After more than a decade of de facto exile from the mainstream,
Joni Mitchell has regained much of her media profile, if not her
commercial impact, thanks to deserved if belated accolades from
critics and music business peers. Recent Grammy Awards and a special
Billboard citation epitomize the ironies of Mitchell's '80s obscurity:
Because she reached her highest profile with the broad success in
1974 of Court and Spark, which remains Mitchell's lushest, most
accessible album, the Canadian musician and painter has found herself
comparatively ignored in later years simply because her work ventured
into more eclectic amalgams of her already diverse influences. Yet
in her forays into world music, jazz, and pop collage, Mitchell
has remained a prescient and influential artist.
This 1998 concert special sheds welcome light on the work from that
post-Spark quarter century, its 22 songs dominated by the confessional
works that have remained Mitchell's strong suit. Early favorites
like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Just Like This Train" retain their charm,
but it's Mitchell's more mature pieces such as "Amelia" (from Hejira)
and "Sex Kills" (from Turbulent Indigo) that convey the depth and
acuity of her work. A superb band--including Brian Blade, Mark Isham,
Larry Klein, and Greg Leisz--provides a sinewy, sympathetic framework
well-suited to the palette of jazz, folk, and pop colors that Mitchell
daubs on her songs. Adding further intimacy to the performance is
a circular stage design, a small audience, and a welcome lack of
"big" production effects; instead, Mitchell indulges her second
career as a painter through a pre-show stroll around a gallery of
her visual works.
Mitchell's frail health in the late '90s, as well as a lifetime
of cigarettes, has taken a toll on her voice, which has lost much
of its upper register. Yet there's also an added richness to her
lower range befitting this sharp-eyed survivor's art. Old fans will
also recognize the flurries of girlish laughter in between-songs
patter, while savoring how Mitchell's powers as a writer and player
(especially on a new, striking electric guitar) have matured as
well.
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