Of course Joni belongs to the all -time greats. Can t be any doubt of that regardless of of one likes her or not. A true original and genius
You know you get those artists that you think you should really like? So you try. You listen. You really want to love the music. But you just don’t. Those are my feelings re Joni Mitchell. I don’t hate her music, but I don’t love it either. It’s just….ok. It could very well be to do with her vocal style I think
Very interesting but from my possibly naive perspective you are comparing two different things. Joni Mitchell is a song-writer who employs alternative tuning. Michael Hedges is a musician who explores alternative tuning as his M.O. He is not a song-writer. Very different things. Imo.
I think Joni has Norwegian ancestry on her fathers side. Ive been collecting Norwegian artists for a few years now and one of my favorites is Unni Wilhemsen. One interesting thing about the norwegians is they like to combine their folk with jazz. Their folk harmonies can be quite advanced as were Joni's, which explains why the leap to jazz is not necessarily a great leap. Somewhat similar situation with Bjork. If Joni had been recording today I wonder if her jazz might have come out sounding more like Becca Stevens or Emma Frank or Rosie Frater-Taylor. Ive known Joni haters but I think she just naturally gravitated to different harmonies and they are much more common among scandinavian artists. She's been said to be the "queen of the suspended chord". You either love it or you dont, I guess..
She's right at the top of the greatest musical artists of the latter half of the 20th century. Vocalist? She's not the best, but she's near the top. Her voice always totally enthralls me. Instrumentalist? She's incredible and unique. Songwriting? She might be the greatest ever. Basically, anything she did from the mid-60s to the late-70s is generously sprinkled with a heaping dose of genius. (And nothing after that period is less than good, either.)
For me, Joni Mitchell is way up there with Dylan and Neil Young. Joni has the uncanny ability to write about the ups and downs of her personal relationships in a manner highly artistic and abstract yet direct and relatable. Just like Neil Young's celebrated "left turn" from Harvest to Time Fades Away etc, Joni left turned from the commercial sound of Court And Spark into the world of jazz. Her late 1970s run of Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, and the live Shadows And Light is fantastic, showing that she wasn't afraid to mess with her formula and could hold her own with the best musicians. Joni's work with Jaco Pastorius is especially inspired. Sometimes it sounds like Jaco is strolling around inside Joni's head, just having a look at what's in those corners. It's quite an intimate relationship bordering on telepathy, akin to Neil Young with Stephen Stills, or Jorma Kaukonen with Jack Casady. Here's a clip from Shadows And Light, recorded September 1979 with a jazzbo's dream band of Jaco, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker and Bitches Brew drummer Don Alias.
I happen to going through some vinyls as I opened the forums and just considering putting Miles of Aisles in the charity shop pile. Clearly she's a talented artist, but I'm not a fan of her vocal performance, and her songs just don't connect for me.
She is the epitome of class, and talent in songwriting and performing. What more can one say? Good choice of clip by thread starter, BTW. She always had great musicians working with her.
Along with Dylan, Joni Mitchell has written the best lyrics of all the singer songwriters. Jackson Browne is also good in that regard. But, JM's music can sometimes blur into a mush and is not what draws me to her, especially how the production on her records became so synthesized. I was never a fan of that Roland synth guitar she used for alternate tunings. I mean, come on, just carry six guitars. But during her first decade, 1968-1977 (with the sweet spot around 1970-1972), she was at the top of her game.
Exactly. And that was the point of the post where I discussed. It was putting Joni's work in alternate tunings against some different (and more advanced) ways to approach the alternate tuning game. Remember, I highly value Joni as a songwriter and artist. But often, the naive will sometimes cite her alternate tuning work as if that in and of itself is a great leap forward. IN that particular section of composing, she did some interesting things but really wasn't at the higher level. It just worked, in part because her ambition and the quality of her songwriting skills around the tuning stuff was so strong. She could have actually pulled more out of the alternate tuning game, but to my ears she didn't really get much past being a kind of strummer. I still liked it.
As for the ego and acerbic tongue, if she wasn't just irrationally confident and self-possessed, utterly convinced that she knew what was right as far as her own and other's work goes, she never would've gotten out of SK, or at least no further than Toronto. And she's usually right, Saskatoon (as much as it pains me to say so) quite often is a racist little town (although not as much as it used to be) and Bob is utterly inauthentic (but once you accept that, he's still great). Appearing in blackface on one of her own album covers was beyond the pale, no pun intended. Both the odd tunings and the strength of her own inner world can be traced back to that bout of polio.
Joni Mitchell is a core artist for me and one of my all time favorites, and has been since 1974. She has always been highly regarded; but reading the press the last few years you would think she is only lately being given her due, and that is false. As early as 1976, an entry for a Rock Encyclopedia book said "only Dylan among contemporary songwriters is as important as she". She is one of the very best at what she does, but there are countless others who also have created vital music. Why have to list them in order? Still, it is interesting reading everyone's thoughts on this thread.
I agree with a lot of that except her assessments of other's work. Being so venemous toward a lot of artists as she has been in her life-I don't get how that has served her art and work at all.
She'd do well to keep it to herself, but I think it fits that she feels that way - that her way is the right way.
Well, I suppose I need to weigh in as <-- Annie Ross, my avatar, was Joni's childhood idol. I think Joni is pretty good.
definitely right up there with Stevie Wonder that said, i'd have her anywhere MY BEST TO YOU ~ JONI MITCHELL ~ HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 TO YOU ALL
Funny enough I wouldn't place Joni in my personal top 20 artists right now, but the DCC Gold Court and Spark is among my top five Albums right now. Seems contradictory but this is based purely on quality, skill and sound of the album which I currently value more than my taste. Thus I play the album frequently and learned to appreciate it. I think my quarrel is with confessional singer/songwriter thing per se and there is something odd about her voice which I would describe as fanciful
Here in this thread I miss Parachute Woman... She has great music taste, she's a big fan of Joni Mitchell and her contributions always were heartfelt and insightful. Her Joni Mitchell album by album thread is a forum treasure
