The singer Joni Mitchell called the best in 20 years: “Because I don’t hear ambition”
By the 2000s, Joni Mitchell wasn’t looking to compete with the biggest names in pop anymore.
The music world had gone in a much different direction since the days of Blue, and as much as she loved working on the best records she could, it was easy for her to find more in common with the likes of Herbie Hancock than whatever Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera were doing. But if she had decided to cut all new music out of her diet, she was bound to have a few blind spots for the rising music legends.
Then again, Mitchell’s definition of a musical legend is a lot more complicated than those who sold a bunch of records. Being able to fill stadiums and make the best records possible is awfully good, but she was more interested in the harmonic structure of tunes, such that songs had to be more varied than the typical cowboy chords, and while she did have a healthy respect for wordsmiths like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan in the past, her heroes had always been people like Charles Mingus and Miles Davis.
It’s not like she didn’t know what she was talking about, either; a lot of the biggest names in music may have followed her lead through her confessional lyrics, but when trying to play a lot of her songs, the subtleties in her chord changes stuck out. No one was used to hearing these strange tunings on pop songs, and while she did have the odd tune that had a conventional structure, there would always be a few pieces with mysterious chords that would take a while to figure out.
That jazzy approach wasn’t always welcome on the charts, but it’s not like the insiders forgot about it, either. The teenybopper demographic wasn’t exactly going to go nuts over thoughtful, introspective songs with strange fingerpicking techniques or anything, but as far as Mitchell could tell, what Norah Jones did for the medium helped make jazz more palatable to the masses.
Although Mitchell didn’t go out of her way to listen to new music by that point, she knew what Jones was doing was something special, saying, “I like her because I don’t hear ambition in her voice. I haven’t heard a girl singer who wasn’t trying way too hard in 20 years”, and that effortlessness in Jones’s voice is part of what made her so intriguing when Come Away With Me dominated the charts.
‘Don’t Know Why’ and ‘Come Away With Me’ are far from peppy songs, but whereas most people would consider this kind of thing boring, the space that Jones leaves in is half the reason why the tunes work. She was not looking to impress a panel of judges in the same way that American Idol contestants were, but it’s hard to turn away from her voice whenever one of her songs came on.
A lot of the material that she played was far from the level of the jazz greats, but that sense of simplicity is the reason so many young artists have been able to find their voice in jazzier realms. Esperanza Spalding might not be the most celebrated artist of all time by any means, but that cool demeanour whenever she sings is the clear descendant of what Jones was trying to do in her prime.
So while Mitchell has no problem with sticking to the records that she loved as a kid, it’s people like Jones that remind everyone that there is still space for earnest songwriting on the charts. There can be a lot of smoke and mirrors every now and then, but as long as there are people still willing to show their hearts to the world, then there will always be people willing to listen to their thoughts.
