59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should this have been called "The Circle Game" ?, April 17, 2000
By A Customer
Like many other Joni Mitchell fans I wondered for many yearswhy she didn't record a mainstream jazz album. You only had to listento her singing well-known vocalese classics like "Twisted" on the "Court and Spark" album, or "Centrepiece" on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" to know that she had the timing, range, and style to tackle it. Now she has come out with the answer. And it is excellent. Forget small intimate jazz groups - she's spun off in yet another direction (what else from such a varied artiste) and given us full-blown orchestral arrangements of these songs, none of which is new for this album. All but two are standards, and the exceptions are old Mitchell favourites. (...) every song has been chosen and put in a specific order to sketch the profile of a love affair. This is made quite clear in the album notes themselves. From the eager start ("You're My Thrill") via infatuation ("Comes Love"), disaffection ("You've Changed"), regret ("Stormy Weather") through to longing for a new affair ("I Wish I Were In Love Again") this is an album where you feel every track has to earn its place. The final track "Both Sides Now", which is singled out by many others as the weakest element on the album, actually takes on a whole new life by being put in as almost the coda to the entire theme of the album. Love comes and goes, and comes again. And when you've seen it from both sides . . . I find it amazing that this song from such a young writer as she was then can hold its head up in such exalted company. Some albums are designed for dipping in to, but I think this is definitely one for listening to from start to finish in a single session. The transition of mood from song to song is just right and there are very few programme albums where you can say this with your hand on your heart. I know it's the wrong thing to ask of Ms. Mitchell, but "more of the same, please" would suit me.
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52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A bittersweet journey of lushly orchestrated standards, April 17, 2000
Here Miss Mitchell combines her love of colour in art with her whiskey coloured voice. The nuance is particularly heart felt.The songs seem tinged with pain, and poetry. The echoes of Billie Holiday( Lady in Satin) are pronounced and reverant.If ever Joni has made an effort to send someone a love letter it is to Holiday in her phrasing and smokey vocals. Her Canadian American directness is a metaphor to her artworks included within the cd cover. There is a Hopper-esque lonely solitude that pulls one into a vintage American sensibility. The cd is one that grows on you and penetrates the heart with every layer of listening. A superb rendition of "A Case of You", reminds us that Joni is a classic writer, as well as performer.This cd could have been called "The four seasons of Love".Like Leonard Cohen she sits perfectly with those that enjoy their personal torments and share the depth of the human condition with their listeners.
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54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Another class act from Joni Mitchell, June 11, 2000
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Joni Mitchell decided to finally record an album of jazz standards. Aside from the jazzy experiments in her own music that started in the mid-70's, Joni recently lended a vocal to jazz bassist Kyle Eastwood's debut CD, and then took part in Don Henley's benefit concert for the Walden Woods Project, where all guest stars performed a standard (Joni sang "Stormy Weather," and recorded another version here). So in theory this album makes perfect sense, and in practice it skirts greatness.
Joni has an obvious affection for the material at hand...you can hear it in the thoughtful readings she gives. And Joni's voice, which has a smoky maturity from countless cigarettes in fifty-plus years, is perfectly suited to bluesy material like "You're My Thrill," "You've Changed," and "Stormy Weather," managing to both maintain her own identity and at times resemble the great Billie Holiday. Other tracks concentrate more symphony's strings than jazz licks, so songs like "Answer Me My Love" and "Don't Go to Strangers" sound lovely but are dangerously close to the realm of Easy Listening. The results are better when the music genuinely swings, as on "Sometimes I'm Happy," helped along by a flawless Herbie Hancock piano solo, or the especially striking "Comes Love."
Two Mitchell originals are given the symphonic treatment here; one works, one doesn't. "Both Sides Now" is transformed from an elegant guitar ballad to a gorgeous piece of mature wisdom perfectly executed. "A Case of You," however, doesn't blend with this sort of arrangement. Big band music pretty much needs lyrics to fit the measures more evenly, and it sometimes seems as if Joni won't fit all of her words in. (A better second choice might have been "Blue Motel Room" from "Hejira," which already sounds like a jazz standard).
It also would have been interesting to hear her strip down a standard and flat-out mess with it, a la Cassandra Wilson or Holly Cole. Even a Bossa Nova arrangement would have broken up the pace, which gets a little monotonous towards the end. But for a mature, jazzy vocal set to lush arrangements, "Both Sides Now" is a class act all the way: one of our most important artists paying homage to some of our most important songs.
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