Joni Mitchell

One of the most iconic figures of the singer-songwriter boom of the 1970s, Canadian Joni Mitchell - born Joan Robertson in Fort Macleod, Alberta, on November 7, 1943 - came to symbolise a strong voice for women while clambering between the barriers of folk, jazz, pop and rock. After leaving art school, she busked on the streets of Toronto and played in night clubs before moving to New York and making her mark on the local folk scene with songs like "Urge for Going", "Both Sides Now" and "Woodstock". Tom Rush and Judy Collins were among the first of many artists who covered her songs and her popularity grew dramatically with the release of her David Crosby-produced 1969 album Clouds; a Grammy Award winner with a striking cover that also displayed her talents as a painter. Subsequent album Ladies of the Canyon saw her move from folk into rock territory and included both "Woodstock" - her account of the famous rock festival - and her biggest hit, the environmental anthem, "Big Yellow Taxi". Mitchell's 1971 album Blue reached new emotional heights with evocative tracks like "Carey" and "River" before embracing jazz with Court & Spark in 1974, including the hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris". She continued to explore jazz into the 1980s, collaborating with jazz legend Jaco Pastorius on Hejira in 1976 and later experimented with modern technology and world music collaborations with many other artists. In 2002 she re-interpreted some of her old material with orchestrated arrangements on the Travelogue album and in 2007 released Shine, her first new studio album for nine years. Later that year, her good friend and fellow musician Herbie Hancock released River: The Joni Letter - a tribute album to Mitchell and her music featuring guest appearances from Norah Jones, Leonard Cohen and Tina Turner. The album won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 2008. In 2015 media speculation was rife when Mitchell was taken to hospital, reportedly in a comatose state. Sources confirmed that she had suffered a brain aneurysm but she underwent physiotherapy and regained her strength, making her first public appearance since her hospitalisation in 2016 at the Chick Corea concert in Los Angeles. Honored by the Kennedy Center in 2021, she released four volumes of the Joni Mitchell Archives series until 2024. Other collections surfaced such as Joni's Jazz in 2025.

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