Joni Mitchell to Release Passion Project, “Joni’s Jazz” Box Set

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Joni Mitchell (Photo: Marcy Gensic; used with permission)

Joni Mitchell has announced Joni’s Jazz, a career-spanning collection featuring recordings chosen by the legendary musician that reflect the genre’s profound influence on her music. The passion project, years in the making, arrives September 5, 2025, as an 8-LP box set and as a 4-CD edition. Both formats include liner notes with rare and previously unseen photos and original artwork by Mitchell. The title is available for pre-order in the U.S. here. [The U.K. links are expected soon.] An exclusive fine-art print is available as a gift-with-purchase exclusively from her website.

Spanning 61 tracks, Joni’s Jazz includes studio recordings, live performances, rare alternate takes, and material drawn from multiple decades and record labels. Among them are two previously unreleased 1980 demos, including one for “Be Cool.”

The June 25 announcement notes that the set features contributions from some of Mitchell’s most important collaborators in jazz, among them Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus and Herbie Hancock. The latter wrote, “I thought she might have the quote-unquote limitations of rock ’n’ roll and folk. But she wasn’t like that. Joni is as cutting-edge as anybody. When I really began to pay attention to her music, I saw that she was already designing music that was not your typical rock.”

Mitchell, who calls Shorter her favorite collaborator, dedicates the collection to him following his passing in 2023. “It was a joy to play with him,” she writes. “He will be missed, but he will remain alive for me in this music.”

The collection’s liner notes include Shorter’s response to an interviewer’s question as to whether Mitchell had “jazz chops.” “I would say that her craft spilled over the borders of what people and critics who would want to keep her in a controlled setting,” he replied. “You know what I mean?”

Covering nearly every era of her recording career, the collection includes selections from Songs To A Seagull, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Mingus, Turbulent Indigo, Both Sides Now (a 2001 GRAMMY® Award winner), and more. It also features her guest appearances on projects like Hancock’s GRAMMY® Award-winning album, River: The Joni Letters.

Joni’s Jazz draws from more than five decades of Mitchell’s recordings, going back to 1968 for “Marcie.” The most recent is her performance of “Summertime,” recorded live at the 2023 Newport Folk Festival. It marked Mitchell’s first full-length concert in over two decades — a powerful return that resonated around the world, and ultimately earned her a Grammy Award.

Joni Mitchell Joni’s Jazz 4-CD Track Listing

CD One
“Blue”
“Trouble Man” – Kyle Eastwood feat. Joni Mitchell
“Moon At The Window” – Demo 2 *
“Be Cool” – Demo 2 *
“Harlem In Havana”
“Cherokee Louise”
“Come In From The Cold”
“In France They Kiss On Main Street”
“Nothing Can Be Done”
“Sex Kills”
“Edith And The Kingpin”
“Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire”
“The Jungle Line”
“Shades Of Scarlett Conquering”
“Yvette In English”
“Marcie”
“A Bird That Whistles”

CD Two
“Love”
“Comes Love”
“The Man I Love” – Herbie Hancock feat. Joni Mitchell
“At Last”
“You’re My Thrill”
“Sometimes I’m Happy”
“Stay In Touch”
“The Crazy Cries Of Love”
“Face Lift”
“Sweet Sucker Dance” – Early Alternate Version
“You Dream Flat Tires”
“Answer Me, My Love”
“Love Puts On A New Face”
“Both Sides Now”

CD Three
“Harry’s House/Centerpiece”
“Sunny Sunday”
“Hana”
“Last Chance Lost”
“Smokin’ (Empty, Try Another)”
“Hejira” – Live at The Santa Barbara County Bowl (10/9/79)
“Refuge Of The Roads”
“Paprika Plains”
“Blue Motel Room”
“Black Crow”
“Off Night Backstreet”
“Just Like This Train”
“No Apologies”
“Not To Blame”
“The Magdalene Laundries”

CD Four
“The Sire Of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)”
“God Must Be A Boogie Man”
“A Chair In The Sky”
“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” – Live at The Santa Barbara County Bowl (10/9/79)
“The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)” – Herbie Hancock feat. Joni Mitchell
“Shine”
“If I Had A Heart”
“Impossible Dreamer”
“One Week Last Summer”
“Summertime” – Live at Newport Folk Festival (7/22/23)
“Stormy Weather”
“Two Grey Rooms” – Demo 5
“The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines”
“Twisted”
“If”

* Previously Unreleased

More recordings from Mitchell’s deep archives are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.