Joni Mitchell’s bond with jazz is typically framed as a story of human relationships. She often tells it this way herself — recalling the moment in the early 1970s when she heard Tom Scott’s L.A. Express at the Baked Potato. “I was especially drawn to the drummer, John Guerin, and the guitar player, Larry Carlton,” she writes. “We made an album called Court And Spark.”
These remarks come from the liner notes of a new collection with jazz at the center of the picture. Joni’s Jazz will be released on Sep. 5 in 8-LP and 4-CD editions, and available on digital and streaming platforms. Its 61 tracks tell a story across the sprawl of Mitchell’s career, including selections from her studio albums, alternate takes, live performances, and two previously unreleased demos — one of which, a 1980 version of “Be Cool” recorded with just Mitchell and Guerin, is out today as a digital single.
The collection, curated with Mitchell’s extensive input, both deepens and challenges the standard narrative around her jazz affinities. It begins not during the era that she ushered in with Court and Spark — but with “Blue,” the title track of her best-loved work, championed as the quintessential confessional singer-songwriter album. As Michelle Mercer has pointed out — notably in her 2009 book Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period — the album was inspired not only by Mitchell’s peripatetic and romantic experience but also the muted trumpet sound of Miles Davis, and the mood of his landmark Kind of Blue.
Of course, Joni’s Jazz does include selections from the more obvious places, including her love letter Mingus and the 1979 live album Shadows and Light, both of which feature a key collaborative partner, electric bass phenom Jaco Pastorius. Two of her closest friends, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and the late saxophonist Wayne Shorter, surface across several decades: the set includes Mitchell’s contributions to the Grammy-winning Hancock albums Gershwin’s World and River: The Joni Letters, the latter of which won Album of the Year.
In her 2024 book Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell, NPR critic Ann Powers carefully parses Mitchell’s jazz affinities, illuminating both a mutual attraction and an arms-length wariness. She delves into some tumultuous romantic relationships — with Guerin and later with percussionist Don Alias — that anchored the musical connection. And she draws another parallel to Miles Davis, noting that the studio experimentation of his fusion breakthrough Bitches Brew informed the sound of Mitchell inventions like “Paprika Plains” and “The Jungle Line” (both of which naturally appear on Joni’s Jazz).
“The turn Mitchell made didn’t reorient her toward jazz as a sound or a lineage, exactly, but toward jazzmen (almost entirely men, with [Bobbye] Hall, who wouldn’t have called herself a jazz musician anyway, a rare exception),” Powers writes. “She needed to change the dynamics within her creative process and become a true collaborator, not dictating her fellow players’ moves but trusting their skills and instincts as she led more instinctively.”
Joni’s Jazz follows that thread, connecting otherwise disparate moments in the Joni timeline: “Harry’s House/Centerpiece,” with its swinging interlude; fond covers of jazz tunes like “Twisted,” by Annie Ross; songs almost unimaginable without the input of Pastorius, like “Black Crow” and “Hejira”; her triumphant late-career return to the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, alongside Brandi Carlile and others, performing the Gershwin standard “Summertime.”
Both the vinyl and CD versions of Joni’s Jazz include liner notes with rare unseen photos and original artwork by Mitchell. Pre-order the set here.
