Joni’s Jazz an Essential Treasure

From the moment she began creating music, jazz has been an important component in the work of Joni Mitchell.

And while her acclaimed JM Archives have undoubtedly showcased the evolution of Joni’s evolution as a musician with jazz serving as the wind beneath her wings, this brand new box set explores the full scope of the genre’s influence on her art.

Spanning 61 tracks, Joni’s Jazz includes studio recordings, live performances, rare alternate takes and previously unreleased demos, and material drawn from multiple decades and record labels. And while the majority of this material can be found elsewhere, the story that exists within this tracklist — personally curated by Mitchell herself — reflects upon the illuminating conversation her folk ways enjoyed with jazz’s improvisational nature to craft a sound that’s undeniably Joni.

The earliest track on four discs (or eight LPs) comes from 1968 with “Marcie” from her understated debut LP Song To A Seagull, which has been reinterpreted over the years by such esteemed jazz artists as Brad Mehldau and Noah Preminger. Bookending the set, chronologically speaking, comes from her triumphant appearance at the 2023 Newport Folk Festival via a measured and mesmerizing rendition of George Gershwin’s “Summertime.”

What really makes Joni’s Jazz so special, however, is having in one place the majority of her collaborations with such jazz masterminds as Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Charles Mingus and Herbie Hancock, whose Grammy-winning 2007 tribute to Mitchell, River: The Joni Letters, is featured via “The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms),” featuring the Grande Dame herself on lead vocals.

In the liner notes to Joni’s Jazz, Hancock wrote, “I thought she might have the quote-unquote limitations of rock ’n’ roll and folk. But she wasn’t like that. Joni is as cutting-edge as anybody. When I really began to pay attention to her music, I saw that she was already designing music that was not your typical rock.”

What’s more is that in addition to essential selections from such Asylum albums as The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and Mingus, Joni’s Jazz is also peppered with material from her Geffen, Reprise and Universal eras as well. There’s “You Dream Flat Tires” featuring Lionel Richie on co-lead vocals from 1982’s Wild Things Run Fast, “Sex Kills” from 1994’s Turbulent Indigo and the title track to her last studio album of original material Shine from 2007. There’s also a 2008 collaboration between Joni and Clint Eastwood’s jazzbo son Kyle on a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man.”

As for rarities, the only true discoveries on Joni’s Jazz are a pair of demos, including a 1980 demo of the Wild Things Run Fast track “Be Cool,” and an early version of “Two Grey Rooms,” which would close out her 1991 Reprise debut Night Ride Home.

 

AUDIO: Joni Mitchell “Be Cool (Demo)”

 

AUDIO: Joni Mitchell “Two Grey Rooms (Demo)”

But here’s the thing: Joni’s Jazz is essentially a mixtape that travels across the span of her 56 year career, painted like a beautiful landscape portrait that she dedicates to Wayne Shorter, who passed away in 2023.

“It was a joy to play with him,” she writes. “He will be missed, but he will remain alive for me in this music.”

From the experimental nature of “The Jungle Line” to the lush, symphonic swells of “Both Sides Now,” Joni’s Jazz is arguably the best career overview in the Mitchell catalog. Let It ride.

 

Joni’s Jazz CD Tracklist

 

CD One

“Blue”

“Trouble Man” – Kyle Eastwood feat. Joni Mitchell

“Moon At The Window” – Demo 2 *

“Be Cool” – Demo 2 *

“Harlem In Havana”

“Cherokee Louise”

“Come In From The Cold”

“In France They Kiss On Main Street”

“Nothing Can Be Done”

“Sex Kills”

“Edith And The Kingpin”

“Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire”

“The Jungle Line”

“Shades Of Scarlett Conquering”

“Yvette In English”

“Marcie”

“A Bird That Whistles”

 

CD Two

“Love”

“Comes Love”

“The Man I Love” – Herbie Hancock feat. Joni Mitchell

“At Last”

“You’re My Thrill”

“Sometimes I’m Happy”

“Stay In Touch”

“The Crazy Cries Of Love”

“Face Lift”

“Sweet Sucker Dance” – Early Alternate Version

“You Dream Flat Tires”

“Answer Me, My Love”

“Love Puts On A New Face”

“Both Sides Now”

 

CD Three

“Harry’s House/Centerpiece”

“Sunny Sunday”

“Hana”

“Last Chance Lost”

“Smokin’ (Empty, Try Another)”

“Hejira” – Live at The Santa Barbara County Bowl (10/9/79)

“Refuge Of The Roads”

“Paprika Plains”

“Blue Motel Room”

“Black Crow”

“Off Night Backstreet”

“Just Like This Train”

“No Apologies”

“Not To Blame”

“The Magdalene Laundries”

 

CD Four

“The Sire Of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)”

“God Must Be A Boogie Man”

“A Chair In The Sky”

“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” – Live at The Santa Barbara County Bowl (10/9/79)

“The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)” – Herbie Hancock feat. Joni Mitchell

“Shine”

“If I Had A Heart”

“Impossible Dreamer”

“One Week Last Summer”

“Summertime” – Live at Newport Folk Festival (7/22/23)

“Stormy Weather”

“Two Grey Rooms” – Demo 5

“The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines”

“Twisted”

“If”

* Previously Unreleased