MITCHELL, JONI - BLUE

Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. She gained recognition in the 1960s folk music scene for her personal lyrics and distinctive compositions, which later incorporated elements from various genres including pop, jazz, and rock. Over her career, she has received multiple awards, including eleven Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Publications such as Rolling Stone and AllMusic have noted her significance in popular music and songwriting. Mitchell began performing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon and western Canada before moving to Toronto and later the United States, where she began touring in 1965. Several of her early songs, including "Urge for Going," "Chelsea Morning," "Both Sides, Now," and "The Circle Game," were recorded by other artists. She signed with Reprise Records and released her debut album, "Song to a Seagull," in 1968. After settling in Southern California, she released popular songs such as "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock" in 1970. Her 1971 album "Blue" has been widely regarded as a significant work in popular music, appearing in various lists of greatest albums, including Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and rankings by The New York Times and NPR. In 1974, Mitchell released "Court and Spark," which featured the singles "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris" and became her best-selling album. Around this time, her vocal range shifted from mezzo-soprano to contralto. Her musical style evolved to include more complex harmonies and rhythms, blending jazz with rock, R\&B, classical, and world music influences. From the mid-1970s, she collaborated with prominent jazz musicians such as Jaco Pastorius, Tom Scott, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Charles Mingus. Later in her career, she explored pop and electronic music and engaged in political activism. In 2002, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Mitchell was involved in producing most of her albums and created many of her album covers. She has described herself as a painter as well as a musician. After criticizing aspects of the music industry, she stopped touring and released her final album of original material in 2007. She continued to give occasional interviews and made public appearances related to various causes. Following a brain aneurysm in 2015, she underwent an extended period of recovery and therapy. During this time, several retrospective collections were released, including the "Joni Mitchell Archives," which features unreleased material from her career. She resumed public appearances in 2021, accepting awards such as a Kennedy Center Honor, and returned to live performance in 2022 with an unannounced show at the Newport Folk Festival. Since then, she has performed at multiple events, including headlining shows in 2023 and 2024. Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Mitchell Studio albums Clouds (1969) Ladies of the Canyon (1970) Blue (1971) For the Roses (1972) Court and Spark (1974) The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) Hejira (1976) Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977) Mingus (1979) Wild Things Run Fast (1982) Dog Eat Dog (1985) Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm (1988) Night Ride Home (1991) Turbulent Indigo (1994) Taming the Tiger (1998) Both Sides Now (2000) Travelogue (2002) Shine (2007) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.