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Home , Court and Spark, Dean Fertita, Don Alias, Don Randi, Everything But The Girl, Henry Lewy

LONDON a MEMPHIS a EL PORTAL

APRIL 2016 Issue 269

FEATURES 40 TheEverythingButTheGirl singer speaks to Andrew Male aboutthehighsandlowsoflife as an indie icon, and her new career as an acclaimed author. 46 FIELD MUSIC After12yearsofDIYjazz-pop- soul,andaheartyendorsement fromPrince,istheworldfinally ready for the Brewis Brothers? Ben Myers find out. 50 DAVE DAVIES TheyoungestKinkbrother takesMarkPaytressona journeyintohisremarkable musicalpast,andapresent world of psychic magick and extraterrestrials. 58 MICHAEL CHAPMAN Celebrating 50 years on the road, the hard-as-nails Yorkshire singer- givesBenThompsonamusical survival masterclass. 62 Howdida’60sacousticfolkicon reinvent herself and confound her critics in the ? David Frickewatchesthechanges. COVER STORY

70 On the eveofhisfarewellfrommusic, Mr James Osterberg speaks to KeithCameronabout50years on the rock’n’roll front line. Plus: Swan-song collaborators , andDeanFertitadiscussthe method and madness of Iggy old and new. “I felt a kind of sweet giddiness whenImetMingus.” JONIMITCHELLLOOKSBACKONTHE LIBERATIONOFHERJAZZYEARS.P62 Henry Diltz

MOJO 3

May 1978. Vegas, Nevada, the airoutsideLas takes Joni Mitchell blooms:Desert MO J O

63 AN DOWN THE BLOCK OUTSIDE THE BAKED POTATO ON TUESDAY 3. Named after the main dish on the menu, the small, venerable Los Angeles d by pianist Don Randi in 1970 – hosted a popular residency by a combo of top, ers who also happened to be among the busiest session in town. The r, saxophonist , made records with ’s producer ing business in TV and movie scores. But the other cats were his equals in resumé. Sample was a founding member of hard-bop-turned-R&B stars The Crusaders; Bennett grew up in the bebop era and worked with singers and Ella ummer played with , and late line-up of . He and Bennett were the backbeat on ’s ental smash, . fun of getting out of the studio,” says gui- unhurried swing and incisive o was in The Crusaders at the time and flourishes, in turn, illuminated fun after a previous guitarist didn’t work Mitchell’s reflective language in out. “ e never rehearsed. We just jammed.” , an affection- Things got more serious after Scott – who had played wood- ate portrait of her label boss and winds on Joni Mitchell’s latest , – invited the friend , and the Canadian-born singer-songwriter to see , dubbed the L.A. swooning hit single Help Me, a Express. Mitchell’s early records – the largely acoustic quartet of clear reference to the singer’s 1968’s , ’69’s Clouds, ’70’s Ladies Of The new ecstasy with Guerin. Canyon and Blue the following year – made her a folk icon, a – which end- regal angel of tenderly frank, romantic confession. But the for- ed with Twisted, a cover from mer Roberta Joan Anderson knew a few things about jazz too. that Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album She heard ’s Sketches Of as a teenager in Sas- – marked the start of Mitchell’s most katoon and was especially knocked out, at a party, by The Hot- provocative era on record, an adven- test New Group In Jazz, a 1962 LP by the vocal trio Lambert, ture in harmonic exploration, textural Hendricks & Ross. “I’ve always considered that album to be dynamics and interior complexity of- my Beatles,” Mitchell told Downbeat’s in ten referred to as her ‘jazz years’. She 1979, “because I learned every song off it.” worked with members of the L.A. Ex- At the Baked Potato, Mitchell met the L.A. Express and press across three more – asked the band to play on her next record, Court And Spark. 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Mitchell and her engineer ’76’s Hejira and the 1977 double long- “booked four or five days with us” at A&M player, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter – Studios, Carlton says, “but it worked so well while forging a profound, creative bond with that they just committed to it.” the prodigious , an as- Mitchell – 29, a divorceé and previously sociation that peaked on 1979’s Mingus, linked romantically with and Mitchell’s homage to the titanic jazz bassist – also fell for Guerin, a hand- . some charmer in his mid-thirties. Bennett is blunt in his summation of “Joni loved the band, but she really loved Mitchell as a jazz singer. “It was fantastic to the drummer,” Bennett cracks fondly. “They work with Peggy and Ella,” he says, “but Jo- were a hit right away.” ni’s voice – there was nothing to match it.” So was Court And Spark, which was finished Former drummer Peter Er- in late ’73, issued in January, 1974 and went skine, who played on Mingus, says he heard to Number 2 in Billboard, selling “ b ning essence, the white heat of phos- million copies. It was Mitchell’s horus” in Mitchell’s work, especially first album with a working band with Pastorius. But guitarist Robben (guests included Crusaders bassist ord – who joined the L.A. Express for and The Band’s he 1974 tour that became the live al- ), and the bond um, , and played on The was plain in the title song’s firm Hissing Of Summer Lawns and Hejira – groove and the rhythmic, choral aims Mitchell drew from “countless buoyancy of . esources” including visual arts and Af- Mitchell’s run-on melodies and can music, notably in Hissing’s The eccentric tunings perplexed ungle Line, a densely lyrical vision of the L.A. Express at first. rench painter Henri Rousseau set to “Joe and I were looking at each oog and a proto-sampling loop of other,” Bennett says, “like, ‘This is urundi drumming. “It was like she different. Is it going to work?’” as making movies,” says Ford. However, the musicians were Mitchell’s hard turn from easily versatile enough to relish and dored balladry tested her audience – master the challenge. Mitchell’s he Hissing Of Summer Lawns was her writing “was very sophisticated st Top 10 album in the US – and di- harmonically,” Carlton says, “yet ded critics. She was voted 1975’s Top

so accessible.” The L.A. Express’s azz and Pop Vocalist by Playboy, ­ Henry Diltz, Getty Images

64 MOJO Car on a hill: Joni takes the wheel, October 1974; (opposite) Mitchell and L.A. Express drummer and more, John Guerin; (insets) her ’74 highlight Court And Spark and the inspirational Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. “This is different. Is it going to work?”: Joni with The L.A. Express in October ’74 (from left) Tom Scott, , , Larry Nash, Guerin and Mitchell; (below)

more ’70s classics. ¢ while dismissed The “She looked like a gazelle, glorious and Hissing… as “substantial literature . . . set to magical,” Ford says brightly. “I had been insubstantial music” and complained that on scuffling, and this was a huge step up on every Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter Mitchell had level – the company I was keeping, the music “chosen to abandon melody at a time when I was making.” Ford worked from charts, she needs it most urgently.” building on Carlton’s parts for Court And But her experimental ardour resonated Spark. But the “harmonic environment with subsequent generations: On A Tribute created by her alternate tunings was a differ- To Joni Mitchell, a 2007 compilation, Björk, ent language and very demanding.” , , k.d. lang and Carlton – who declined to tour, choosing jazz pianist Brad Mehldau all covered songs to stay in the studio and stick with The from this period. “I learned Hejira and Don Crusaders – says the members of The L.A. Juan’s Reckless Daughter by heart when I was Express mostly arranged their own parts on 15,” Björk told me last year. “She was creat- Court And Spark, encouraged by Mitchell. ing her own universe; she wasn’t a guest in “But we were servants to the artist and a man’s world.” song,” he adds, citing the rattled sigh of his Mitchell – now 72 and in seclusion, recov- guitar in the opening of Help Me. “It’s just a ering from a brain aneurysm last spring – was G major 7th chord on a down beat, but it sets up her adamant in her course when she spoke to Roll- next line perfectly. That’s all I had to play in that spot.” ing Stone in 1979. “Youhave two choices,” she Mitchell, working closely with Lewy, was a decisive told . People will “crucify you leader too. The L.A. Express cut their tracks for Court for staying the same. If you change, they’re And Spark live in the studio, often with Mitchell in the going to crucify you for changing. But staying vocal booth. But when Carlton heard Free Man In the same is boring. And change is interesting. Paris on the album, he discovered a second, over- “I’d rather be crucified,” she declared, dubbed guitarist, Jose Feliciano, in the final mix. “I “for changing.” can hear the roughness in his playing,” Carl- ton says. “She added his licks back there to OBBEN FORD WAS 22 AND ABOUT put some edge on a mood.” to quit his job – playing guitar for singer “I do have this reputation for being a seri- – when Tom Scott called his ous person,” Mitchell admitted to Cameron manager’s office in January 1974 with an offer to go on Crowe. But, she insisted, “I love to dance. the road with Joni Mitchell. Ford had no idea who she I’m a rowdy. I’m a good timer.” She was as was. When Scott played him an acetate of Court And good as her word on two 1974 North Amer- Spark, the guitarist found the music “a little over my ican tours with The L.A. Express – more head”. He also recalls Mitchell’s arrival during his first than 60 shows in major theatres, arenas and

rehearsal with the L.A. Express. amphitheatres. She and Guerin “would hang Henry Diltz (2), Getty Images,

66 MOJO Robert Trujillo and Mitchell, 2014; (bottom) Jaco Pastorius out together – they were an item,” Bennett notes. “But she was at work. really one of the guys.” Ford was walking through an airport, waiting for a flight to the next show,when he spotted Mitchell, Guerin, Scott and Lewy in a bar with a portable tape deck, cracking up as they listened to a recording of comic hipster Lord Buckley’s life-of-Jesus routine, The Nazz. “She was a ball,” Ford says of Mitchell. “And John had played with Monk. Suddenly, I was in this culture, inundated with coolness.” wanted a piece of the fun after he saw Mitch- ell’s April show at the New Victoria theatre in London, her only European stop that year. The next day, the ex-Beatle invited the entourage to his Friar Park estate. Mitchell returned to London in the evening; The L.A. Express stuck around until 7am the following morning, cutting two tracks with Harrison that ended up on his 1974 album, Dark Horse. Ford later played on the title track as well. “It took me six years to find a band that inflamed me to that degree,” Mitchell said of the L.A. Express in a 1973 interview with Malka Marom, a singer and friend from the Torontofolk scene. (In 2014, Marom published their conversations over the years in a book, Joni Mitchell In Her Own Words.) “But even with that band,” Mitchell added, “I wanted a more resonant sound.” For The Hissing…, Mitchell retained the L.A. Express – using both Carlton and Ford on – but in varying combinations with additional colouring including brass, vibes and electronics. (Mitchell plays the Moog on The Jungle Line.) “I did the same thing there that I did on Court And Spark,” says “Around1978Istartedtohearabout wasbeautiful,likehewaspsychingus Carlton, who played on Edith And The Kingpin, a cautionary tale of thisbassplayer,Jaco;one-word,four out.Thenhisgirlfriendcamein,this hard-drug life, and Mitchell’s childhood memoir Don’t Interrupt letters. An older friend, a bass player, beautifulsurfergirl,withabeerin turned me onto Weather Report’s each pocket, and said, ‘C’mon Jaco, The Sorrow. “I think she became so familiar with what each of us HeavyWeather.Thepictureofthis let’sgo,’andheputthebassdown could give that she heard it in her head – ‘Oh, I hear Larry on this Jaco guy on the back of that album andwalkedout.Itwasamazing,to one.’ But it was very loose – the kind of freedom where we would wasreally…exotic.Therewasa haveyouridolglareyouintheeyes. mystiquetohim.Soonafter,Iheard In1996ImetJohnnyPastorius, all magically find that spot where the song was.” hisfirstsoloalbum.Thattrack,Portrait Jaco’s eldest son. He’d bought a round Mitchell toured with The L.A. Express again in January and OfTracy,blewmymindbecauseI ofdrinksataFortLauderdalebar February 1976 but that magic was on the wane. She had just come couldn’t figure out what instrument I where a surfer friend of mine worked. off the late-’75 leg of ’s ; The washearing.Ithadthesameeffecton Heseesthenameonthecreditcard me as Van Halen’s Eruption. andsays,‘Myfriend’sabassplayerand Hissing… was getting a hard time in the press; and her relationship IfirstwenttoseeJacolivein1979 there’saguycalledPastoriuswho’shis with Guerin was coming to a painful finish. “We were in Philadel- at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. biggestinfluence.’Johnnysays,‘That’s phia,” Bennett says, “and somebody said, ‘John’s got his own room.’ It changed my life. He was super-cool. Jaco,myfather.’AyearlaterImet Helookedlikethesurfersandskate- Johnnyandsaid,You’vegottomakea I was like, Uh, oh.” On February 22, at the University of Maryland, boardersIgrewupwithinDogtown. film about your father – his story is so Mitchell sang the first line of her opening number, Help Me – “Help Hetookcommandofthisaudienceof important. He starts working on one. me, I think I’m falling in love again” – then stopped and walked off. oldjazzers,heavymetalkids,punks… YearsgobyandI’minvitedontothe The tour ended a week later. Theenergythatsurroundedhimwas project.Irealisedit’sgoingtotake nthralling.Hehadthisedge,this money,time,passion…Itpulledmein. Nevertheless, Mitchell turned to ttitude.Creatively,itmademerealise Every year we’d show rough cuts. Guerin for drumming when she re- here are no rules. It’s wide open. Sixyearsofhardwork.Jonididn’tcome corded Hejira, named after the Arab I’dalwaysappreciatedJoni onuntilyearfour.Wekeptre-editing, itchell’s music but then I heard what butitmadeforsomethingveryspecial. word for a journey of escape, and Don he’ddonewithJacoascollaboratoron The director, Paul Marchand, was Juan’s Reckless Daughter. “Later on, ejira,DonJuan’sRecklessDaughterand amazing. We could have easily created my wife and I went to dinner with ingus.Iwasblownaway. It’s Jaco atragicstorybuttherewassomuchto haring terrain, catering to the celebrate.Hewasn’tonthisplanetlong Joni,” Bennett says. “She was talking reativityofsomeoneelse,buthe’sstill buthemadeapowerfulstatement. If how John just loved women. It caused resent, turns it into its own art-piece. there’d been better understanding of a lot of heartache for her.” But ­ When he died I was at my friend’s his addiction, his bi-polar disorder, homestudio,creatingmusic there’sachancehe’dstillbearound inspired by Jaco. It was very sad. – at the time people didn’t understand There’sbeenlotsofstories what was going on. But we wanted Joni as ‘Art Deco’, her abouthispersonallife,lotsof the film to be a celebration. Now, name for the Don Juan drag, sizes up Henry Diltz’s wife Elizabeth at Lee Sklar’s Halloween, November 1976; Reckless Daughter album sleeve (inset). ¢ searching and musicianship were, Bennett suggests, more impor- tant for her. “She had gotten over it. It was back to reality.” Mitchell had also discovered Jaco Pastorius, a -born elec- tric-bass whiz who joined the fusion supergroup Weather Report in 1974 and was recommended to Mitchell by Ford. “For the first eight albums or so, I was directing bass players and annoying them to death,” Mitchell said later. “I wanted them to stop putting dark polka dots all over the bottom and instead treat it like a symphony.” Pastorius’s elegant, fluid assertion, threading the guitars and per- cussion in Hejira’s opening farewell Coyote (with its deceptively cas- ual allusion to Guerin) and the bleak, frantic Black Crow, was a signa- ture departure for Mitchell. “Jaco was more than overt, any time he worked with Joni,” claims , who joined Pastorius in Make mine Mingus: (above, from left) the Weather Report backfield in 1978. “But I loved the majesty Peter Erskine, Joni, of her tunes with Jaco.” Jaco Pastorius, , In the side-long Paprika Plains on Don Juan’s Reckless Daugh- 1978; (below) Joni ter, Pastorius is a vital, grounding complement to the soprano- and Herbie, 1978. sax flight of Weather Report’s and ’ orchestral impressionism. “Joni was very clever as well as poetic,” Erskine says, in her use of Pastorius. “It was a bril- liant, fortuitous choice.” Ford recorded tracks with Pastorius and Guerin for Don Juan that, he says, “wound up not being on the record. They weren’t songs, just blues jams – instrumentals that she wanted to use as source music.” Mitchell was “thinking very cinemati- cally in those days,” sometimes in ways that, Ford admits, con- founded him. He points to the insertion of the sultry, romantic fantasy Centerpiece – another tune from that 1962 Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album, written by Hendricks with trumpeter Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison – in the middle of The Hissing’s Harry’s House, Mitchell’s eerie rendering of a destructive relationship. Joni and Wayne Shorter, again at A&M studios during “It was intense,” Ford says of playing on Harry’s House. the Mingus sessions, 1978; “I was trying to match what was going on emotionally in (bottom, from left) Joni and that song. I was trying to accomplish intensity – actually, Herbie on-stage, , California, September I accomplished irritation,” he adds, laughing. “I’m sure she 1978; Joni and Charles Mingus, picked up on that.” The same night, later in the session, Ford played ’78; inside sleeve to Mingus, painted by Mitchell. acoustic guitar on Centerpiece. “We got a successful take and went into the control room,” where Mitchell and Guerin started talking about splicing the songs together. Mingus session ©Peter Erskine, courtesy of his book ‘No Beethoven’ (3); Henry Diltz played him Don ,cutfiveof Wayne Shortercameinthenextday. Theband,withpercussionist that.” take. “Thenwejumpedintothenextsong,andoneafter you havetogo.’” says, stillamazed.“NowJonihastotellJeremy, ‘Thanks,butsorry, this guy?I’mgoingtocallHerbie.’AndHerbiesaysOK!”Erskine is over toErskine“almostinthisconspiratorialwayandgoes,‘Who Hat, Mingus’seulogyforsaxophonistLesterYoung, Pastorius came Pie during apassatGoodbyePork the firstdayofrecordinginLA, wheels spinning.” some gotten have recalls,“andthatmight the drummer way –we’retherealjazzguys.’ our of New York dates,“almostlike,‘Getout the at that shewasbeinghumouredalittle” “was Zawinul. “ThevibeIgot,”Erskinesays, Joe of Herbie Hancockonkeyboardsinstead with her ownversionofWeather Report– with Angeles, re-recordingmostofthealbum Los in treatments,andMitchellwas alternative pursuing in MexicowithhiswifeSue,vainly mer . drum- Clarke; guitaristJohnMcLaughlinand Stanley Mulligan; bassistsEddieGomezand Gerry jazzmen: saxophonistsPhilWoods and adt e a opeeywog n h a lasright.” always was she And wrong. completely perfor- was a her “Everything again. to as laughs said works Ford I artist.” thing great a whole from The art great great. mance, her it’s to that course, like Of things said often. “I laughs. up guitarist messing The you’re song.” man, beautiful Oh, a like, I’m said, think?’ and you me do at what looked ‘Robben, She cool.’ sounds ‘Wow, that goes, Joan “and a edn hfigcsso alo Fame castsofHall was leadingshifting New York,Lady Studiosin whereMitchell that wouldbearhisname,heldatElectric album attended afew, initialsessionsforthe said, ‘Right.’” and those melodies,right?Andhegrinned of one five differentsetsofwordsforeach write I said,Yeah, Ibetyouwantmeto once.’ has fivemelodiesgoingallat son before heplayedit,said,‘Nowthis just “Charles putonthisonerecord,and met him,”MitchelltoldCameronCrowe. lyrics andvocaltreatments. wrote Mingus melodies,amonghislast,towhichMitchell musical adaptionofT.S. Eliot’sFour Quartets. a on contacted Mitchell,askinghertocollaboratewithhim – tian FightSongbutcouldnolongergriphisinstrument Hai- the landmarkcompositionsGoodbyePork PieHatand writte played withDizzyGillespieandCharlieParker and d the extendedimprovisinginPaprika Plains.Mingus–who was intriguedbythecover–Mitchellindragasablackman January 5,1979. January on hisdeath Mingus, GodMust BeABoogieMan,twodays after of dreams ofBirdland”).Mitchellcompleted herpersonalmemoir day- Sky (“Bidingmytime/Inmemories/Of oldfriendsofmine/In The reverieAChair In Orleans-style march,andthejazz warrior’s Cleaner From DesMoines,atangled-brass New including TheDry acc vrubdanwpaopr nPr i a none Hancock overdubbedanewpianopartonPork PieHatin on But Lubbock. Jeremy She hadbeenworkingwithapianist, “Joni camebyaWeather Reportrehearsal,” was By thelatesummerof1978,Mingus Ta hf ntebs ie–Jh’ ysjs i p”Fr says, Ford up,” lit just eyes John’s – line bass the in shift “That ept i osnn odto,Mingus Despite hisworseningcondition, “I feltthiskindofsweetgiddinesswhenI of set a She passed.Instead,thetwoworkedtogetheron disease (after thelateNewYorkdisease (after baseballstar)whenafriend with amyotrophiclateralsclerosis,alsoknownasLouGehrig’s HARLES MINGUSWAS 56ANDTERMINALLY ILL Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter Don Juan’sReckless Mingus ’s sixextendedsongsinthosetwo days, inearly1978.Thebassist Mingus AhUm honest, dying, scoredasafighttoleaveindignityandfulfilment.“To be body knewthiswassomethingsacred.” Columbia RecordsfacilitywhereMingusmadehis1959classics we weren’tinthe30thStreetStudiosNewYork” –thelegendary knew thiswassomethingspecial.Thatapparent.Eventhough bymanyofitsreviews. But,Erskineinsists,“Weadmission affirmed and theacappellavocalgroupThePersuasions. Butitwasthe with Pastorius, guitaristPat Metheny, saxophonistMichaelBrecker Mingus Mitchell wentontheroadbehalfof Mingus , ultimately, wasnotajazzalbum;itmeditationon gofalongleaving. b get downtojustsomeAmericanmusic.” dropthemall,and all thehyphensin,maybethey’ll .sofinallywhenyouget rock-country-jazz-classical

isnotaneasyalbumtolistento,”Erskinesays, and ut abdicatedfromthemusicbusiness,callingit MingusDynasty des, todiminishingsales.In2002,Mitchellall arting with he would not return torecorduntil1982’s he wouldnotreturn de fiveofhermostcompelling,uncompro- ween lengtheninggapsoverthenexttwodec- ised studio albums in seven years. After ised studioalbumsinsevenyears.After hings RunFast success of goodness. I’msureshewasthankfulforthe players –andtheworldgottohear ’70s thisway:“Rightartist,rightsongs, Carlton sumsupMitchell’smid-andlate and impatientlyprogressivesongwriter. herasasinger,transformed recordproducer liberation vising camaraderieandharmonic found arenewingenergyinjazz.Theimpro- a “cesspool”. their name–Iwantthefullhyphen:folk- types thatjustkeepsgoingforlettersafter view. “Ifeellikeoneofthoselifer-education Mitchell saidinthat1979Downbeatinter- creative process–andthefreedom.” tried tofollowitup.Shewentonwiththe But athercommercialheight,Mitchell “Pigeonholes allseemfunnytome,” Court AndSpark Court AndSpark , andthenissuednewworkbe- –“itwasasifwewere.Every- Mingus , thesingerhad , butJoninever , leadingaband June 20, 1979. 20, June Jazz Festival, Playboy the at Joni cleaners: dry the to Off Mingus Wild M ,