Joni Mitchell and Larry Kart

[skeith]

I received the new Joni Mitchell biography as a holiday gift.   The author says as one point (80s? 90s?)Joni was pretty much refusing any interviews but gave one to Larry Kart...

 

Wonder if you would comment Larry?

[JSngry]

Larry got the jazz-cred with the moody canadia auteur singersongwriters!

[Larry Kart]

Here it is, but honestly I've forgotten that I ever talked to her. Reading it now, it sounds like we had a pleasant but reserved encounter -- the latter being what one might expect. BTW, I also don't recall  now thinking that it was big deal for her to agree to be interviewed, perhaps because I wasn't that up on Mitchell's history as far as interviews went. Actually, if there was a history there, I may have gotten my foot in the door and/or Mitchell may have been guided in my direction because of WEA publicist Sue Satriano, who was a lovely person  and may have vouched for me.  

http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=1972
 

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Larry got the jazz-cred with the moody canadia auteur singersongwriters!

Are there any others? Who am I missing?

BTW, the Mitchell interview was, as they say, a "phoner."

Also, BTW, thinking of Sue Satriano, I think she set up an in-person interview for me with Neil Diamond where he refused to let me use a tape recorder because, so he explained, he was afraid that I'd give the tape to some disc jockey who would use portions of it on the radio. I should have just said, "OK, you paranoid piece of s--t" and walked out, but we continued to talk while I relied on scribbled notes and memory. 

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Are there any others? Who am I missing?

Neil Young? Although, yes, he's probably nuts, but it's sometimes enough a moody-ish kind of nuts.

Not Neil Diamond, he's New Yorker, not Candia. But in fairness to him, coming up on that whole Brill Building scene like he did, he probably comes by at lease some of his paranoia honestly.

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Neil Young? Although, yes, he's probably nuts, but it's sometimes enough a moody-ish kind of nuts.

Not Neil Diamond, he's New Yorker, not Candia. But in fairness to him, coming up on that whole Brill Building scene like he did, he probably comes by at lease some of his paranoia honestly.

I meant moody Canadian singer-songwriters I might have talked to. Neil Young I missed. Gordon Lightfoot too. Likewise Rob McConnell. 

[JSngry]

Anne Murray, no bahbudoubt!

[mjzee]

Leonard Cohen?

[skeith]

Larry

 

thanks for posting your interview/article.....sounds like for the most part you liked Mitchell's "Mingus"album.

I suspect you are being modest about the interview....my impression from the author of the Mitchell bio, David Yaffe, she was very selective about who she gave interviews to.  Were you aware you are mentioned in the Yaffe book?

[Larry Kart]

Didn't talk to Leonard Cohen. Did talk to Irving Cohen, though, a CPA.

[Larry Kart]

16 hours ago, skeith said:

Larry

 

thanks for posting your interview/article.....sounds like for the most part you liked Mitchell's "Mingus"album.

I suspect you are being modest about the interview....my impression from the author of the Mitchell bio, David Yaffe, she was very selective about who she gave interviews to.  Were you aware you are mentioned in the Yaffe book?

Didn't even know the book existed. About the interview, again I think that the estimable WEA publicist Sue Satriano greased the ways. I would guess, too, that my being a jazz person rather than a rock writer who was interested in her personality may have played a part.

[JSngry]

Serious question - have you or your employer ever been asked to pay for access to a desired subject?

[Dan Gould]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Serious question - have you or your employer ever been asked to pay for access to a desired subject?

This question reminds me of the fact that after I interviewed Eddie Higgins, he offered to get me in touch with his old friend Ira Sullivan.  Ira asked about payment and that was the end of that.

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Serious question - have you or your employer ever been asked to pay for access to a desired subject?

Not to my knowledge, and certainly not out of my pocket. Can't imagine such a thing. If you work for a fairly major publication, like the Chicago Tribune, all interactions re: access between a subject, particularly an entertainer., and the publication are mutual. They want publicity, you want a story. Now if they know or suspect that you want to tear their face off,  there might be some static, but how often does that situation occur, especially when it comes to performers, not politicians? (Michael Jackson post child-molestation charges would be one case, I suppose.) BTW, you're probably familiar with that old-time journalist line: "We got two kinds of publicity, which kind do you want?"

[clifford_thornton]

A couple of AACM musicians have been pretty adamant about being paid for interviews, from what I have been told.

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

This question reminds me of the fact that after I interviewed Eddie Higgins, he offered to get me in touch with his old friend Ira Sullivan.  Ira asked about payment and that was the end of that.

When I did the "Creativity and Change" interview with Wayne Shorter for Down Beat in 1968 or '69, we paid him for it after the fact because the whole interview was a  fascinating 90-minute or so monologue by Wayne -- don't recall asking him a single question.

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Not to my knowledge, and certainly not out of my pocket. Can't imagine such a thing. If you work for a fairly major publication, like the Chicago Tribune, all interactions re: access between a subject, particularly an entertainer., and the publication are mutual. They want publicity, you want a story. Now if they know or suspect that you want to tear their face off,  there might be some static, but how often does that situation occur, especially when it comes to performers, not politicians? (Michael Jackson post child-molestation charges would be one case, I suppose.) BTW, you're probably familiar with that old-time journalist line: "We got two kinds of publicity, which kind do you want?"

"tear their face off" and Michael Jackson.