Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light

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DVD Reviews of Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light

DVD Review: The definitive 70s jazz-rock superstar video
Summary: 5 Stars

To my mind, Joni Mitchell is poorly served on CD. Her albums were HDCDed back in 1990, but I'm not sure that the quality of remastering is as good as you can now get. None has appeared on SACD and I've seen just one on DVD-Audio. This is extraordinary for such an important figure in contemporary music.

But 'Shadows and Light' is available on DVD, so that those of us with multi-region players can finally see a stellar line-up at the top of their game make the most of Joni's 1970s compositions. I had always wondered what the movie dialogue excerpt was for at the start of the CD. The DVD at least provides a visual explanation.

For fans of Pat Metheny, this DVD provides some of the earliest evidence of his brilliant career-long partnership with Lyle Mays. Pat and Lyle even plays one or two riffs from his 'Pat Metheny Group' LP inside the concert performance of 'In France they Kiss on Main Street'. But Pat was playing with Jaco Pastorius before he met Lyle, and, with hindsight, there is something tragic in Jaco's demeanour here. By 1979 he was near the end of his time with Weather Report, and here he looks world-weary, if not slightly wrecked. But, apart from his solo spot, his performance is wonderfully restrained yet intensely musical. His solo is pretty much the one he used to inflict on Weather Report audiences, though thankfully much shorter. [I only saw him twice in concert.]

Metheny's playing is impressive, but his guitar skills have reached even loftier heights since those pre-Synclavier days.

To me, the real star of this concert is Joni's voice, which gives a faultless, studio-quality performance. In fact, the recording of the entire band is crystal-clear, wih plenty of separation between all instruments except, at times, between Joni's and Pat's guitars.

My main complaints about the DVD are:

1. Terrible font used for the credits (but these were very early days for computer graphics).

2. Tracks that are on the CD that are missing from the DVD. (No 'Woodstock' and no 'God must be a boogie man', for example.) I can understand that there are restrictions on the length of videotape, but this is DVD, for goodness sake. At this stage, there seems no point in mentioning that there are a further three tracks missing from the CD that were on the original double LP!)

3. Poor choice of camera shots during the concert. For example, as soon as Jaco starts his solo, we want to see him -- we don't want yet another tedious scan of the Santa Barbara audience. (My guess is that the hired cameramen knew nothing of Joni's music.)

But, these minor gripes aside, this is definitely a five-star concert. The fortunes of the various participants would take opposite courses over the next decade. In 1979, Pat was on the brink of superstardom. Jaco was arguably past his peak, although still several years from his period of rapid decline, which culminated in drugs problems, street fights, the loss of an arm, and his death. Joni in 1979 was perhaps at her peak, and this DVD is testament to her enduring talents, superb voice and wonderful compositions. If she'd chosen to play 'Shades of Scarlett Conquering', I would have awarded this DVD six stars.

Description of Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light

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