Earlier this year, Joni Mitchell brought her now-famous Joni Jam shows to the Hollywood Bowl for two sold-out evenings.  A little more than 45 years ago, Mitchell closed out her North American tour with a series of shows some fifteen minutes away from the Bowl at the Greek Theatre; a selection from that concert closes the fourth volume of the Joni Mitchell Archives series of box sets.  The Bowl shows proved another triumph for the artist who's now widely recognized for the innovations that stunned and even divided audiences all those decades ago at the Greek when she dove headfirst into her so-called "jazz period."  The fourth Archives volume, in tandem with the release of The Asylum Albums 1976-1980, gives a new understanding to the years that saw Mitchell follow her muse on the disparate albums Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, and Shadows and Light.

Disc One of the 6CD Archives box set has a clutch of recordings from Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue from November-December 1975, some of which were professionally recorded and newly mixed from multitrack tape and others which are sourced from audience recordings.  "They just kind of kidnapped me," Mitchell jokes to Cameron Crowe in the interview that accompanies Archives Volume 4.  She continues, "It wasn't really my style of music.  I was just a hitchhiker.  I was just along for the ride."  Despite her misgivings, the recordings here (including a take on Hissing of Summer Lawns' "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" with Mick Ronson and T Bone Burnett in the band) reveal an audience receptive to Mitchell's often intimate performances in venues ranging from theatres to arenas.  There's a fascinating tape here of Mitchell teaching "A Case of You" to the band, and another preserving the vibrant public debut of an in-progress "Coyote" at Rolling Thunder's Montreal show on December 4.  The song, written on and inspired by the road, would ultimately open Hejira with a number of lyrical adjustments.  Bob Neuwirth's introductions on some of the Rolling Thunder dates heighten the "you are there" sense that permeates these recordings - and when else, other than on this set, would you get to eavesdrop on Mitchell playing For the Roses' "Woman of Heart and Mind" at Gordon Lightfoot's house?  The rewards here are rich and many.

Mitchell penned songs for Hejira on Rolling Thunder as well as on her subsequent 1976 American tour.  That tour found her backed by the L.A. Express (who also opened the shows): Robben Ford (electric guitar), Victor Feldman (keyboards/percussion), David Luell (woodwinds), Max Bennett (bass), and John Guerin (drums/percussion).  A typical setlist is reconstructed from various dates on the second half of CD 1 and all of CD 2 but primarily from the February 19, 1976 show at Boston's Music Hall.  Collectively, these tracks make an essential companion to Miles of Aisles (and the additional and alternative tracks on Archives Volume 3) documenting Mitchell's 1974 tour with an earlier lineup of the L.A. Express featuring Tom Scott.

She struck a balance between familiar favorites (tour opener "Help Me," "Free Man in Paris," "Big Yellow Taxi," "For Free," "Raised on Robbery"), almost all of Hissing of Summer Lawns (lacking only the title song, "The Boho Dance," and "Sweet Bird"), and brand-new material that hadn't yet appeared on an album ("Hejira," "Coyote," "Furry Sings the Blues," "Talk to Me").  Material from Blue was wholly absent.  Though the swinging, rhythmic accompaniment of the L.A. Express brightly and swingingly enlivened the likes of "Love or Money" and "In France They Kiss on Main Street," the solo moments such as "For Free" (with Joni on piano), "Big Yellow Taxi," and the humorous, "Talk to Me" (reportedly inspired by that perennial "complete unknown," Bob Dylan) resonated, too.

What these live tracks - recorded by Stanley Johnston from PA mixes by Brian Jonathan - lack in audio quality is more than made up for in both historical significance and the quality of the alternately freewheeling and affecting performances by Mitchell and her well-honed band.  "Coyote," finished up since its Rolling Thunder debut, is persuasive and conversational; it seamlessly segues into "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter." The embryonic "Hejira," then titled "Traveling," is captivating and raw in its delivery and its lyrical imagery.  The epic ballad's familiar words aren't all in place yet, and some were subsequently rearranged - a testament to "good enough" never being good enough for Mitchell.

Though not as raw as Blue or as accessible as Court and Spark, Hejira remains in the upper echelon of Mitchell's discography.  Its striking fusion of the artist's folk-inspired singer-songwriter sensibility with a cool jazz aesthetic was both a natural progression and a powerful left turn.  The hooks were less plentiful and the lyrics even more keenly-observed, cutting, and perceptive.  A transitional album between her "pop" and "jazz" eras, she welcomed alumni Tom Scott, Chuck Findley, Victor Feldman, Max Bennett, John Guerin, and Larry Carlton as well as new collaborators including, most notably, bassist Jaco Pastorius whose multi-layered bass shone prominently on the title cut.

The process leading to the November 1976 release of Hejira is illuminated via both demos and session material.  Almost all of the album is heard in demo form (as well as three songs that would end up on Don Juan's Restless Daughter), with Mitchell casting a thrilling spell in her intimate, acoustic performances of the poignant "Furry Sings the Blues" (with its gut-punch final lines), ruminative "Traveling (Hejira)," smoky "Blue Motel Room," and semi-autobiographical "Coyote" (still leading into the title track of Don Juan's) inspired by Mitchell's whirlwind romance with playwright-actor Sam Shepard.  Chaka Khan joins in on "Black Crow," lending the song a different feel and an additional dimension compared to the familiar solo version.  (It rocks hard, too, on a May 1976 Rolling Thunder performance preserved here, with Mick Ronson on lead guitar.)  An early mix of the studio version of "Refuge of the Roads," not heard in demo form, boasts Tom Scott and Chuck Findley's horns not heard on the final LP; they give the track a sound and a sheen closer to Court and Spark.

One album was not enough to contain Mitchell's musical imagination.  A little over a year after the release of Hejira, in December 1977, came the sprawling double album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.  It was by far the most experimental work of her career to that point, and she enlisted John Guerin, Airto Moreira, Larry Carlton, Wayne Shorter, Michel Colombier, Don Alias, Alex Acuna, Manolo Badrena, and Jaco Pastorius to bring their varied styles to the studio.  Don Juan's was anchored by the 16-minute "Paprika Plains," melding improvised piano with a full orchestration by Michael Gibbs.  The Overture was played by six guitars in various tunings with vocal effects, while the percussion jam "The Tenth World" featured Mitchell with Moreira, Alias, Badrena, Acuna, and Pastorius.  The dramatic "Off Night Backstreet," with background vocals by Glenn Frey and JD Souther, was selected for single release - not a bad choice, given its relative lyrical directness, atmospheric soundscape with horns and Pastorius' fiery bass, and those soaring vocals.

Only two session tracks have been culled from the Don Juan's sessions: the 12+-minute mood-shifting solo piano instrumental "Save Magic" which led to "Paprika Plains," and a rough mix of the acoustic-based "Otis and Marlena" with beautiful multitracked vocals.  Mitchell's next album and final studio album for Asylum, 1979's Mingus, is explored in much greater depth.  Mingus took the jazz leanings of Don Juan's a step further.  Joni invited legendary bassist Charles Mingus to collaborate with her, and he penned six compositions (which he titled "Joni I-VI") for the album.  He intended for Mitchell to write lyrics to these melodies, of which she ultimately chose three for the final LP.  She also wrote new lyrics to his standard "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and rounded out the LP with five spoken-word raps and two songs she wholly composed ("God Must Be a Boogie Man" and "The Wolf That Lives in Lindsay").

From June-July 1978 sessions comes two versions of "Sweet Sucker Dance" - one with dreamy, overdubbed vocals and Don Alias' drums only; the other with more fully-realized production and the great Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone - and a spare, languid early alternate of "A Chair in the Sky."  (Of the "Sweet Sucker Dance" take with Mulligan, Mitchell tells Cameron Crowe in the liner notes, "That's better than the one I put on the record.")  The development of Mingus continues with selections from Mitchell's Berkeley, CA concerts of September 2-3, 1978 in which she introduced four of the album's songs to her audience.  She takes "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines" a cappella before introducing Herbie Hancock, whose graceful touch on the acoustic piano enhances both "A Chair in the Sky" and "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat."  Mitchell's vocals on these hypnotic compositions are a wonder to behold as she adapts to the tricky cadences and winding contours of the melodies.

The set then presents five selections from the storied "Alternate Mingus" sessions that stretched into 1979, on which she tried out the material with such venerable players as Mulligan, Eddie Gomez, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Phil Woods, Tony Williams, and Jan Hammer.  Not all of these songs made it to the final album, and while Joni felt she "didn't wanna play meat-and-potatoes jazz," there's a lot to like here including Gomez's malleable bass on the saxophone-led instrumental "Solo for Old Fat Girl's Soul," a spirited "God Must Be a Boogie Man," and a beautiful piano piece, "Sue and the Holy River."

Ultimately, she chose Pastorius and her own band to bring the music to life.  Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Don Alias, Peter Erskine and Emil Richards would all play on the album which wouldn't see release until June 1979, months after Mingus' January death.  It remains a high watermark of Mitchell's innovation and experimentalism, eschewing conventional notions of pop and rock as she met jazz on its own terms.

Mitchell toured Mingus around the United States (and Vancouver, Canada) supported by Pat Metheny on guitar, Lyle Mays on keyboards, Jaco on bass, Michael Brecker on saxophone, Don Alias on drums and percussion, and The Persuasions on guest vocals.  After two periods of rehearsals in July at a Hollywood studio (represented on Archives by fine takes of "Jericho" and "Help Me"), Joni played more than 26 shows in 17 cities between August 3 and September 16.  The September 9 show in Santa Barbara became the basis of Shadows and Light, a live double album that concluded her Asylum Records contract.  Shadows concentrated almost exclusively on her more recent material, with only "Woodstock" culled from her early years and "Free Man in Paris" the only track off Court and Spark.

The live program on Archives from Forest Hills, New York recorded on August 25 (with a few additional tracks from Philly and L.A. dates) paints a fuller picture of the tour setlist, balancing the more exploratory jazz material with the likes of "Big Yellow Taxi," "Raised on Robbery," and "The Last Time I Saw Richard."  ("Raised on Robbery" was featured on the home video releases.)  Mitchell's new band brought their own musical personalities to the material, rejuvenating the earlier songs with vivacity and adding a new, in-the-moment flavor to the fresh compositions which allowed for more improvisation.  (Pastorius, Metheny, and Alias all took extensive solos.)  Joel Bernstein recorded the New York show from the PA mix by Ed Wynne.

Both The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) and Archives Vol. 4 are exemplars of what a reissue program can be - thoughtfully curated; beautifully presented in visuals, text, and sonics; and likely to deepen one's appreciation of the original albums and challenge any preconceived notions.  Credit goes to co-producers Mitchell and Patrick Milligan, liner notes interviewer Cameron Crowe, mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, and designers Lisa Glines and Rachel Gutek.  (None other than Joni's friend Meryl Streep provides a brief appreciation in the Asylum Albums insert.)  The big question now is: in what form will this series continue?  This pair of releases brings Mitchell's first label affiliations (Reprise and Asylum, both part of the Warner music family) to a close.  She would depart Warner and follow David Geffen to his new Geffen label in 1982, remaining there for four albums through 1991.  Subsequently, she recorded for Reprise, Nonesuch, and Hear Music through 2007's Shine - her final studio album to date.  Will the albums series revisit the Geffen LPs, already boxed up in 2003, with a companion Archives volume digging up material from that era? Will the series jump ahead to more Warner-controlled (Reprise and Nonesuch) material?  Or is this the end of the line?  The latter seems least likely, as Mitchell has already used the liner notes to announce the upcoming release of a new archival compilation, Joni's Jazz.  "People ask me the favorite of my albums," she quips.  "It's going to be Joni's Jazz."  Whatever Mitchell, Milligan, and co. offer next, there's no doubt it will have been worth the wait.​

Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 4 is available now:

6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) is available now:

5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.  Please visit our Holiday Gift Guide here!