Sunday Uplift - Joni Mitchell's Ballet

I have a long-standing tradition of intellectual uplift on Sundays. In my thirties I used to pedal down to a local bakery, grab some strong coffee and a sweet roll, buy a NYTimes, and sit in the morning sun, enjoying the lot. In my forties, the coffee was still strong but came from my own pot; the newspaper was delivered to my door, and it became my tradition to listen to Billie Holliday or Jean Pierre Rampal or Jean Michel Jarre or any other jazz that fit the feel of my Sunday Morning Uplift tradition. Late in my forties, I got hooked on watching the CBS Sunday Morning program, and my early fifties were devoted to the marvelous music of the 30s, 40s, and 50s - Eddy Duchin, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, The Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers, Stan Getz and Miles Davis, and of course Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Now that I'm in my mid-fifties, I have let my lofty traditional slip a bit, but the idea of an intellectually uplifting Sunday still has tremendous lure for me. And so I offer you the first in an ongoing series of Sunday morning treats engineered to give your spirit wings and loft enough to let you glide neatly through Monday and into Tuesday before the drag of the workweek brings you back to ground.

Joni Mitchell collaborated with Jean Grand-Maître, Alberta Ballet’s Artistic Director to create a ballet titled "The Fiddle and the Drum," centered around some of her most unusual and exquisite works. Though far from her most popular music, these are some of my favourites.  The ballet is ramping up for its second season in Feb.09, with some new songs added, too!