JONI MITCHELL : SHADOWS AND LIGHT

  1. Opening
  2. In France They Kiss On Main Street
  3. Edith And The King Pin
  4. Coyote
  5. Free Man In Paris
  6. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
  7. Jaco's Solo / The High And The Mighty / Third Stone From The Sun
  8. Dry Cleaner From Des Moines
  9. Amelia
  10. Pat's Solo
  11. Hejira
  12. Black Crow
  13. Furry Sings The Blues
  14. Raised On Robbery
  15. Why Do Fools Fall In Love (with The Persuasions)
  16. Shadows And Light (with The Persuasions)

Label : Shout! Factory

Length : 75 minutes

Venue : County Bowl, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Recording Date : September 9, 1979

Release Date : June 24, 2003

NTSC : 4:3

Review (Amazon) : This one-hour concert video was shot at the County Bowl in Santa Barbara, CA, in September 1979. Joni Mitchell is backed by a distinguished group of jazz musicians: Pat Metheny (guitar), Jaco Pastorius (bass), Lyle Mays (keyboards), Michael Brecker (saxophone), and Don Alias (drums). A cappella group The Persuasions provide backup vocals on two songs. Mitchell, who directed the film, occasionally tries conceptual ideas, especially in the beginning, borrowing 1950s film clips of James Dean and Frankie Lymon. But, for the most part, this is a performance work, and though the song list is drawn largely from Mitchell's more problematic albums of the late '70s (The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, etc.) rather than her early hits, Mitchell succeeds in putting across such poetic pieces as 'Amelia' (complete with clips of aviator Amelia Earhart). Meanwhile, Metheny and Pastorius especially provide excellent jazz-fusion soloing.

Review (Wikipedia) : Shadows and Light is a 1980 live double album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It was recorded at the Santa Barbara Bowl in September 1979 on Mitchell's Mingus tour. A film of the concert was also released on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD.

Review (AllMusic) : Shadows and Light is Joni Mitchell's second live album, and it serves as a good retrospective of her jazzy period from 1975-1979. As expected, she assembles a group of all-star musicians including Pat Metheny (guitar), Jaco Pastorius (bass), Lyle Mays (keyboards), and Michael Brecker (saxophone) who give these compositions more energy than on the studio recordings. The musicians are given room to jam, and they sound terrific on uptempo songs such as "Coyote" and "In France They Kiss on Main Street." If there is a general theme of these songs, it's about growing older and maturing after the failed idealism of the late '60s (the album opens with audio clips from the movie Rebel Without a Cause). Although this album is pleasing, the live arrangements are not different enough from the studio versions to warrant higher marks. In fact, Mitchell has always been an album artist who recorded studio albums that had a sound and feel all their own. While Shadows and Light provides a nice summary of her experimental period for casual fans, interested listeners should start with Hejira or The Hissing of Summer Lawns.