''Shadows and Light'' is the second live album by Canadian musician

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

. It was released in September 1980 through Asylum Records, her last release for the label. It was recorded in September 1979 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

. For the album, Mitchell was backed by a band of acclaimed

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and fusion musicians consisting of guitarist

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He was the leader of the Pat Metheny Group (1977–2010) and continues to work in various small-combo, duet, and solo settings, as well as other side pr ...

, bassist

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...

, drummer

Don Alias Charles "Don" Alias (December 25, 1939 – March 28, 2006) was an American jazz percussionist. Alias was best known for playing congas and other hand drums. He was also a capable drum kit performer. He played drums on the song "Miles Runs the V ...

, keyboardist

Lyle Mays Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awar ...

, and saxophonist

Michael Brecker Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in ...

. The vocal group the Persuasions appear on the title track and a cover of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' " Why Do Fools Fall in Love".

Overview

''Shadows and Light'' was recorded during Mitchell's 1979 summer tour and used equipment of the

Record Plant The Record Plant was a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and last operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it produced highly influential albums, including the New York ...

in Sausalito. The recordings of "Furry Sings the Blues", "Dreamland", and "God Must Be a Boogie Man" were taken from PA mix cassette recordings. Much of the material comes from ''

Court and Spark ''Court and Spark'' is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Released by A&M in January 1974, it infuses the folk rock style of her previous albums with jazz elements. It was an immediate commercial and critical su ...

'' (1974) onward, the only exceptions being "

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

" and the cover of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love".

Reception

Commercial performance

''Shadows and Light'' peaked at number 38 on the ''Billboard'' 200. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" was released as a single and peaked at number 102 on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

Critical reception

Reviews for ''Shadows and Light'' were positive. Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'',

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

called the album "a surprise and a triumph" and considered it "one of a handful of great live rock albums". Holden praised Mitchell's backing band as "the finest ensemble that hehas worked with", and called her vocal performance "exhilarating". He went on to list the performances of "Edith and the Kingpin" and the title track as "the record's biggest stunners", feeling that the former's "spare live setting" worked to "uncover a mythic yarn of seduction and corruption" and praised the latter's pairing with "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". In a retrospective review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Vik Iyengar praised the renditions on the album to be more energetic than their studio counterparts; however, he also felt that many live versions were "not different enough" than the original studio versions. In a piece commemorating the album's 40th anniversary, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' called the album "unjustly overlooked" and also highlighted its title track, stating that Mitchell's collaboration with the Persuasions gave the song "a new, organic richness".

Track listing

Notes: *"Black Crow", "Don's Solo" and "Free Man in Paris" omitted from first CD release. *"Don's Solo", "Dreamland", "God Must Be a Boogie Man" and "Woodstock" omitted from VHS and DVD. *VHS and DVD releases feature two extra tracks, "Jaco's Solo" and " Raised on Robbery", and include a different version of "Furry Sings the Blues".

Personnel

Musicians * Joni Mitchell – electric guitar, vocals *

– lead guitar *

– electric bass ( Fender Jazz) *

– drums, percussion *

– piano, electric piano (

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

), synthesizer ( Oberheim FVS-1) *

– saxophones * The Persuasions – backing vocals on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and "Shadows and Light" Production * Andy Johns – engineer (recording) *

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman (born 16 December 1943, Minneapolis) is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chr ...

– engineer (mastering) * Glen Cristensen – art direction, photography * Joel Bernstein – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control Joni Mitchell live albums Concert films 1980 live albums Asylum Records live albums