melodies. For many of the post jazz generation it was real sensation some standard themes, before used in improvised music, were popular songs and hits of earlier decades.
   When in late seventies era of fusion was about to end and the period of neo classical jazz was not clearly visible, many musicians were trying to find some new inspiration in popular and artistic song. One of singers of this period was Michael Franks, musician from southern California (born in La Jolla, Sept. 18th, 1944). He became famous as one of most active songwriters in pop and jazz crossover, recorded by dozens and esteemed for his own albums with leading musicians of jazz and smooth jazz, Joe Sample, Larry Carlton, Michael and Randy Brecker, Wilton Felder, David Sanborn and many more. His songs were recorded by jazz and popular artists, The Manhattan Transfer, The Carpenters, Diana Krall, Shirley Basey and Ringo Star. Over a dozen albums (recorded mostly for Warner Bros. Records) is coherent series documenting the development of Michael Franks songwriting and performance as a very individual jazz style.

Michael Franks – Objects of Desire (1982)

   Michael Franks’ discography can be seen as a kind of timeline for the progress of his songwriting and performing possibilities, but first of all these consecutively created albums are a beautiful collection of great songs, well written and performed, ready to give satisfaction even to a demanding listener. In this consequently build collection seventh album is somehow unique. Michael Franks’ Objects of Desire was written and recorded in 1981. Warner Bros. Records published it in 1982 simultaneously in US, Canada, Japan, Germany, Spain and RPA and on various carriers LP, CD and Compact Cassette. It looks like this one was intended to be a blockbuster. The number of musicians was bigger than ever and album was built in series of sessions in different studios. And the results were encouraging.
   This Objects of Desire is somehow a concept album. It shows nine songs about values and desire, but as these desired objects may be different. It’s like the picture from the cover, Two Tahitian Women by Paul Gauguin, which shows man’s objects of desire and can be considered as the object of desire itself. Emotional relations from love to jealousy show the space for Franks’ songs. They have outstanding musical setting. Natural melodic lines economically correspond with lyrics, and its soft jazz arrangements open wide space for great solos. Many perfect saxophone solos played by Michael Brecker (Laughing Gas), David Sanborn (Tahitian Moon, Love Duet), Lawrence Feldman (Flirtation), and few dozens of great session musicians gave this album lot of space. The same with singing performances: Bonnie Raitt’s voice in Ladies’ Nite is electrifying and finds its reflection in Franks’ vocal. One another example of great voice communication is Love Duet where Franks sings with Renee Diggs. Such culture of sound was always domain of professional artists only. Here it starts to be art for itself. Four and half of stars for perfect creative work.

Donald Fagen – The Nightfly

   The musical scene in seventies was complicated with rise of fresh waves and plenty of old concepts. As rock in its progressive subgenres was still aroused, pop-rock and jazz-rock were keeping their positions, and new ideas were emerging with speed of angry punk riffs and with power of new electronic sounds. Full spectrum of styles between musical experiments and easy listening was the scene for many bands playing all kinds of sound, forms and attitudes. One of them was Steely Dan, the band founded by two friends Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The ideas were continued by Donald Fagen after Steely Dan was disbanded in 1981 and his first solo album was The Nightfly, a clear display of new frontiers in popular music. The New Frontier was one of hit songs.
   Relations between words and harmonics, culture of sound and bold arrangements made this music revolutionary. First reason was entire new technology of digital process is studio recording. Giving new possibilities in composing and mixing tracks, it was a challenge for artists recording at the moment, and Fagen was not only one musician testing himself in new technology, but the results even 32 years later are still impressive. From the other hand, the year after breaking the band was good moment for recapitulation of artist achievements. And last but not least, after decade of creating sound of Steely Dan, came the time for shifting Fagen’s artistic development into new level. All of his albums had such character, and were issued at intervals of about 10 years.

Donald Fagen – The Nightfly (1982)

   Also the personnel changes during recording songs for The Nightfly album could be seen as a sign of summarizing attitude of the artist. There were some about two and a half dozens of musicians engaged. Many of them were known as sidemen from Steely Dan’s records, like guitarists Larry Carlton (The Royal Scam, Gaucho), Rick Derringer (Countdown to Ecstasy, Katy Lied, Gaucho), bass guitarists Chuck Rainey (Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, Aja, The Royal Scam, Gaucho), Anthony Jackson (Gaucho),  drummers Ed Greene (Aja) and Jeff Porcaro (Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied). Even famous jazzmen brothers Randy Brecker playing here trumpet and flugelhorn and Michael Brecker were recording on Gaucho, the last Steely Dan’s album preceding The Nightfly. Probably the greatest new arrival was Marcus Miller playing with strong jazz feeling. His bass guitar driving in Maxine, The Nightfly, and The Goodbye Look is just unmistakable.
   In Maxine close harmony voices are accompanied with perfect jazzy-style arrangement and Michael Brecker’s tenor solo, which is the great example of new pop-rock-jazz crossover. Everything here is organic and transparent, even if elements were taken from distant genres. In 1982 it was the turning point, not only in technical context, but first of all in social and cultural perspective. The debut record of Donald Fagen was recorded in years 1981 and 1982 in New York Soundworks Digital Audio/Video Recording Studios, then in Masonic temple of Village Recorders in Los Angeles and later back in New York Automated Sound Studio. It was produced by long time Steely Dan producer Gary Katz and released October 29, 1982. Certified platinum in US and UK, this album influences many trends in next decades. After thirty two years this music sounds still as fresh as new. I’m giving four and half star to express my strong belief this album is still a blockbuster.