Joni The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell
Katherine Monk
Greystone Books
Vancouver, 2012

In writing a new biography of Joni
Mitchell, Katherine Monk faced two
problems. The first was that Mitchell
wouldn't talk to her, Mitchell won't talk
to any journalists any more. The second
was that there is already quite a bit of
biographical material available about
Mitchell. Although the two books she
co-operated with, one by Mark Bego and
other by Karen O'Brien, both have problems. Bego is self absorbed and O'Brien
slightly star struck. Monk's strategy was
to write a psychograph of Mitchell, linking
her to the philosophers who influenced
her creative growth and showing how
their thinking shaped Mitchell's thinking.
The primary connection Monk draws is to
Nietzche and Mitchell certainly acknowledges her own debt to Nietzche in earlier
interviews, she even had a cat named
Nietzche. There are also references to
Heidegger, Freud, Jung, Joseph Campbell, Melanie Klein and others including a
digression into St. Augustine.
All of this might sound intimidating
and can easily drive off the cliff of pop .
psychology. But Monk handles it well. The
writing is interesting, she ties everything
to events in Mitchell's life so the links are
clear, and_even if you are already a fan

26

of Mitchell's it might give you a new way
to hear her music. The book is not meant
to be comprehensive biography, nor is it
chronological. Monk has organized it by
by nine themes she identifies as threads
that run through Mitchell's life; identity, illness, maternity and so on. In Monk's own
words she has produced a "creative map
- a road guide through human experience that anyone can grasp, regardless
of how you feel about (Mitchell's) music."
Throughout her recording career,
which ran from 1968 to 2007, unless she
changes her mind about retiring, Mitchell
always had complete creative control
both over her music and her album or CD
covers. That fact makes her almost alone
in the history of recorded music, and
she is interesting because she is one of
the few popular artists who has not only
endured but also because her creative
growth has happened without the direct
impedance of commercial considerations.
Some people argue that she is the most
important female musician of the last fifty
years. Certainly her music has taken a lot
of turns since she began as a typical 60's
folk singer, she has reinvented herself
in pop, jazz, electronic and world music,
sometimes more than once.
There are a couple of issues with the
book that rest more with the publisher
than the author. Especially because it is
not chronological, the book would have
benefited from a discography of Mitchell's work. It would help if the reader
could refer to the timing and sequencing of the recordings because the text
sometimes shifts time without notice.
The omission of a discography is particularly odd in light of the inclusion a four
page bibliography of the materials Monk
read in preparation to write the book. It
would logical to give Mitchell equal time.
In addition tighter copy editing would
have helped. There is a Nabokovian mishyphenation of the word re-creation on
page 13 which completely negates the
meaning of the sentence. The word regard is misspelled on page 41, and Monk
is occasionally given to non-sequiturs,
which is easy to do given her obvious energy and the enthusiasm she developed
for her subject while writing this book.

Conversations
Coat Cooke/ Joe Poole
NOW Orchestra Records

HighWire
Coat Cooke/ RainerWiens
NOW Orchestra Records
noworchestra.com
Conversations and High Wire are the
sixth and seventh releases from the
NOW Orchestra Records catalogue. The
saxophone player on both these CDs,
Coat Cooke, founded the Vancouverbased Now Orchestra in 1987.They are
one of the few fully functional improvising big bands in the world and over the
years they have attracted some of the
most important national and international
modern musicians to collaborate with
them (including Wadada Leo Smith who
is one of the artists featured in this year's
annual Oxford American Music Issue, the
other great music magazine you should
be reading).
Both these CDs fit the category of free
jazz. There is some argument that purely
improvised modern music is no longer
jazz. Although it evolved from jazz, it now
exists at some point further out on the
musical continuum. In any case it takes
some courage to play this music. It is not
music that is every going to attract mass
attention, so it can be lonely work.
Conversations was recorded live at
the Cellar in October of 2011.The CD is
literally that. Cooke plays a couple of
notes; drummer Joe Poole responds, and
they are off on an improvised dialogue.
The beauty of this music is in the details.
Ideas emerge, they shimmer to the surface and they disappear. It requires careful listening, just as the musicians have to

listen carefully to each other in order to
sustain the conversation. These two play
at a very high level of mutual understanding. They can be funny, subtle, lyrical,
strident and challenging.
High Wire is the same but utterly different. On this CD the duets are between
Cooke and Rainer Wiens. Weins is a
Montreal-based musician who plays electric and prepared guitar. He also contributes thumb piano on one track. The music
has an industrial undertone, as if you are
listening to the soundtrack of a science
fiction movie.
You can preview both CDs on CD Baby
and buy them as discs or MP3s, although
when you do a search on Coat Cooke, for
some reason, you get a bunch of CDs by
the Reverend Tina Redden. Either it's a
strange software glitch or he has an alternative life as a gospel honker. In science
fiction anything is possible.

Callin'All Cats
RichHagensenandthe Wailin'Daddys

AlwaysBeA Unicorn

Shakin'UpThisTown

HelenAustin

RichHagensenandthe Crew

helenaustin.com

fireballrecordscanada.com

Look out, here comes the conscience of
Campbell River and Surfduster's co-founder
Rich Hagensen with two new CDs. Callin'
All Cats is unreconstructed rock n' roll and
its influences are right out front. Elvis, Carl
Wehave
anEnd
ofDays
recommendation.
NOW
OrPerkins, Johnny Burnette, Eddie Cochran,
chestra
andOkestra
Futura
have
three
performances
Jerry Lee Lewis, a dash of Bo Diddley, a
thisNovember.
Because
every
performance
is their
nod to Neil Young and some weird psychlast,andalso,
essentially,
theirfirst,how
better
to
adelic
organ that would not have been out
experience
afirstandlastbefore
the(possible)
very
of place on a Painted Ship single. Clearly
last?
Add
thisexperience
toyour
bucket
list.
Nov22:JeffYounger's
Unsupervised
andTony this music is a lot of fun for Hagensen and
his heart is fully in the project. He covWilson's
Long
Hand
Trio
ers some early Canadian rock singles on
Nov23:Okestra
Futura
under
theDirection
of
the CD including The Del-Tones'Moonlight
CoatCooke
withspecial
guests
George
E.Lewis
and
Party,' Jim Morrison & The Stripes 'Ready
Giorgio
Magnanensi
Nov24: NOWWorkshops
Ensemble
Concert. to Rock,' and Wes Daklis & The Rebels 'El
(Bydonation
to benefittheireducation
program.)
Ringo.' The songs on the CD are drawn from
All shows
at the ScotiaBankDance
Cenfour sessions recorded between 1988and
tre, 677 DavieSt, Vancouver.
604.636.
7033
2011.Each session features different musinoworchestra.com
cians but the common denominator is the
lead vocals and rhythm guitar of Hagensen.
Eighteen tracks in all, including three credited to The Monster Stalkers, yet another
Hagensen project.
The second CD, Shakin' Up This Town,
draws on many of the same musicians as
well as others, but the music is more folk
based. Songs of social justice and protest
mixed with rocking country music. There
are also two bonus tracks from the movie
'The Pristine Coast.' Hagensen has been on
the road playing his music for more than
40 years while also working as a labourer,
social worker and union activist. He comes
by his politics honestly and every note
sounds like it was hard earned.

Helen Austin is a multi instrumentalist
and a singer/songwriter who had a career
as a comedienne in the UK before moving to Vancouver Island. These days she's
dedicated to the craft of songwriting and
the business that goes with it.
Her latest album is titled Always Be A
Unicorn, is for children. I put it in the CD
player and watched my almost two year old
daughter Cadence's reaction. She immediately began doing her tiny dance moves
- swaying back and forth and grinning.
Thumbs up on the kid-o-meter.
All 17songs on this record are tremendously catchy and up beat with a kind of
humble self-empowerment theme throughout. There's a level of sophistication here
that in my opinion should particularly appeal
to girls ages 6 to 11.If you're wanting a break
from music that's self important and serious, go ahead, put on 'AlwaysBe A Unicorn.'
Along with 'Fishin For Pickles,' by Jamie
Junger I'll listen to this when the complex
adult world starts to unravel my nerves and I
require a simpler musical escape.
There appears to be something distinctly
British in many of the melodies Helen's
crafted for the songs on this album. Given
the opportunity, they would like to bounce
around in your head like a bunch of balloons. The simple arrangements - often
articulated with a couple of acoustic instruments and the adeptly applied background
vocals by Helen and her kids, Daisie and
Charlie, make this a good collection of
tunes to sing along to. Have them playing
in the minvan on those long BC road trips.

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