You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Court and Spark – Joni Mitchell

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

With her 1974 masterpiece Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell transforms from folk singer into something harder to define.Her piano playing matures. Her songwriting blossoms into one of the richest harmonic and melodic color palettes we've ever heard up to this point. Not to mention her incredible lyricism and melodies. And she brings a new production sensibility from her backing band: a group of jazz musicians called The LA Express.In this episode of You'll Hear It, Jazz pianists Adam Maness and Peter Martin break down Joni Mitchell's greatest artistic achievement (and her greatest commercial success) track-by-track. You'll never hear Court and Spark the same way again-------------------------------Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs:https://openstudiojazz.com/------------------------------Blue: https://youtu.be/ly6ENKGV-S8------------------------------About You'll Hear It:In this popular music series, Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, D'Angelo: Jazz is the foundation of the most GENIUS music in recent history. These seasoned jazz pianists bring their deep musical knowledge to every joyful episode to help you hear the hidden qualities that make music AMAZING. You'll never hear music the same way again.-------------------------------Sign up for the You'll Read It newsletter for little known stories about the artists you love:https://youllhearit.com/newsletter-------------------------------00:00 Court and Spark - Joni Mitchell00:32 New From Open Studio03:37 Joni's Sound Before Court and Spark10:04 Joni Starts Hanging Out With Jazz Musicians11:07 🎧 "Court and Spark" - Alluding To An Epic15:25 Three Songwriters in One, At the Highest Level15:57 🎧 "Help Me" - Joni DELIVERS19:09 🎧 "Free Man In Paris" 22:02 🎧 "Midnite Flite" - Tom Scott and The LA Express23:25 🎧 "People's Parties"25:55 🎧 "The Same Situation"28:05 Joni's Lyrical Prowess31:38 🎧 "Car On A Hill"34:31 🎧 "Down To You" - A Perfect Song39:54 Joni's Vocal Instrument42:17 🎧 "Just Like This Train" - A MASTERCLASS In Lydian Mode45:32 🎧 "Raised on Robbery" - What Genre Is This?!48:09 🎧 "Trouble Child"49:52 🎧 "Twisted" - The Only Cover On the Album53:55 Desert Island Tracks55:42 Best Moments On Court and Spark57:13 How Snobby Is This Album?

I'm Adam Maness And I'm Peter Martin And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast Music Explored Explored Brought today by Open Studio Go to Open Studio Go to Open StudioJazz.com

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I am buzzing today. You are. I am buzzing today. This is, not only is this one of my all-time favorite albums, I think this is one of the greatest albums of all-time. I really think this is peak performance from one of our peak performers, Joni Mitchell's, 174 masterpiece, Court and Spark. To me, this is where I step into Joni fully. I love folk music.

I love... You include people. I love all of that stuff. But to me, this is where I was like, went from interested to obsessed with Joni Mitchell. I listened to the hell out of this CD so much. I think I bought three of these CDs in my lifetime because they kept getting soda and coffee on them

in my pickup trucks over the years when I was a kid. I love it so much. Every song, musically, She goes to another level. But I also think, lyrically, this might be her most slept-on album because there's so many great stories, so many incredible lines in this album.

I'm so geeked that we get to listen to this music today. Isn't it great? I love it as well. Isn't it great, though, when we have an album like this that you say, I bought it at least three times, coffee stains on it.

It's like a book that you put notes in and that you savor, and that if you lose, like, if you give it away to someone, you almost want to because you want to go get another one because you get to kind of discover it again with that fresh copy. I know.

Now we've got Spotify and Apple Music. Isn't that fun? Whatever. I mean, this will be with me for the rest of my life. Yeah. Like I will have a copy, a physical media copy of this

in some form or another for the rest of my life and I will cherish it. And then it's also we should say, I mean, I think this of all, well, it's Joni Mitchell's most best selling record, I believe, of all time.

Yeah, right? And so this is a lot of people's entry point, I think, either at that time or later. And it's always fun when there's a blockbuster album like this for an artist and there's a lot of I think artistic validation of that because that doesn't always happen right

yeah I mean this is very similar I think to Michael Jackson's Thriller or Herbie Hancock's Headhunters both of those albums were their best selling albums of all time Miles Davis kind of blue perhaps and they're also some of their greatest artistic achievements and I would put this I would put Gordon Spark in that category of yes it's her bestselling album it's her most commercially successful album and it's one of, if not,

I think the most artistic artistically successful albums. The achievement of this is unbelievable. And the story behind it is really cool. We'll get to it a second. I just want to do a little bit of catching up with Joni. Yes, let's do it.

So Joni discovered in 1967, she gets signed to an album and really it's all through kind of David Crosby who she was sort of dating and then they produced her first album together called Songs to a Siegel in 1968. She was also, she's already writing songs for other people at this point too, but this is sort of her introduction as an artist to the world.

This cactus tree. There's a man who's been out sailing in a decade for the dreams, and he takes her to a schooner, and he treats her like a queen barren beats from California with her amber stones and green. He has called her from the harbor. He has kissed her with his freedom. He has heard her off to starboard

in the breaking and the breathing of the water we... Even in that introduction on her first album, you can hear... She's already separating herself from folk singers, her contemporaries. I mean, the melodic and what you could hear other examples from that album of harmonic sophistication that she's already bringing at a very young age here,

at her first efforts, is already pretty staggering. Yeah, and that ability to, it's such a big part I think of her very distinctive voice and her artistry, that ability to make these melodic leaps that inform the harmony in such interesting and unusual ways, you know. She's the greatest. And when we talk about distinctive,

I think we're going to see this as we lead up and definitely accord and spark, and everything that she's done up until now, is, you know, when we talk about Distinctive, you know, Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gay, all these great singers, Stevie Wonder, that have this distinctive voice.

They're copied a lot. And, well, I would say Joni Mitchell has been super influential on songwriters and singers. She's not actually copied successfully very much. How could you? Exactly. That's the distinctive of this.

It's like, trying to copy Thelonious Monk. Everybody's like, oh, yeah, you're doing your Johnny Mitchell thing. Yeah, yeah. It's so distinct. But very influential. Very influential. And by the way, also, you know, we're not, you and I are musicians, we're piano players, which means we love the math of music.

We don't talk a lot about lyrics on this show. I don't know if you've noticed, but she is a lyrical gangster. That is ridiculous lyrical output. That is unbelievable imagery. And this is like the theme of Joni's career is like, yes, she's a musician, she's an artist, she's a performer. She's a complete artist. She's a painter.

She's a poet. She's a musician. She's an incredible performer. She's a producer. She does every, like her art. She remixed her work. own album. This one. The craft of art

is what she does. Very, very well. At a very high level. In multiple disciplines. She plays several instruments. She's one of the great vocalists of her generation. She's one of the great songwriters. She's one of the great poets. Unbelievable. Her second out, she now go on to make Peter an album of the year, an album a year,

sorry, for the next four years. So she does five albums in five years before we get to Court and Spark. So we got... 69, 70, 71, 72. 69, her second album. Oh, how about this? Rose and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air

and feather canyons everywhere I've looked at clouds that way. Yeah, it's just both sides now from clouds, Peter. That's her sophomore effort So he goes on to make Ladies at the Canyon the very next year, 1970. This, of course, brings this to our attention. They paid paradise, put up a parking lot

with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paid... Big yellow taxi from Ladies in the Canyon. That became an important sample. A very important sample. The very next year she makes an album that we've covered here on the show last year, Blue, in 1971.

One of my favorite tracks from Joni, California. Sitting in a park in Paris, friends, reading the news and it sure looks bad. They won't give peace a chance. There was just a dream some of us had. Still a lot of lines to see. But I wouldn't want to stay here. It's too old and cold and settled in its way. easier

all the California We talked about it Maybe the best use of California in a lyric Yeah, so great Of a melody And I mean, you've already heard it On every example We're going to hear quite a few times

In chord Spark The master of the major seven With like, I mean, the emotional pull of that The greatest major seven composer ever possibly Yeah, I mean she And with the lyrics Yeah Ah, melody

Uh, 172 Ends her five-year five album run With For the Roses This is you turn me on I'm a radio. Notice, too, by the way, everything we've listened to, acoustic guitar heavy, a lot of one to four stuff going on, chord change-wise, very simple. It's like, you know, sophisticated simple.

Yeah. But nothing like what we're about to hear. Right. And I'd say everything has been... Also, in the category of folk, you could put it there. A little sloppy with the genre. Folk rock, yeah, for sure. Not to typecast it, but it's a dark cloud.

great album, but that's going to change. So in 1973, after this album and this run that she goes on, she kind of, she starts to tweak her musical vocabulary. She starts to hang out with some jazz musicians. Not a great idea. I'm just going to say that right here. No, but she

meets Tom Scott and the LA Express, who are in LA, obviously. And she takes a couple years off, and she writes this album, Court and Spark. And there's such a different feeling to this from everything we, I mean, there are hints of

of this kind of stuff in what we just heard in those albums that we just heard but this is like oh my gosh not only that but she's almost 30 by the time she makes

court and spark and she's 24 when she makes her first album she's 30 years old she lives some life live some life you could hear it in her voice her voice is a little more mature

her playing has gotten very mature her piano playing is very very mature on this album and the songwriting blossoms into this

one of the richest harmonic and melodic color palettes that we've ever heard up to this point, along with incredible lyricism, along with the incredible melodies, and a new production sensibility from these jazz musicians. So, Cort and Spark

starts unbelievably with the title track. That's a theme that plays on this album, is that minor seventh interval in those dotted quarter notes. With a sleeping roll and a madman soul, Her voice is sure I'd seen him

Dancing up a river in the dark Her voice is lower, yeah And the voice with piano As opposed to voice in guitar She brings another flavor Such a beautiful Production moment Ah

A hi-hat and the steel guitar Yeah Down there's For passing change When something's strange Happen glory train Passed through him So we breathe the coin

All of a sudden, All of a sudden, this modal interchange thing is happening. She's borrowing from all these different keys. Her harmonics palette has gotten incredibly sophisticated. It seemed like he read my mind. He saw me mistrusting and still acting kind. Sometimes I worry sometimes. But it's not a gimmick, Peter.

It's serving this song. The story of these lyrics, which are insanely rich. All the guilty people they said they've all seen the stain on their daily bread, on their Christian names. I cleared myself, I sacrificed my boo. In these moments, where she just... I'd complete you.

Let's the song speak for itself. Is that Larry Carlton? Lyricalton's all over this album, so I wouldn't be surprised. Chills, buddy, chills. Musically, lyrically, the story of the album has just been told. It's like we just got an incredible introductory chapter to what we're about to hear. And it's got, I mean, even though it's just the introduction, and it's very much like, like if you live,

listen and you like it. How could you listen and I like it? But it draws you in to like what's going to come next. But it also has a little bit of a like preparatory epic flavor to it. Oh, 100%. You know what I mean? To go deep. Yeah.

It's like with the little hints. And I want to throw something out and I never totally thought about it because I've always felt that Joni Mitchell's lyricism, her composition, the way she plays guitar, the way she plays piano, the way she sings, the way she navigates a melody, the way she creates a melody, is so, all that stuff is so well intertwined, right? But I want to just throw this out there and we can explore, you can give me your opinion, but we can also listen as we go to see, like, are her lyrics sort of the top, the king? You know, and then everything else is important, but like it's almost like everything serves the lyric.

Yes. You know, like the harmony. It serves the story. Yes. Sometimes it's very simple. Yes. Sometimes it's so weird and the timing.

And even like when she'll go to a funny number of beats and a bar, it's almost because that's the cadence of the story as she's telling. Because her lyrics are very much like you're telling somebody like the greatest story tale. It's not about rhyming this and rhyming that. It's about taking the listener on a journey, you know? She's doing right now on this album

something that it would take three men in Tin Pan Alley to do. A musician, a lyricist, and an arranger to make something great. Right? An orchestrator. She's all of that right here. And an accountant. You forgot about that.

Yeah. She's, no, but she is, she's playing three major roles that used to be done by different people at the highest level. Yeah. Like that's what's so incredible about it.

Because she sets us up with Cort and Spark, that title track, which feels like something big is going to happen. Right. And you know what she does next? Yes. Fucking delivers. Oh, that.

Now a guitar is driving. Oh. I think I'm falling in love again When I get that crazy feeling I know I'm in trouble again I'm in trouble Because you're a rammer and a gamper

And a sweet talking ladies men Come on And you love your love I'm like you love your love This reminds me of 1974 Like this one of my earliest memories I was four years old I mean not of this record

It sounds like It sounds like L.A. to me. Yes. It sounds. She's one of our greatest L.A. Real writers. Are we writers about L.A.? Yeah.

A Canadian. Yeah. Taking our jobs. Well, who. Every one of the help mees. Help. She falls off of it. And they build.

Instructionally, they build on each other. It's unbelievable. It's a real call for help. And, you know, great artists have that ability to make it sound 70s without it sounding dating. Like, it's totally hopeless. Like, yeah, it's timeless, and it also takes you specifically back to that time, you know. And you want to be there. Again, we're going to hit our flat seven.

The theme, the theme. Now the best moment for me, my apex. Oh, give me feel good. We're sitting there talking Oh, lying in a child. Open up. Open it up. Ooh, the mix on this?

Oh, damn. Fawless. Yeah. Influence there on the BGs. We take that melody for granted now because we've heard it so much. That's such an insane melody. Yeah.

So beautiful. That's unexpected. I also, Peter, just so you know, this song runs directly into the next song, Freeman in Paris, so we're going to let it run directly in. And the two songs after that kind of are one piece as well, which I think is a really cool thing.

I love that. That's probably called. Love this. Larry. It's that, like, it's that great L.A. session playing at the highest. These cats are. We'll talk about L.A. Express in just a minute. They're really, really incredible group of musicians.

It's going to fade, but it's going to feel like we're picking right back up with the next track, Freeman in Paris. Check this out. Same key. same temple too right close you know who this is about right about

David Geffen oh yeah David Geffen right of course in Paris yeah she knows like her range like the nuances of each of the little micro range she's a master of that

and she writes for that it's so good dude you know what a flex it is to write an artistically viable and beautiful song about a record executive. It's so literal, too. Like, we really feel for David Geffen.

Oh, he's so busy. Well, he wasn't a billionaire yet. To his credit. He wasn't quite a bit. She does it to us. She's like, oh, yeah, he's trapped in his wheel. It's a hard lyric to throw in there. On Cafe to Cabaret is a great line.

We don't throw the G-Rord around on this podcast very often. We really don't. Ging? No, genius. She is legit, such a genius. We throw that around every week. We use it sometimes. But she is truly...

We don't throw it around a lot. We usually just say it. Just occasionally. Just once an episode. She is truly a genius, man. Has there been a record from 71 through 75 that we didn't use the G word? A gangster?

No. Okay. She truly is a genius. So Tom Scott and the L.A. Express. So it's Max Bennett, John Green, Larry Carlton, and Tom Scott where this jazz fusion band in L.A., this is what they sound like on their own

from their self-titled 1976. This is Midnight Flight. Hearing an album is one thing, but trying to play this stuff is a whole other thing. But that's exactly what we do and teach at Open Studio. World-class musicians, real instructors, all in one place. Go to OpenStudiojazz.com. That's openstudiojazz.com.

Start your free trial today. Back to the show. Tom Scott involved in some very important records in the seventh Tom Scott's a bad... He's a bad dude. My dad had a ton of Tom Scott albums too, by the way, when I was growing up. Great music. Remember, he would usually wasn't on the cover.

It'd be some, like, mosaic picture or something? Oh, he had some covers. He had some covers. But yeah, I know what you're talking about. Star Skene Hutch, baby. Come on, man. Sing it the vibe, though. That's the L.A. Express. But you can hear the sort of, like, jazz influence that's running through this.

And that was the sound that I'm trying to think what's... They did a TV sound. track, Tom Scott. Oh, the L. Express did. Yeah. Or I know Tom Scott. Like, that's the sound of the 70s. Like, that's how great television bumper music was.

So good, man. It was so good. I'm up until the early 80s. Okay, the next two tracks, People's Parties and the Situation Game are both short, but they definitely bleed into each other. In fact, for years, I just thought this was one song. Man. That's so good.

So, so good. Woo. All the people at this part is. Very pulsed in setting she's doing here, by the way. They've got passports, smiles. Some are friendly, some are cutting, some are watching it from the wings. Summer standing in the center given to get something. It gets attention, and her eye paints running down.

She's got a rose in her teeth and a lamp-shaped crown. Wilton Feld her on bass, agree. And she's crying on someone's knee, saying, laughing and crying and crying, and crying. It's the same release. I told you and I read you I was crazy. Cry for a song beauty. I've already in the corner thinking he's nobody and jacked behind his joker and stone cool grace behind her fan

and me and my frightened silence thinking I don't understand me. You seem to have a broader sensibility. I'm just living on nerves and feelings with a weak and in fact that she holds it for this. and coming to people's parties fumbling depth of unblind I wish I had more sense of you Keeping the sad music bay Throwing the lightness on these things

Laughing it all She could have done a whole other verse chorus of that But she doesn't We're going to switch the pallet a little bit But it's going to feel very seamless Although not on this Yeah We're in three four now

Heather to a ring and telephone You're sexy peat When you said you'll This can This And that harmony there is not Joni goes there occasionally But that's not part of a regular rotation

So it has even more You know I'm going to back it up Listen to this Listen to how the roads comes in here The production Right here That's so

That's buttery And Joe Samples are on a lot of this I don't know Specifically what tracks But She uses on this album And a lot of her albums Those plagal movements

Those movements that come down and forth Instead of fifths, right? So not like a perfect cadence But this plagil, churchy thing that she does In fact, when I was young, I had confused The plagal and the pagan cake, cadence. Exactly. It was very confusing to me.

Exactly, yeah. I love this line right here. Like the church, like a cop. Like a cop. The way she says like a cop. Yeah. to be true. Dare I say like sound time-esque?

Almost, that little move? A little bit. Send me somebody who's strong and somewhat sincere. Man, her lyrical directness. Dude, they go. I think, because, I mean, there's other great, like, kind of folk writers that do that, but because of her harmonic, you know, sophistication at the right time.

But mainly her melodic leaps and stuff. Yeah. It makes it like so she can get away with that directness that's so exciting. You know, it's like a movie maker that just shows you the story exactly as it is, but all the drama is built into it. I know I'm going to get hate for a lot of like Dylan heads. Yeah. But it's like if Bob Dylan had more musical jobs.

Like no, no shade on Bob Dylan. He said it. No, no. He's the greatest lyricist. But Joni Mitchell is up there. Yeah. Like can do what he does and also has this like unbelievable. musical prowess.

That is so... It almost makes me emotional how good she is in this period on this album. The harmonic moves, the melodic moves, but then also the stories she's telling are sometimes very funny,

sometimes very heartbreaking, and she's so... Very human. Also very human. And just like, to me, this is one of those things. It's like when I see a great film or I see a great show,

a great concert, where I'm just like, man, human beings do a lot of shitty things to each other. but sometimes we do this. Sometimes we make this for each other, and that's really, really beautiful. I agree.

And I think that directness with the lyrics, but such lived experience behind them, so the stories are just joyous or heart-wrenching or whatever she's putting across, but that combined with, like, as we said, the harmonic sophistication, but not to the point of like, I actually don't really buy this,

like, oh, she went jazz on this. To me, that's not. out what this is about because a lot of her, I mean, there's nothing like so crazy that she invented harmonically. I think her genius with the harmony, I mean, certainly you compare it to other folk or rock artists, you could say like, oh yeah, she's

using a lot more sophisticated harmony. But this is not like full on jazz or anything like that. It's the combination of everything. It's the combination, but it's also the taste making of when she uses them. It's not, it's always connected with the lyrics and the melody. And the same thing with the melody.

She'll do a lot of like diatonic major stuff, but it's like she knows right. right when to land with that lyric right at that major seventh and like the emotion yeah and then the combination rhythm um well the the four right lyrics rhythm harmony and melody i don't think anybody's better especially during this period i mean there's one person i would put up i put them in the same league stevie wonder yeah as being able to like master all those there's a lot of great writers that can do the three but then you add the lyrics in and how that becomes sort of the taste maker one more element to your formula the fifth element we'd like to say is i love that band great is on this

specifically the sound. Like when that Rhodes comes in, it comes in with a purpose. We're going to call that Jill sample, because I love Joe Sample. We don't know if it is Joe sample, but it's probably Joe sample. But it's like when that comes in and it's like, it puts butter in the dish all the same. And which is really, I think, is more a testament to the,

I mean, obviously great playing. Whoever's doing it, but the mix. Yeah, right? Mix is unbelievable. The placement of it, the core. I mean, buddy, we're in 74. This is the king of the kick term right here. It's literally the greatest.

Like, everything ascended to 74, and it's just been a, and like 74 to AI slop mixes now, right? we're getting now to the point of the album I love AI Slop we're getting to the point of the album where the next two songs might be two of the greatest recordings that Joni ever made and the first one of those two

stick around for the one after this. So everything before this slop, crap. No, everything before this genius but this car on a hill and down to you are I think this is where this run is the apex of the album for me. It's at the right place on the album. This is some of the great session playing.

Oh. Just that love. later? There's a couple of chords on this track that are heartbreaker chords. Yeah. Or melt- have no, maybe heart-melter chords.

No business being so emotion. Yeah, but they are. The placement of them. This little pre-course. He makes friends easy. For judgment, anxiously. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd give my right arm to be able to write something like that. Edit. You heard it? There's that theme again. Oh, yeah. This is actually very stevious. Yeah.

High-level flute playing, by the way. There's the theme. Oh. That's crazy. This is kind of dan-esque there. Very dan-esque. This whole thing has a steely dam. Yeah, it's tinge.

but it's a little more a little more human you said it turn it off mute that out no man it's got a little more I mean it's clean but it's got a little more edge

this line here this this this sweetness in the harmony and the lyric where the chord goes in the lyric to the chord

when there's so much sweetness in the dark going to go to that like minor 11. It's like a minor 11 thing. Unbelievable. Weird 70s segues. I love it.

I'm here for it. Thank you, Joni. This is unbelievable. And that theme of that like that three over four that's throughout almost every song on this album.

It was on Help Me too. There's something that's on Help Me. It's on Court and Spark. It's on Free Man in Paris. And then Peter next up, I don't know. Do you love perfect songs? Because we got one.

Things that you have yourself. Lost or changing Aston stranger You're in person You're a cold person too It's down to a pickup station Craving warmth and beauty

You settle for less than fascination A few drinks later you're not so choosy When the closing lights strip off The shadows on this strange new flesh you found Plotting a night to you like a fake leaf You hurry Jose To the blackness and the blankets

To lay down an impression and you know Apologize Incredible one Old friends See me With this David Crosby on some BVs there

Yeah Transition A little bassoon solo Buddy I forgot on that Bless you Thank you Bless you

My brother Tempo Push pullback Push A little sharp 11 It's so so so good Wouldn't this A multi-platinum record

With all this That's crazy What a time French war I wonder how much of that's Tom Scott. He's listed as woodwinds. Pleasure moves on too early. Trouble leaves too slow.

So sick, dude. It's so good. It's just a great. We haven't even talked about, we've been talking about Joni, the lyricist, the arranger, the composer, guitar, piano. We haven't really talked about the voice.

Oh, my God. Right. Are we just taking that for granted? We are taking it for granted. So we, you know, all those stuff. instrument. Yeah, the instrument itself. This is what I was saying

when we started it, it's like you can hear a clear delineation between the album before this. Let's skip ahead here. She's getting there, right? But compared to what we just heard, it's like it's getting,

there's like a lower, there's a lower resonance that she, especially earlier in her career, didn't have yet. And she's really like come into her own vocally here as well. Yeah, and I've always felt like the way her,

for sure her voice, I mean, as all voices evolve, it was at a pivot point maybe a little bit, but also the way her voice was recorded on this album. And that's always, you know, shout out to Henry, Louis and Ellis Sork and the engineers. We never give the engineers enough. No, they crushed this one. But all these decisions.

High fives all around, guys. Yeah, yeah. And how the decisions are made. I know Joni's always very involved with that process, too. She's very much. She's one of those types of musicians. but I always felt like this was just the quintessential way

to present Joni's voice you know like there's a lot of variety over the years not just as she evolved but the way she was recorded but I always felt like this because like it's so much beauty obviously in her voice is a beautiful voice right but then she has so much control so there's like a purity there

that she can go in and out of that she totally controls this is not unique to her this, but this is, like when you're in that S tier of vocalists, they have an incredible voice and you can control it, and then you've got the, you know, the lyricism and all, and the phrasing.

Yeah. Oh, my God. And then you capture it great, like you said. And then when it's captured great, and you, and I don't know, to me, this kind of voice, the more direct and more simple. I mean, it's not huge either. Like, her voice is big. It's a big voice, but it's not presented in this, like, grandiose way. It's just like just the facts. Well, that's what's so great about it is it feels

like intimate. It feels like having a conversation with some of it's like you know like if you're taking a picture of a beautiful portrait not a whole bunch of but like really natural lighting right like this is a very natural way to record her voice next up is just like this train We're four to two. Can we get some more pedal steel around here, buddy? Joni's four to two back to one game is unmatched. Unmatched. Truly. Her Lydian stuff on this album is incredible.

Yeah, if you don't know... The four to six is pretty damn good, too. This chord you hear all over. This is when we talk about, like, Lydian stuff. Yeah. Sharp 11. That this is more even, which I think what she did this is like,

is like a D over C, right? So it's like a D7 with the seventh in the bass. Where you can resolve to like that G. But she's using like... There was a major seventh in there too, I think. Was there also like... Yeah. Yeah, it's gorgeous.

Just so harmonically sophisticated. You know what is she like, and she works into the writing, how she connects the melody and the lyrics we talk about with the harmony then. And so this is a harmonic. concept, right? Lidian, like, these are cores, this is vertical.

Like, her understanding, like, she was somewhat famously didn't have a lot of theoretical knowledge of this stuff. I think there's stories about her being in the studio and she's like playing these minor 11th and stuff. She's doing shapes. Yeah. And somebody said, oh, that's that minor 11. She's like, what is that?

Which, by the way, everybody, is totally cool. Well, yeah. Look at the output. Some people feel like you gotta wait until you know everything. Well, if you're not Johnny Mitchell, you gotta know everything. No, you just, you just, your ear, do what you want. Right, but it's like the output,

but like her ability to, there is a part of theory, actually, that is about understanding the unspoken emotional impact of different sounds. And it's never, we always think about it as, like I said, the vertical, right? Because it's a chord.

No, no, no, you know, like, but when we're singing, like as pianists, we'll play it, but singing, you can never, I mean, unless you're Leila Hathaway, you can't sing more than one note at a time, right? So it's about, that's the, That's the most natural connection with which great vocalists and great writers like Joni understand on a level that's harder for us to understand.

But it all comes down to what is the emotional impact of the Sharper 11th. Not what's the math of it. The math explains it. But then the ability to go there when it's like it's kind of happy but optimistic, but it's a little bit forlorn. And you can't say what it is. That's why we have these sounds, right? You know what she does a lot on this too? Speaking of all that, is like if she's in the key of C here, she's got these like, we talked about the Plagels, right?

where she... Take it to the church. And when she uses the Lydian sound, she'll do something like that, right? She'll go from this close, kind of like really warm, but boxy progression, and then she'll let the sky open up.

Yeah, yeah. By doing that sort of like sharp 11, Lidian sound. Because at that time, it's as much about where it's gonna go, you know, and she's got that control. Next up is raised on robbery.

I think this is definitely Joe's sample on the clavinet here. Yes. I mean, this was the only one I always knew. was him. Ah, I love you, Joe. He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel.

He was drinking for diversion. He was thinking for himself. A little money riding on the maple leaves. Along comes a lady in lazy sneeze. I've always thought like, this is a track where it's like, is it blues?

Is it Americana? Is it country? Is it folk? It's kind of everything, right? Rock, it's almost like a Fleetwood Mac because they could get away with doing this too. Elton John, something like that, Billy Joel maybe. The lyrics of this are actually amazing. Control.

And even though there's so much thick backgrounds on this, like this track, I think, on the whole album is the most where she's placed in the mix almost like inside of the band. Like almost underneath. There's something on her voice, too, some kind of delay or reverb or something that's very intentional, I think, taking her back a little bit.

Yeah, right. Yeah, she's just in there, right? And what would you call this group? This is like a classic 70s rock group to me. Yeah. Feels like, like, but it's got like a, doesn't it have a little hint of shuffle on it too, though?

Not really. That dickens. It feels like anything from like Rod Stewart during this time, Maggie May, you know, to like, Like you said, Fleetwood Mac or Emerson, Lick and Pomp, maybe not that. But that kind of genre, right? And it's really kind of an outlier on this.

But it'd be hard. Could you imagine make a chart be like 70s rock vibe? Yeah. That could be a couple things. Next up is Trouble Chubb. Great song. Penultimate, right? Yeah.

It's a well-sequenced album. I forgot about that. It is so well-sequenced. Almost perfect. Perfect Is that Lydian again? Yeah I feel like we as jazz players

we waste that sound too much It's so powerful when she does I know It's like she's using taste We just throw it around It's a Counter melody And shining with all values

No Hasling you keeping you from your own You're to defy And when you're this weak in this Chuck Finley on the drummers You can't live life and you can't Live it Slide

Advice and religion You can't take it You can't seem to believe It's afraid To conditions Still you know Trouble Child All right Peter

We're going to end with a cover The only cover on the album Yes Is it? Yeah, yes it is. This is by Annie Ross of Lambert And Nixon of Ross. And this is actually written...

The melody is from a solo by saxonist Wardell Gray. Right. I always thought it was... Well, you've got the facts. For some reason, I always thought this was James Moody. But it's a famous solo. You're going to have to argue with Wikipedia. Oh, I'm sorry.

You got the premium membership? It's a blues. This is a blues. Yeah, and it's just... I think it's... Well, look, I want to experience this, as I said, like coming from where we just were because it was always a little jarring to me.

Okay, sure. twisted I mean the plane's great on it Chuck Finley on the other tubby My analyst told me that I was right out of my head The way described it He said I'd be better dead than life

I didn't listen to his chat I knew all along That he was all wrong And I knew that he thought I was crazy about I'm not Don't know My analyst told me That I was right out of

my head he said I'd need treatment but I'm not that easily led he said I was the type that was most inclined went out of his side to be out of my mind and he thought I was nuts no more if surrender butts I mean they say as a child I appeared a little bit wild with all my crazy ideas but I knew what was happening I knew I was a jeet what's so strange when you know that you're a Wizard at three I knew that this was meant to be Now I heard Chuck family's killer

That's why I had gotten to the vodka one night My parents got frantic Didn't know what to do But I saw some crazy scenes Before I came to now Do you think I was crazy I may have been only three

But I was suing They all up at angry young man they all up at Edison and also at Einstein So why should I feel sorry If they just couldn't understand The idiomatic logic that went on in my head I had a brain

It was insane old They used to laugh at me Technically what she's doing is off the charts But you don't dig it I want to hear what you think Hold on, I want to hear teaching chung Okay That is a pomp on the top

The chick is twisted Crazy Goop Shuby Hip Lips City My analyst told me That I was right out of my head But I said dear dog I had some great Cheez and Chich and

album's from this era. Hell yeah. Yeah. How many LPs? The mix on Joni, this is the only track on the album, which I think is weird. Like, she's not with the band. It's a jazz tune without a jazz mix, isn't it? Yeah.

Yeah. And I love the mix on this album. And it's kind of like an ad. There's some other albums I know like this. It's like an ad on track. It just doesn't make sense to me. I agree. It's an outlier, but I still find it delightful.

And I feel like you're a no fun guy right now. We can't have fun around here? But you know what? I'm hearing it again. I hadn't heard this in a while. Joni's singing is stunning on that. I mean, she's not, I don't care about this. Is she a jazz singer?

Is she a jazz singer? I mean, she's singing that, you know, and if you want to call that jazz, then yes, she absolutely is. That's not her main jam. She has these connections. To me, actually, now that I remember, it's like the rhythm section, to me is a little bit.

I hear you. I hear you. Chuck Finley's killing. And, I mean, once you push into something that's going to date it a little bit, Like, I'm jumping, I'm putting on a costume, right? And we're going to go to Jazzland for a second. We're going to go Jazz Hands.

It's got a little bit of that. It's so well done that it kind of works. And Joni is the connective tissue, I think, from everything. What did you just write down? Are you cursing me? Are you stealing my pass? Yeah, no, I'm just writing about must get new friends. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. No, I'm writing down my categories because it's time for some categories. Peter, what's your test value of track? I don't know what you think of it, though. Hold up. You're kind of shirking your responsibility on that. I agree with you about the rhythm. section, and I agree with you about how it was recorded, but I do think it's really fun,

and I think her performance is pretty amazing. Yeah. Do you think it fits on this album? Is it an app? Does it take away from what may be a perfect record in some ways, or in that category? It does not. I think if it were the third track, it would. I think because it's the last track, we're going out on a bit of humor.

It's almost like the credits are rolling on a very, on a very, like, fun. Because there's other funny moments in this album. Yeah. There's humor throughout it, and so I feel like she's going. going out on a lighthearted moment. And I think it's really fun. Fair enough. It's only two minutes long, too.

It's a very short way to go out. Okay. Desert Island track, what do you got? What do you got? That's what they say. Desert Island tracks. So I think I'm really ill-prepared. I mean, I think I'm going to go help me

because I've always loved that. And like, wake me up in the middle night thinking about this record. But down to you. Hearing that, I hadn't heard that at a while. That's unbelievable. Yeah. So I want to go either one.

Can I go to? You can go too. I'm going to go with Carin a Hill. I think Carin a Hill is now, after many years, I think it's like so incredible. And I love a little epic moment in the middle. And when it comes back with you. And just that one chord, when she sings the lyric, so much sweetness in the dark. Here, I'll cue it up here.

After it comes back from the epic part. When there's so much spike, when there's so much sweetness. in the dark waiting for... It's one of my favorite moments in music. That line with that chord, I think, is like, it will always give me goosebumps.

Never fails to give you. That's great. That's saying something. Apex moment, what do you got? Okay, so I love the transition from people's parties to the same situation. I was remembering on LP, it just goes straight through. Great, yeah.

Man, can we give a shout out and one of the... Can we bring back, or should we just love it? I miss it. It's really the medley, the 70s medley, right? I miss it. Like, you know it if you... Superwoman into where were you when I needed you? Like they're from the radio, you never would know,

but it's just like one song. But when you get the LP and you start to love it and you're like, oh, and then there's no bump going into... We still had it during the CD era, but we seem to have lost it during the Spotify era. Oh, hell yeah, we did. Love you, Sweden. Spotify, not so much.

I have... For me, I have the bridge to help me. after the second verse the drums go to the bell of the right symbol this is all very tight through here all of a sudden everything starts to open up and her melody oh didn't feel good we were sitting there talking lying in the dark is unreal yeah

back to that yeah that's gonna set it up Converterable tops down. We're up in the canyon roads. You could smell the salt water. Yes. It's so amazing. The crevasher.

The crevasher water. Snobbometer, what do you got? On a scale of one to ten, how snobby is this album? I'll tell you what I have first. I mean... I'll tell you what I have first. I think it's a... Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Peter, I'll tell you what I have first. Is there somebody else in the room with me? I feel like I'm alone. I have a five. Why didn't you tell me first? I knew there was a reason I was ignoring you. Okay, good.

Don't even say anything. That's it. I'm gonna go two on this. What the what? I mean, this is Joni's biggest hit. That's true. Everybody loves... There's some people that are like

feel like they're not sophisticated. No, I wouldn't say that. To appreciate Joni. Like, she's not... She's in that rare breed of artists that you could almost say, everything that she does, except for people have a low

level of attention span nowadays, but if it was back to when people weren't so distracted, you could say everything she does is a one or two recorded. You could make an argument. I hear that. So that's why I would say, too. And this is her biggest hit record. I put five because I do think some of the

sophistication, some of the arranging as an album, I don't know. It's not Drake. It might be her, but it's still her best selling, but there's still these amazing chords. I don't know. But that was the time. It's a tough one. Is this, okay, new category.

New category from producer Liz. Yeah. Is this Joni's best album? Yeah, I mean, I think so, but I don't know her total output enough to really say that. And so that's a safe answer for me. I would say that, right? The correct answer is yes. That's what I said.

I know. You said I think so. Hey, Adam, can I go first? You said I think so, which is incorrect. It is yes. So the correct answer for me or for you? What's your answer? It's yes.

It's for everybody. It's yes. What happens to the other categories? I don't know. What happened to our categories? Accutre Maltz. Joni did make the cover herself, which is, again, super gangster. This isn't the cover?

There's Joni Mitchell. No. Joni Mitchell is an art gangster. She's the greatest. Yeah. Thank you, Johnny. Thank you so much. Thank you, Johnny Mitchell.

And thanks, shout out Tom Scott. For sure. Joe Sample, the whole band, except on the last track. Unbelievable. Okay. Until next time. You'll hear it. Thank you.