Joni Mitchell, Saved Magic: A Deep Dive Into Our Interviews and a New Archival Release

It’s been over two decades since Joni Mitchell headlined a concert in Los Angeles. (Because some of you will ask: Her last L.A. show was at the Greek Theatre on May 12, 2000. The Both Sides Now tour with orchestra.)

That long dry period alone makes this weekend’s Joni shows at the Hollywood Bowl a Big Effing Deal. A dear friend offered to buy concert tickets and fly me out this weekend. Yes, and thank you, I said. The wave of euphoria and gratitude from the crowd when Joan took the stage for a song at last summer’s Wayne Shorter memorial concert is something I’d like to experience at every opportunity. Joan’s recovery from her aneurysm has made her into something more than a living legend. Many fans now respond to her as a living goddess.

These October 19th and 20th concerts are billed as Joni Mitchell & the Joni Jam. Fans were expecting another round of the folky Brandi Carlile-led singalongs we saw at Newport Folk Festival in 2022 and The Gorge in 2023.

Then, in an October 7th Los Angeles Times interview, Carlile teased a different kind of show.

The Joniverse went crazy. Like Talmudic scholars parsing textual meanings, we debated possible onstage manifestations of “full spectrum performance of who she really is and what her career has really done.”

Who will turn up onstage at the Bowl? Herbie Hancock will be on tour in Australia this weekend. Damn. Who else? Which songs might Joni perform for the very first time in concert?

Some of us could make a call or two to find out more information, but speculating and being surprised is far more fun.

I’ll have something for you on this weekend’s Hollywood Bowl experience soon.

Boosting excitement around Joni’s possible performances of more obscure material this weekend was the October 4th release of Archives Vol 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980), a deep dive into Joni’s late 70s songwriting and jazz evolution. In the liner notes’ extensive interview with Cameron Crowe, which strikes me as heavily edited, Joni even mentions jazz as her next album release:

Yeah, I’m going to put that on my [upcoming collection] Joni’s Jazz. It’ll feature everything Wayne Shorter played with me, the spectacular contributions to every song he played on. I mean, just beautiful. People ask me my favorite of my albums, it’s going to be Joni’s Jazz [laughs].

This 4-LP archival release presents Joni as a seeker and experimenter, an artist in the midst of evolution. What we get here are not just some demos behind the final releases. We hear a process of discovery. For example, a 12-minute improvised solo piano track that would later become “Paprika Plains.” Engineer Henry Lewy put this tape away under the label “Save Magic.”

Most compelling for me on Vol 4 is what didn’t work. When I met and spoke with Joni for my Wayne Shorter biography and then for my book about her Blue Period, we discussed her late 70s music at length. Jazz is where we connected and vibed best. But I sometimes listened to Joni talk about phenomenal musicians who didn’t quite work for her music and thought, Come on, how could that amazing grouping have missed the mark?

Archives-Vol. 4 gives us evidence of these trial runs, fits and starts, and stumbles. Its tracks bring new meaning to many of the comments Joni made in our interviews.

For paid subscribers, I’ve prepared a special treat: raw audio excerpts and transcribed text from one of my marathon Joni phone conversations, with relevant Archives-Vol 4 tracks illustrating her remarks. You’ll hear Joni singing Jaco’s basslines. You’ll hear Joni speaking honestly about musicians in slumps and on ego trips. You’ll hear Joni talking truth and beauty about her Mingus recording and on-the-ground reality of her Shadows and Light tour—all with illuminating cuts from the new release.

Expect one or two more of these Joni Vol 4 posts. Using this behind-the-scenes developmental material to exemplify, interpret, and color the world of my interviews is too much fun to resist.

Enjoy!