Joni Mitchell – Mingus (1979) Review | “The Storm Has Passed,” the Weather Girl Sang
Kronomyth 11.0: Serendipity in blue.
The ashes of Mingus belong to India, his last petals to a strawberry blonde from Canada. The didactic thing to do is to tell you how Mitchell and Mingus met, paint the picture of a little girl splashing in the shadow of a jazz giant, gush a querulous geyser and go home. Or quash a garrulous kaiser in the absence et cetera. All by way of saying that little girls with lovely pageboy bangs shouldn’t be howling at night with jazz eccentrics and coming home to quiet suburbia with mischievous black notes in their purse. But try telling Fate that you had to wash your hair instead. Mingus, bull elephant in declension, telepathed his epitaph to Muse, who curtsied, complied and conscripted the other lords of the jungle to lend a hand. At first, Muse illuminated the epitaph with the lords-who-must-be-leaving: John McLaughlin, Stanley Clarke, Eddie Gomez, Tony Williams, mumbling. But in the moment of magnetic finality, the Muse was enveloped by heavy weather: Jaco, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Peter Erskine, Don Alias, Emil Richards. Joni refers to the results as “audio paintings.” Everything since honestly Blue has been, but why contradict the lady? Here, Joni paints the dying Mingus dancing. She does it with a sense of humor. She does it with a sense of history. She does it with the same keen, bittersweet senses that brought her to this place, to share a final sunset with a gentle giant in the sacred selva of circumstance. God must be a boogie man indeed.
The Product
A1. Happy Birthday (Rap) (0:57)
A2. God Must Be a Boogie Man (Joni Mitchell) (4:33)
A3. Funeral (Rap) (1:07)
A4. A Chair in the Sky (Joni Mitchell/Charles Mingus) (6:40)
A5. The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey (Joni Mitchell) (6:33)
B1. I’s a Muggin (Rap) (0:07)
B2. Sweet Sucker Dance (Joni Mitchell/Charles Mingus) (8:06)
B3. Coin in the Pocket (Rap) (0:11)
B4. The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Joni Mitchell/Charles Mingus) (3:22)
B5. Lucky (Rap) (0:03)
B6. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Joni Mitchell/Charles Mingus) (5:41)
Original 8-track version
A1. I’s a Muggin (Rap)
A2. Sweet Sucker Dance
A3. Happy Birthday 1975 (Rap)
B1. God Must Be a Boogie Man
B2. Funeral (Rap)
B3. A Chair in the Sky (Part I)
C1. A Chair in the Sky (Part II)
C2. The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey
D1. Coin in the Pocket (Rap)
D2. The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines
D3. Lucky (Rap)
D4. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
The Players
Joni Mitchell (guitars & vocals), Don Alias (congas), Peter Erskine (drums), Herbie Hancock (electric piano), Jaco Pastorius (bass, horn arrangement on B4), Emil Richards (percussion), Wayne Shorter (soprano sax) with wolves. Mixed by Joni Mitchell, Henry Lewy and Steve Katz. Engineered by Steve Katz and Henry Lewy with additional engineering by Jerry Solomon.
The Pictures
Paintings by Joni Mitchell. Art direction by Gen Christensen.
The Plastic
Released on elpee, cassette and 8-track in June 1979 in Canada (Asylum, X5E/XET8-505), the US (Asylum, 5E/5CS/5T8-505), the UK (Asylum, K-53091), Brazil (WEA, 52002), Germany (Asylum, AS/4-53091) and Japan (Pioneer/Warner, P-10626Y) with split gatefold cover. Reached #17 on the US charts and #24 on the UK charts.
- Re-issued on compact disc in the US (Elektra, 505-2) and Japan (Asylum, 32XD-954).
- Re-issued on compact disc in Germany (Asylum, 60557).
- Re-issued on remastered compact disc on August 27, 2006 in Japan (Reprise, WPCR-75236).
