What is jazz?  The question has been debated often, but now we know how Joni Mitchell might answer.  On September 5, the legendary singer-songwriter's Archives series continues with its first themed compilation, appropriately entitled Joni's Jazz.  These 61 selections - available on 4 CDs or 8 LPs - 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 describing her work.  Few would call her 1968 debut album Song to a Seagull a "jazz" album, but she's included "Marcie" here.  Other early songs surveyed here include "Both Sides Now" (likely in its 2000 re-recording arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza), "Blue" from the 1971 masterwork of the same name, and the devastating "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" from 1972's For the Roses.  As of Court and Spark a couple of years later, the jazz influences always present in Mitchell's work came to the fore.  "Just Like This Train" and the closing cover of Annie Ross and Wardell Gray's "Twisted" both represent Court and Spark.  The fourth Archives collection dug into her so-called "jazz period" which followed the pop-rock-jazz fusion of Court and Spark, encompassing Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, and the live Shadows and Light.  Those albums - which found Joni collaborating with the illustrious likes of Jaco Pastorius, Airto Moreira, Larry Carlton, Wayne Shorter, Michel Colombier, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Emil Richards, John Guerin, and other notables - are at the heart and foundation of Joni's Jazz.

The set also affords the opportunity to revisit material from Mitchell's oft-overlooked Geffen Records period in which she largely embraced contemporary production techniques; those albums (Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, Night Ride Home) haven't yet been addressed in a full Archives volume but Joni's Jazz presents many of their songs in this new context.  The artist came full circle with her return to Reprise Records with Turbulent Indigo in 1994, and each of her albums through 2007's Shine (her final studio album to date, originally released via Hear Music) is sampled here.  That includes Both Sides Now, a set of (mostly) covers in a lush orchestral style.  The standards "Comes Love," "You're My Thrill," "At Last," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Answer Me, My Love," "Love Puts on a New Face," and "Stormy Weather" are all included on Joni's Jazz.

A handful of collaborative tracks from other artists' LPs are featured, such as Kyle Eastwood's cover of Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man," Herbie Hancock's rendition of the Gershwins' "The Man I Love," and Mitchell's own "The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)" from Hancock's Grammy Award-winning River: The Joni Letters.  The most recent cut on Joni's Jazz is the live take on the Gershwins and DuBose Heyward's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, as recorded during the Joni Jam at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival.  Two previously unreleased 1980 demos premiere here: "Moon at the Window" and "Be Cool."  Both songs first appeared on Wild Things Run Fast in 1982.

Joni's Jazz is due from Rhino on September 5 in CD, LP, and digital formats.  The CD version is housed in a book-style format which appears close to the format of the 2014 box set Love Has Many Faces. The LPs are housed in a slipcase.  Both versions share the same 2022 cover photo of Mitchell, Hancock, and the late Wayne Shorter, to whom this set is dedicated.  "It was a joy to play with him," Joni writes. "He will be missed, but he will remain alive for me in this music."  You'll find a track listing and pre-order links below. Orders placed directly via JoniMitchell.com will come with an exclusive art print.  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Joni Mitchell, Joni's Jazz (Rhino, 2025)

4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
8LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1

1. Blue
2. Trouble Man (feat. Joni Mitchell) - Kyle Eastwood
3. Moon at the Window (Demo 2)
4. Be Cool (Demo 2)
5. Harlem in Havana
6. Cherokee Louise
7. Come in From the Cold
8. In France They Kiss on Main Street
9. Nothing Can Be Done
10. Sex Kills
11. Edith And the Kingpin
12. Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
13. The Jungle Line
14. Shades Of Scarlett Conquering
15. Yvette in English
16. Marcie
17. A Bird That Whistles

CD 2

1. Love
2. Comes Love
3. The Man I Love (feat. Joni Mitchell) - Herbie Hancock
4. At Last
5. You're My Thrill
6. Sometimes I'm Happy
7. Stay in Touch
8. The Crazy Cries of Love
9. Face Lift
10. Sweet Sucker Dance (Early Alternate Version)
11. You Dream Flat Tires
12. Answer Me, My Love
13. Love Puts on a New Face
14. Both Sides Now

CD 3

1. Harry's House/Centerpiece
2. Sunny Sunday
3. Hana
4. Last Chance Lost
5. Smokin' (Empty, Try Another)
6. Hejira (Live at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, September 9, 1979)
7. Refuge of the Roads (Travelogue Version)
8. Paprika Plains
9. Blue Motel Room
10. Black Crow
11. Off Night Backstreet
12. Just Like This Train
13. No Apologies
14. Not to Blame
15. The Magdalene Laundries

CD 4

1. The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)
2. God Must Be a Boogie Man
3. A Chair in the Sky
4. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Live at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, September 9, 1979)
5. The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms) [feat. Joni Mitchell] - Herbie Hancock
6. Shine
7. If I Had a Heart
8. Impossible Dreamer
9. One Week Last Summer
10. Summertime (Live at the Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI, 7/24/2022)
11. Stormy Weather
12. Two Grey Rooms (Demo)
13. The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines
14. Twisted
15. If

CD 1, Track 1 from Blue, Reprise MS 2038, 1971
CD 1, Track 2 from From There to Here, Columbia CK 68013, 1998
CD 1, Tracks 3-4 previously unreleased
CD 1, Track 5, CD 2, Tracks 7-9, 13 & CD 3, Track 13 from Taming the Tiger, Reprise 9 46451, 1998
CD 1, Tracks 6, 7 & 9 from Night Ride Home, Geffen GEFD-23402, 1991
CD 1, Tracks 8, 11, 13-14 & CD 3, Track 1 from The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Asylum 7E-1051, 1975
CD 1, Tracks 10 & 15, CD 3, Tracks 2, 4 & 14-15 & CD 4, Track 1 from Turbulent Indigo, Reprise 9 45786, 1994
CD 1, Track 12 from For the Roses, Asylum SD 5057, 1972
CD 1, Track 16 from Song to a Seagull, Reprise RS 6293, 1968
CD 1, Track 17 from Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, Geffen GHS-24172, 1988
CD 2, Tracks 1 & 11 from Wild Things Run Fast, Geffen GHS-2019, 1982
CD 2, Tracks 2, 4-6, 12, 14 & CD 4, Track 11 from Both Sides Now, Reprise 47620-2, 2000
CD 2, Track 3 from Gershwin's World, Verve 55797-2, 1998
CD 2, Track 10 from Joni Mitchell Archives Volume 4, Rhino R2 726672, 2024
CD 3, Track 3 & CD 4, Tracks 6-7, 9, 15 from Shine, Hear Music HMCD-30457, 2007
CD 3, Track 5 & CD 4, Track 8 from Dog Eat Dog, Geffen GHS-24074, 1985
CD 3, Track 6 & CD 4, Track 4 from Shadows and Light, Asylum BB-704, 1980
CD 3, Track 7 from Travelogue, Nonesuch 79817-2, 2002
CD 3, Track 9-10 from Hejira, Asylum 7E 1087, 1976
CD 3, Tracks 8, 11 from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Asylum BB-701, 1977
CD 3, Track 12 & CD 4, Track 14 from Court and Spark, Asylum 7E 1001, 1974
CD 4, Tracks 2, 3, 13 from Mingus, Asylum 5E 505, 1979
CD 4, Track 5 from River: The Joni Letters, Verve B0009791-02, 2007
CD 4, Track 10 from At Newport, Rhino R2 725115, 2023
CD 4, Track 12 from The Complete Geffen Recordings, Geffen B0000819-02, 2003