Joni Mitchell
Shadows and Light

THE REVIEW

It is inadvisable to approach Mitchell's music by listening to this album, as none of her other albums you might subsequently listen to will come close to perfection like this one, except for another live album "Miles of Aisles," which precedes this and is its acoustic counterpart. The magic of this record is due to two factors: the brilliant songs written by Mitchell (and Charles Mingus in some cases) and a supporting group that comprised the greatest musicians of the Jazz-Fusion music of that period (we are in 1979). We are talking about artists who have now become legends, first and foremost the legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius, the electric guitar star Pat Metheny, Metheny's frequent collaborator on keyboards, Lyle Mays, the illustrious saxophonist Michael Brecker, and drummer Don Alias, who had already collaborated with Miles Davis and Weather Report: an All Stars Band indeed. It is a double album that mainly features songs from the previous album "Mingus" (1979), such as "God Must Be a Boogie Man," "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines," and especially those from "Hejira" (1975) such as "Amelia," "Coyote," "Furry Sings the Blues," "Black Crow," and the title track "Hejira." The other songs from Mitchell's repertoire all undergo the revitalizing treatment of this fabulous band, which, with the assistance of the vocal group The Persuasions, offers listeners unattainable heights like the spiritual "Shadows and Light" and the effervescent "Why Do Fools Fall in Love."