Welcome to the list, Tom! Yes, the Jimi and Joni hook-up legend described in the article you posted is has intrigued me for some time. That recording of Joni & Jimi made by Hendrix himself is the holy graille of Mitchell artifacts, in my opinion. I wish it would surface, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't think Paul Allen has it, but he did acquire Jimi's diary, from whence came those quotes. It's prominently displayed at the new Experience Music Project in Seattle, as you may know, which Allen bank-rolled.
Joni has discussed her encounter with Jimi on several occasions in interviews. I clipped this from the awesome Joni Mitchell article database Les Irvin has created at www.jmdl.com, with a little help from his friends. It's from a Rolling Stone Q&A with Joni in December 1994: RS: What's the most random celebrity encounter you've ever had? Joni: I met Jimi Hendrix at the Capitol Theatre in Ottawa, and after his set, he came down, and he brought a big reel-to-reel tape recorder. He introduced himself very shyly and said, "Would you mind if I taped your show?" I said, "Not at all." And later that evening, we went back, we were staying at the same hotel. He and his drummer Mitch [Mitchell], the three of us were talking. It was so innocent. But management, all they saw was three hippies. We were outcasts anyway. A black hippie! Two men and a woman in the same room. So they kept telling us to play lower. It was a very creative, special night. We were playing like children. Q: Describe Jimi in three words. Joni: I could tell you in a paragraph - I'm not good at snack-size bites. His main concern at that time was that he wanted to drop the phallic aspects of his showmanship. The big, flamboyant dick stuff was offensive to him, and he wanted to stop it. But every time he tried, he told me, the audience would boo. He wanted to take a different kind of band out, with a brass section. OK, three words? SENSITIVE. SHY. SWEET. End quote. By the by, they're screening two documentaries on Charles Mingus at the aforementioned Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle next Wednesday, January 16 as part of their jazz on film series. "Mingus 1968" (1968) at 7:15 and "Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog"(1997) at 9:00. Could be some Joni content in the latter, as it's a chronology, but I don't know. If someone goes (Mark?), please share the skinny. :-) The films are synopsized at www.emplive.com. That's the website for EMP. One of the best sites on the whole effing web, I think. -Julius
