Mingus

Joni Mitchell

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: June 1979
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002GWV
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,581 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So good its criminal, July 15, 2001

By	Damien Bjorn Ruud (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Female artists (Laura Nyro, Joni, Rickie Lee) are always getting the short end of the stick. When this album was released it was generally deemed a failure and it got no airplay and fell off the charts. Listening to it 22 years later I can't believe how underrated it has become. If you thought Joni was just a flower-powered folk singer then you were wrong. This is some of the most spacey, haunting, and eccentric music out there. Oh, the instruments may seem familiar but the way they are used is just plain out there. Jaco Pastorius can make his bass sound like a trumpet, sax, piano, Fender Rhodes, synth and more. Joni's guitar playing had never been or never was again this powerful or primal. Highlights: everything. God Must Be a Boogie Man a duet between Joni's guitar and Jaco's bass combines her haunting vocals backed by a chorus of what sounds like escapees from a mental institution. The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey: with Joni's near perfect phrasing and a devil-may-care guitar strum. The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines: an uptempo jazz-tune which, in a just world, would have been a great single. Oh and one more thing, Joni's voice would never again be this perfect. She had trained her voice and it has never sounded better. It didn't have that high screechy, nails-on-the-chalkboard sound of her early days, nor the Tom Waits-gravel quality it has today. This is an essential part of Joni's oeuvre. Get it now.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earned my musical stripes with Mingus, October 31, 1999

By A Customer

This album, along with Joni's masterpieces The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira, taught me to LISTEN to music, to appreciate the subtleties and complexities. Joni has said that this album cost her everything, meaning that it soured pop radio programmers on her work. Well, that's the down-side. The up-side is, well, take a listen: Dry Cleaner from Des Moines cooks! The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey is a haunting synthesis of under-your-skin vocals, powerful acoustic guitar and -- wolves! Sweet Sucker Dance is charming, and Goodbye Pork Pie Hat couldn't be more memorable and does justice to the classic jazz composition. This album taught me to love jazz and introduced me to contemporary and old-time jazz legends. I'm glad I have more sense than radio programmers.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Joni album....exquisite, July 20, 2004

By	Paul J. Escamilla "mostly water" (NYC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I haven't had my morning cup of coffee yet...so I 'll keep it short. This is my favorite Joni album, and it's probably because she was channelling the genius and magic of Charles Mingus when she made it. She surrounded herself with brilliant musicians (especially the phenomenal Jaco Pastorius) and let the spirit of Mingus flow through the sessions.

Sublime.