Joni Mitchell – Joni’s Jazz

What does it sound like?:

Joni Mitchell has been having a conversation with Jazz her whole career. Her songwriting style has always been unique; self-relevatory lyrics on a volatile bed of unusual chord changes. Childhood polio weakened her left hand forcing her to be creative in finding fret placings for her fingers. Her solutions were chords most other singer songwriters never used but Jazz musicians recognised. In an interview with New York Magazine in 2005, she described her influences: romantic classical music, folksy impressionists, Leonard Cohen until she realised he took a lot of lines from Camus and Lorca, Bob Dylan, of course, and innovators such as Marie Curie. However, in the music world, it was Charlie Parker’s trailblazing approach to melody, rhythm and harmony that fired her up.

Her “Jazz period” is generally regarded as being between 1974 and 1979 for the albums Court & Spark through to Mingus, when she recruited bone fide Jazz musicians to her band and adjusted her writing to suit them, including luminaries such as Jaco Pastorius, Airto Moreira, Larry Carlton, Michel Colombier, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Emil Richards, and John Guerin. Most of this period is covered by Archives Volume Four, which, in turn, provides a chunk of tracks for Joni Jazz, eighteen out of sixty-one, but her post imperial phase yet to be Archived, contributes over half. 1994’s Turbulent Indigo, an album featuring Wayne Shorter, and 2000’s Both Sides Now, essentially Joni covering Jazz classics backed by a full orchestra, contribute seven tracks each. The earliest selection is Marcie from her 1968 debut, Song To A Seagull, and the most recent, Summertime, from 2023’s At Newport. Only demos of Moon At The Window and Be Cool, recorded in 1980, later finished for Wild Things Run Fast, are previously unreleased. A handful of collaborative tracks from other artists’ LPs are featured, such as Kyle Eastwood’s cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man,” Herbie Hancock’s rendition of the Gershwins’ “The Man I Love,” and Mitchell’s own “The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)” from Hancock’s Grammy Award-winning River: The Joni Letters. 

Joni has personally made all the selections and sequenced them non-chronologically, creating her own playlist. It flows beautifully. There is no questioning the quality of these songs, which is maintained well after the seventies, demonstrating that she has made fabulous music all her life. However, she has no pretensions of being a Jazz musician. She is unable to improvise herself but is skilled enough to accompany those that are. She can, however, claim to be capable of composing and arranging in a Jazz style. Most of the melodies here drift along pleasingly, untethered by formal song structures, gently swelling with emotion, then waning to a state of calm contemplation. This is as true for the early “Folk” songs as the ones from Mingus. The set opens with Blue, a melody that flies free in the latter half. Marcie sits comfortably between a track from Turbulent Indigo and one from Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm, sharing a similar hypnotic, meandering narrative. She is also a great Jazz singer, with exemplary phrasing and a fantastic sense of rhythm, most notable on her covers of other writers. She may not be Ella but she can swing. There is a good reason that the Both Sides Now album won her a Grammy. The demo of Be Cool captures her thoroughly enjoying herself singing scat. The standards Comes Love, You’re My Thrill, At Last, Sometimes I’m Happy, Answer Me, My Love, Love Puts on a New Face, and Stormy Weather are all included here. Her Jazz version of Trouble Man is very fine indeed. Only The Jungle Line seems out of place but it is a track designed to unsettle the most dedicated Joni Mitchell fan.

Joni’s Jazz is available in 4 CD, 8 LP, and digital formats. The CD version is housed in a book-style format and the LPs in a slip case, each with its own individual cover art. Most of the selections have been remastered. Both versions share the same 2022 outer cover photo of Mitchell, Hancock, and the late Wayne Shorter, to whom this set is dedicated.  “It was a joy to play with him,” Joni writes. “He will be missed, but he will remain alive for me in this music.” The booklet is very detailed, documenting everything you need to know about each track and some warm words from Hancock and Shorter. Orders placed directly via JoniMitchell.com come with an exclusive art print. 

The question is who is going to buy the physical product? The dedicated follower will have almost all of the material already, but may be interested in a remaster. If you are new to Joni, you are unlikely to start here, though it wouldn’t be a bad idea. She has put out a themed box before, Love Has Many Faces in 2014, that was also 4CDs in length, an ’emotional rollercoaster’ gathering together a variety of love moods from Blue to Shine. This is much more of a smooth glide through her entire career.

Joni’s Jazz might be a vanity project but it is a gorgeous one, lovingly and carefully curated, casting a light on an aspect of her work that deserves closer attention. As with any Joni collection, the array of her talent is breathtaking. Just listening to her sing for the best part of three hours is an absolute joy. It also augurs well for the Archives series to continue. The Geffen period is ripe with rich pickings.

What does it all *mean*?

It may not be Jazz as we know it but it is Joni’s Jazz.

Goes well with…

Total Joni dedication, a completist’s obsession, impatience for further Archives or simply a curiosity about one of the greatest musical artists of our time.

Release Date:

05/09/2025

Might suit people who like…

Joni Mitchell. She’s unique.

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