The one song that gave Joni Mitchell a “musical epiphany”
Music has been by Joni Mitchell‘s side for as long as she can remember, providing countless moments to cherish and songs that she cherishes with all of her heart.
A vital part of falling in love with a piece of music is down to timing. At one precise juncture, a song has the power to communicate on a deeper level and instantly turn a grey sky into a bright summer’s day. For Mitchell, music has only given her a mind-altering epiphany on a handful of occasions, but each one has had a longstanding impact.
As a result of the rareness of these events striking, it’s always a rare event worthy of celebration, and Mitchell will never forget how every one of these songs helped mould her as a unique artist.
While Mitchell is a folk singer, most people wouldn’t be able to guess that from taking a look at her record collection, which is instead full of her favourite jazz cuts.
Before establishing herself on the Greenwich Village scene after moving to New York to chase her dream, Mitchell had already cut her teeth in local jazz clubs in her native Canada. Although she didn’t make jazz music herself, it was an environment in which she felt at home and able to achieve artistic expression.
As Mitchell revealed during a rare interview with Elton John in 2022, her love of jazz, which still burns bright today, was born courtesy of ‘Charleston Alley’ by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, which appeared on their fourth album, The Hottest New Group in Jazz. This interview with Elton wasn’t the first time Mitchell spoke about her love of the LP, having previously mentioned its impact on her back in 1986.
Back then, she said in the book Off The Record: “Friends of mine who were older than me and in college began talking about Lambert, Hendricks and Ross as the hottest new sound in jazz. Their record flipped me out, but it was already out of print.”
While most people would have given up hope of managing to track down a copy, that wasn’t an option for Mitchell, who was happy to put herself out of pocket to own it, adding, “I had to finally buy it off somebody and pay a lot, maybe fifteen dollars, which was unheard of at that time. But you couldn’t get the record anywhere.”
She profoundly continued, “Lambert, Hendricks and Ross were my Beatles. In high school, theirs was the record I wore thin, the one I knew all the words to.”
35 years after her original comments, Mitchell’s feelings towards the album only intensified, and her enthusiasm heightened. Elton said of Joni’s selection before she reflected on how she discovered the track, “When I was in high school, my friends were a little older than me, and they all went off to college, and I used to go to college parties. I was at somebody’s house, and they played The Hottest New Group In Jazz. They played that album, and it was one of those musical epiphanies for me. There were only about three or four in my life.”
Elton intervened by noting how expensive that was for an album in the 1950s, which Mitchell agreed with, but it proved to be worth every penny. Mitchell elaborated: “I learned every song on it, and I’ve covered a couple of them on my albums, ‘Centrepiece’ and ‘My Analyst Told Me’ (Twisted).”
Mitchell went on to say ‘Charleston Alley’ is a song that is still permanently on repeat in her head, whether at the Grammys or in the mountains and called it “the greatest walking groove”. Those college days are now ancient history, her love of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross will stay with Mitchell until she draws her final breath.
The singer-songwriter may have gone down a different route with her own career rather than attempting to replicate her heroes directly. Nevertheless, the notes of experimental jazz can be heard in records from Court and Spark to Both Sides Now if you listen hard enough.
