Joni Mitchell‘s Hejira is the last in an astonishingly long run of top-notch studio albums dating back to her debut. Some vestiges of her old style remain here; “Song for Sharon” utilizes the static, pithy vocal harmonies from Ladies of the Canyon‘s “Woodstock,” “Refuge of the Roads” features woodwind touches reminiscent of those in “Barangrill” from For the Roses, and “Coyote” is a fast guitar-strummed number that has precedents as far back as Clouds‘ “Chelsea Morning.” But by and large, this release is the most overtly jazz-oriented of her career up to this point — hip and cool, but never smug or icy.
“Blue Motel Room” in particular is a prototypic slow jazz-club combo number, appropriately smooth, smoky, and languorous.
Tag Archive: Joni Mitchell
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…the legendary singer-songwriter’s Archives series continues with its first themed compilation, appropriately entitled Joni’s Jazz. These 61 selections draw from nearly every core album in the Mitchell discography with just a couple of exceptions (Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon) and reflect the breadth of the artist’s immersion into the jazz idiom in all its many varied forms.
Last year, in her liner notes to Archives Volume 4 (1976-1980), Mitchell teased, “People ask me my favorite of my albums, it’s going to be Joni’s Jazz.” It’s not difficult to see why; many of her greatest songs and performances can be found among these 61 tracks. What’s clear, too, is that Mitchell is keen to disrupt conventional notions of…