I would like to offer a different perspective on the idea behind the “raps” in Joni Mitchell’s “Mingus”. I completely understand why it can get tiresome and I do confess to skipping those tracks sometimes. I would also have to point out that I am a huge Joni Mitchell fan, not to mention Mingus and every musician that plays on this record. I love this record. To me this record is tremendous labor of love all the way around and the facts around it’s creation clearly demonstrate this. The raps are intertwined with the songs to create a certain continuity to the album as a whole. For example the rap “Funeral” is followed by the song “Chair In The Sky”. Besides, it should be noted that the raps in total take less time than the shortest of the six songs (about 3 mins in total). The playing is fantastic and even if one is not a big fan of Mitchell it’s hard to not appreciate the playing. Jaco sounds amazing, as does Wayne Shorter who is a master of economy in his very soulful soloing. And it’s Peter Erskine for real this time.
acman3, thanks for posting the clips, it had been a while since I had listened to this.
acman3, thanks for posting the clips, it had been a while since I had listened to this.
