A Robert Collins Master Recording.
Artist / Title: Joni Mitchell
Date September 16, 1979
Location: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, California
Seats: A-Center, Row-W, Seats 119, 120
Deck: Nakamichi 350
Mics: Sennheiser MD-416
Source: A:C 1st Generation Tape, 1-Mic Mono
Sample Rate 44.1Khz, 16-bit (CD) (FLAC)
Rating: B+
Length: 116 Minutes
Also Available:
* DVD-Audio, 96 Khz, 24-bit version of this show is also available.
Also included:
* Ticket stub
* Seating Chart
* Picture of bootleg record "California"
-----
Musicians:
Joni Mitchell Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Pat Metheny Guitar
Lyle Mays Keyboards
Jaco Pastorius Bass Guitar
Michael Brecker Saxophone
Don Alias Drums, Percussion
Persuasions Backing Vocals
-----
About this recording:
There is so much to say about this concert that it's hard to know where to begin.
In a nutshell, this is where it all started. For the previous four years, I
had dabbled in low quality recordings as a young teenager. I had tried a few
different decks and realized you can't make good recordings with automatic level
control. So I saved my money and bought a Nakamich 350, and two Nakamichi
microphones. By the time this concert came, the microphones hadn't yet arrived.
My backup mic was my Sennheiser MD-416 omnidirectional. I designed my own
battery pack to plug in to the back of the deck, and I was ready to hit the
show. My very first concert: Joni Michell at the Greek Theatre (this concert).
As the saying goes: the rest was history.
My seats were right in front of the mixing console -- which sat well above our
heads. The mixing console table was the perfect height to stick my microphone
right under the mixer, pointing straight at the stage. The microphone was at
least 8 inches above our heads. So this is where the mic was placed for this
concert.
As the band came out, we couldn't believe our eyes. We had no idea who was in
the band before they walked on stage. I first saw Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays
and started blabbering with something idiotic excitement to my girlfriend.
But when Jaco Pastorius hit the stage, the blabbering hit a whole new level.
I had already taken her to see Weather Report and she loved Pat Metheny, so
none of these people were unknown to us.
Whereas this was the very first concert using my new Nakamichi portable, I was
overly cautious with the levels; overreacting at times to loud or soft music.
This made it difficult to fix the levels during the mastering process. I used
to think this was only a mediocre recording, but after spending weeks working
on it, I realized the recording is great (for mono), it was the mix that was
mediocre. There are times when the mix just muddies the instruments together,
and there are other times when the mix and quality are quite good. Since the
microphone was in a static position the whole night, it had to be the mix at
fault, not the recording.
A person might not realize how great the concert was until you're asked to pick
three highlight sound clips. I could hear things on every song I wanted to
highlight, and sometimes multiple things on each song. That's when it dawned
on me, this was an absolutely amazing concert -- and the recording isn't too
bad either. I'm always asking myself how a concert rates out of the 400+ shows
I've seen. This one is in the definite top five of all time.
But mastering this show wasn't without its challenges. Since I was new using
the deck, I adjusted the levels more often than I should have. Getting
everything back to normal without hearing all the changes presents a set of
mastering challenges. During the one bad tape turn, I was able to pull the
missing piece from an alternate source recording of this concert. The concert
presented here is entirely correct without any pauses or interruptions. Due
to the age of the tapes, there are many drop outs. I'm able to fix most of
them so you can't even notice; but as luck would have it, the worst dropouts
occurred between songs where it didn't even matter. As I normally do, I use
iZotope RX-Advanced to edit out chair squeaks, coughs, dropouts, and other
obnoxious noises. I use Time Factory to adjust the speed to make sure it's
all pitch correct, and I use Sound Forge as my main editing software.
I chose not to adjust equalization on the recording because it was a conflict
between two mutually exclusive objectives. Joni's voice sometimes booms
around 900Hz - 1.2 Khz, so I'd like to reduce the volume in these areas.
On the other hand, to make Jaco's bass sound crisper, I would need to boost
some frequencies in this same region. I could have done it, then used a
band-wise compressor on Joni's voice, but ultimately I decided against all
of it for a completely different reason. The muddiest part of the mix was
also in this same region. So instead of risking screwing the whole thing
up, I decided to leave the whole thing alone.
Bootlegs can be trouble. This was the first time one of my recordings was
known to be turned into a bootleg record, but it wasn't the last. I'm aware
of about four such instances, but I don't really know how many times it's
happened. Parts of this concert appeared on a bootleg record called
"California" (see included images). In fact, that's where I got the logo
you see in the upper right hand corner.
The original tapes were stolen in 1986 along with 23 other master tapes.
My car was vandalized, my car stereo stolen, and 23 of my master concert
tapes were stolen. This was one of the stolen concerts. Luckily, I had
a backup copy. This came from the backup copy.
Although this recording has circulated in taping circles for many years,
I haven't seen it on any of the torrent sites for quite a while. This is
the first time I've spent time mastering it and releasing it myself.
Having heard the alternate source, and using pieces of it to stitch this
show back together, I can truthfully say this version will be quite an
upgrade in quality.
Enjoy
Weather Report Memorial Concert Series
This has been long overdue, and will still take a while to complete.
I wanted to release all of my Weather Report, Wayne Shorter, and Jaco
Pastorius recordings as part of a "Memorial" to Weather Report and its
members. Some of these recordings were given to friends many years ago, but
most have never had a proper mastering or released. So to most people, I
think these will be completely new recordings. And when you see how many of
them and how good the recording quality and show quality is, then you'll
probably ask: WTF...why haven't these ever been released? Answer is
simple: time. I knew releasing this many previously unreleased recordings
was going to take a lot of time.
Some people may have copies of these one or more generations down from the
master. All of these will be coming to you directly from the master
recordings.
Here's what to expect in the series, and in the order to be released:
Date Artist Venue Recording Show Release status
1980-02-29 Weather Report Perkins Palace, Pasadena California B A- Previously unreleased
1981-06-21 Weather Report Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood California A- A Previously unreleased
1982-06-01 Weather Report Starlight Bowl, San Diago California A A+ Previously unreleased
1982-06-19 Weather Report Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood California B/B+ B+ Previously unreleased
1983-04-15 Weather Report Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City California A/A- A Previously unreleased
1984-06-16 Weather Report Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood California B B+ Previously unreleased
1986-09-27 Weather Update Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, California A / A- A Previously Unreleased
1988-07-08 Zawinul Syndicate Hollywood Palace, Hollywood California B+ B+ Previously unreleased
1990-08/25 Zawinul Syndicate Concord Pavilion, Concord California B B Previously unreleased
1997-08-31 Zawinul Syndicate Yoshi's, Oakland California A+ A Previously unreleased
1998-09-12 Zawinul Syndicate Yoshi's, Oakland California A+ B+ Previously unreleased
1999-09-02 Zawinul Syndicate Yoshi's, Oakland California A+ A- Previously unreleased
2000-05-06 Zawinul Syndicate Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco California A+ A Previously unreleased
1979-09-16 Joni Mitchell Greek Theatre, Los Angeles California B+ A Remastered
1982-01-10 Jaco Pastorius Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles California A- A- Remastered
1982-04-15 Jaco Pastorius Rissmiller Country Club, Reseda California B+ A- Previously unreleased
1983-11-20 Jaco Pastorius Beverly Theatre, Los Angeles, California A TBD Previously unreleased
1984-06-17 Jaco Pastorius Playboy Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood California A Note* Previously unreleased
1997-09-04 Hancock / Shorter Villa Montalvo Mountain Winery, Saratoga California A- A- Re-seed
Note: This is the "rumored" Jaco recording written about in a Jaco biography.
The author writes about a "rumored" recording made at the Playboy Jazz Festival
when Jaco tore the stage apart and his own musicians eventually refused to play
for him. Playboy Jazz promoters eventually turned the stage on Jaco to put an
end to his set. This is the recording referenced in the book. It's
depressing.
-----
Lineage:
AUD> Nakamichi 350
---> Nakamichi Dragon (playback)
---> Korg MR1000 (5.6 Mhz, 1-bit master tape)
---> Down sample to 96Khz, 32-bit using Korg Audiogate
---> iZotope RX-Advanced (noise reduction, spectral editing)
---> HarBal (EQ matching to try to fix some things)
---> Sound Forge (put the concert back together)
---> iZotope RX-Advanced (downsample, dither)
---> CD Architect (CD Audio)
---> EAC
---> FLAC
-----
Sound Samples:
Sample-1 (Free Man In Paris):
http://www.rcollins.org/concerts/mp3/JMitchell-19790916-Sample-1.mp3
Sample-2 (Amelia):
http://www.rcollins.org/concerts/mp3/JMitchell-19790916-Sample-2.mp3
Sample-3 (God Must Be A Boogie Man):
http://www.rcollins.org/concerts/mp3/JMitchell-19790916-Sample-3.mp3
-----
Song List:
Disc-1:
Start End Length Name
------------ ------------ ------------ --------------------------
00:00:00.000 00:03:10.542 00:03:10.542 Big Yellow Taxi
00:03:10.542 00:07:38.704 00:04:28.162 Just Like This Train
00:07:38.704 00:12:02.000 00:04:23.296 In France They Kiss On Main Street
00:12:02.000 00:17:14.527 00:05:12.527 Coyote
00:17:14.527 00:22:04.499 00:04:49.972 Edith and the Kingpin
00:22:04.499 00:25:42.178 00:03:37.678 Free Man In Paris
00:25:42.178 00:32:20.944 00:06:38.766 Goodbye Porkpie Hat
00:32:20.944 00:40:44.512 00:08:23.568 Jaco's Solo
00:40:44.512 00:46:46.461 00:06:01.950 The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines
00:46:46.461 00:53:31.580 00:06:45.119 Amelia
00:53:31.580 00:56:11.886 00:02:40.305 Pat's Solo
00:56:11.886 01:03:55.886 00:07:44.001 Hejira
Disc-2:
Start End Length Name
------------ ------------ ------------ --------------------------
00:00:00.000 00:07:01.895 00:07:01.895 Don's Solo
00:07:01.895 00:12:37.455 00:05:35.560 Dreamland
00:12:37.455 00:17:08.774 00:04:31.320 Black Crow
00:17:08.774 00:23:23.707 00:06:14.933 Furry Sings The Blues
00:23:23.707 00:28:23.779 00:05:00.072 God Must Be A Boogie Man
00:28:23.779 00:31:51.050 00:03:27.271 Raised On Robbery
00:31:51.050 00:32:51.069 00:01:00.020 Band Introductions
00:32:51.069 00:38:56.005 00:06:04.935 Shadows And Light
00:38:56.005 00:43:47.309 00:04:51.304 The Last Time I Saw Richard
00:43:47.309 00:46:14.141 00:02:26.832 Why Do Fools Fall In Love
00:46:14.141 00:51:45.941 00:05:31.801 Woodstock
-----
FFP Fingerprints:
Disc-1:
1.01 Big Yellow Taxi.flac:21b8c059242de7a8d88ac5300999789b
1.02 Just Like This Train.flac:63b8975559642be6e887e14c08e9cb41
1.03 In France They Kiss On Main Street.flac:a586e40fc8112d83b388c91838bebc2e
1.04 Coyote.flac:7684d470ccfa7c240861a4d5e8169f81
1.05 Edith and the Kingpin.flac:55f15f0cc5b44407fa6d9f4fbb4b258a
1.06 Free Man In Paris.flac:cbfb0c63c8f8e5cf70dddbaea0a62469
1.07 Goodbye Porkpie Hat.flac:edd29d3c88cdc1734321ba7b7e1cda43
1.08 Jaco's Solo.flac:2c0e3b237af7b49e4d4c54b2b288a51c
1.09 The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines.flac:e14056ba8b2395cf848228b73295a670
1.10 Amelia.flac:2919a85d2ec865c2264ca1dd8e105053
1.11 Pat's Solo.flac:b34b5292cfb6ff0d21faaf0d293cd39f
1.12 Hejira.flac:2eb4d03e05a5acac11ee73b86baa2600
Disc-2:
2.01 Don's Solo.flac:728bc40bc51d67ba65840ee7be0ec213
2.02 Dreamland.flac:d153f56d0c3b47c084f6859f0448247e
2.03 Black Crow.flac:f7fab17edb8a8e14ac6ffb388b2ac9a3
2.04 Furry Sings The Blues.flac:3b4be530ed94e137520b366a9bc392f1
2.05 God Must Be A Boogie Man.flac:975a25ac103551fd8faca0303bad0e19
2.06 Raised On Robbery.flac:acfc340d9fcd03cdfbc5ff852d39ffb1
2.07 Band Introductions.flac:3b4bf20eaaf532b7560af90370ee0b6a
2.08 Shadows And Light.flac:9ee70074c64b00259bb72aa3521c6b00
2.09 The Last Time I Saw Richard.flac:5a6994a7a3e9992760958cc5715e1e17
2.10 Why Do Fools Fall In Love.flac:01ed68d240d58f711012be0c6ee680be
2.11 Woodstock.flac:203635fd0ddc9664bcba33d7e4bf8526