Jazz Articles about Joni Mitchell

Moon's Up, Night's Up - Taking the Town By Surprise

by Mary Foster Conklin
December 2, 2019

The annual celebratory broadcast for Joni Mitchell included an assortment of her songs by various jazz artists, plus new releases from Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, Norah Jones, saxophonist T.K. Blue, singer/poet Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein), and vibraphone artist Lolly Allen; also more birthday shout outs to Chris Conner, Betty Bryant (going strong at 90), Rene Marie, Gregory Porter, Kitty Margolis, guitarist Russell Malone, pianists Sue Palmer, Anne Sajdera and Patricia Barber, among others. Playlist Yoko ...

Joni Mitchell Turns 75; Remembering Roy Hargrove

by Mary Foster Conklin
December 1, 2018

This post-election broadcast celebrates the new wave of women in the House and Senate -also remembering Roy Hargrove (1969-2018) in the second hour plus a special 75th birthday tribute to Joni Mitchell in the third hour. Playlist Roxy Coss “Nevertheless She Persisted" from The Future Is Female (Posi-Tone) 00:00 Ethel Ennis “If Women Ruled the World" from If Women Ruled the World (Savoy Jazz) 06:25 Jo Stafford “Sugar (That Sugar Baby O' Mine)" from Jo Stafford-Cocktail Hour (Columbia ...

Joni Mitchell's Amelia: A Flight through Love

by Matt Hooke
February 27, 2018

On its surface, it looks plain. In the annals of popular song, there are many love songs dedicated to a particular girl, Van Morrisons' “Gloria," Rod Stewarts' “Maggie May," Eric Claptons' “Layla," but Joni Mitchell's ode to Amelia Earhart is different. The lost aviator is not the target of Michell's affections, but her therapist. Mitchell sees herself reflected in the myth of Earhart. Unlike the songs mentioned above, “Amelia" doesn't beg for someone's love, hope for something new, ...

Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters

by George Kanzler
March 6, 2008

The participation of such former and present Grammy nominees and winners as Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza and Leonard Cohen (reading “The Jungle Line" like a beat poet), as well as the iconic stature of Joni Mitchell herself, may have immeasurably helped in winning this CD the Grammy Album of the Year award. But that doesn't diminish the significance of it being the first jazz album to win the award in forty-three years. For make no ...

Joni Mitchell: Shine

by John Kelman
October 25, 2007

With a remarkable career that includes the near-perfect Asylum triptych of Court and Spark (1974), The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) and Hejira (1976), it's almost beyond reasonable expectation for Joni Mitchell to produce an album that, more than three decades later, lives up to those early classics. Still, while Shine doesn't quite have the magic of those three releases, it's certainly one of her best since.

It's also an album where Mitchell admits, in the ...

Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters

by John Kelman
October 11, 2007

While it might be easy, on the surface, to view pianist Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters as a continuation of Possibilities (Hear, 2005), nothing could be further from the truth. Possibilities was an unapologetically pop record; River is unequivocally jazz--although such broad classifications shouldn't matter. River is, quite simply, a superb disc that takes Joni Mitchell's extant jazz proclivities and gives them an even greater interpretive boost. The majority of River is culled from Mitchell's “classic" songwriting ...

Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now

by David Adler
April 1, 2000

Joni Mitchell's love of jazz has never been a secret, but this program of mostly old standards is a departure for the folk-rock icon. In characteristically creative fashion, Mitchell orders the songs so that they tell the story of a typical romantic relationship, from the first-blush sentiments of “At Last" to the anguish of “Answer Me, My Love," to the zen-like perseverance of her own classic “Both Sides Now." In so doing, she makes a statement that is truly universal, ...