James Taylor and Joni Mitchell

James Taylor and Joni Mitchell

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Joni Mitchell Tribute 'Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration' Coming To Theaters

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The iconic folk singer celebrated her 75th birthday in style last year, and now, for one night only, you can watch how it all went down
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jan 9, 2019 - 4:06 pm

Joni Mitchell's 75th birthday celebration last year welcomed a number of GRAMMY-winning performers, including Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan, Diana Krall, Kris Kristofferson, Los Lobos, Graham Nash, Seal, and James Taylor. (Not to mention the performing GRAMMY nominees: Glen Hansard, Rufus Wainwright and 61st GRAMMY Awards nominee Brandi Carlile.) Now, Trafalger Releasing is set to release a movie of the tribute concerts — The Music Center Presents Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration — to theaters on Feb. 7.

Variety’s coverage of the night’s performances said, “Carlile had the bravura vocal performance of the night, effortlessly hitting the high notes of 'Down to You' in a casually octave-spanning fashion few others on the bill would have been down with attempting.” She also joined Kristofferson for a duet of “A Case of You.”

Tickets are now on sale for the Feb. 7 showings. A soundtrack album will be released via Verve on Mar. 1. 

A Woman Of Influence: Joni Mitchell, Looking Back From 75

GRAMMYs

Joni Mitchell

Photo: Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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A Woman Of Influence: Joni Mitchell, Looking Back From 75

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Poet, artist and dreamer, the singer-songwriter has helped light the path of musical creativity across genres and generations
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Sep 7, 2018 - 3:43 pm

Winner of eight GRAMMY Awards and recipient of the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, Joni Mitchell epitomizes the singer/songwriter's expressive path. Born on Nov. 7 in 1943, her upcoming 75th birthday will be marked as a special occasion to celebrate her influence and inspiration across the music world in many different genres. GRAMMY winners and nominees will be on hand at Los Angeles' The Music Center on Nov. 6–7 to perform works from all 19 albums in celebration of Mitchell's 75th.

GRAMMY winners performing on the two special nights are Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan, Diana Krall, Kris Kristofferson, Los Lobos, Graham Nash, and Seal. "Joni is the reason I became a musician," said Seal, "so the opportunity to take part in this means everything to me." Seal sang as featured artist on Mitchell's track "How Do You Stop" from her Turbulent Indigo, winner of Best Pop Album at the 38th GRAMMY Awards.

GRAMMY nominees performing on the two nights at The Music Center include Glen Hansard and Rufus Wainwright. "When in her presence, the day dissolves and one glimpses something beyond, something very far away, yet oddly more concrete," said Wainwright. "Everything about her is oraculous." In addition to the performers, drummer Brian Blade and pianist Jon Cowherd are co-music directors for the nights and previously recorded with Mitchell as Brian Blade And The Fellowship Band.

So far the two Mitchell albums inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame are 1971's Blue and 1974's Court And Spark. While these albums stand tall as folk classics, Mitchell's creative reach has touched so much more than folk, as the lineup for her tribute suggests.

Skylar Grey is a GRAMMY nominated singer/songwriter who has written hits for Dr. Dre. and Eminem. Grey credits Joni Mitchell as a leading influence for her poetic lyrics, alongside Grey's other influence, Eminem. Although she tries to keep her commercial work away from niches some might find weird, Grey was reassured by Mitchell's freedom and accomplishment that she can go all out herself.

Skylar Grey Takes Ideas From Weird To Pop

In 1997 Janet Jackson released "Got 'Till It's Gone" combining Mitchell into the mix along with Q-Tip on Jackson's album The Velvet Rope, using an upbeat sample from "Big Yellow Taxi." At the 40th GRAMMY Awards, the song brought Jackson her fourth of five career GRAMMYs to date, in the category Best Short Form Music Video.

The Nov. 7 concert will be followed by a fundraising gala "The Music Center's Soirée: JONI 75," in partnership with Vanity Fair. Tickets for the concerts are now on sale.

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Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

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Joni Mitchell 1971 Art & Lyrics Book Coming This Fall

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'Morning Glory On The Vine' began as a holiday gift for 100 of the creative icon's closest friends
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Mar 11, 2019 - 1:14 pm

Singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell turned 75 last Nov., an opportune milestone to reflect on the eight-time GRAMMY winner's musical and artistic gifts. A lifelong visual artist as well as musician, Mitchell created 100 copies of her book Morning Glory On The Vine in 1971 as a holiday gift for friends. On Oct. 22, facsimile reproductions of the original work combining her lyrics and watercolors — created a few months after Mitchell released her album Blue — will be published in the U.S. by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and in the UK by Canongate.

"Joni Mitchell's influence on popular culture is peerless. There is simply no one like her," said Canongate Publishing Director Francis Bickmore. "Her fearless pursuit of honesty and art, her gift for storytelling and her incalculably beautiful melodies and voice — all of these have been inspirations and companions to me, and to so many others, for decades."

Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings adds a new introduction by Mitchell as well as several of her paintings that did not make it into the original gift volume. Much of Mitchell's visual work is featured on her website below her quotation, "I have always thought of myself as a painter derailed by circumstance."

Mitchell's first nomination and GRAMMY win was Best Folk Performance at the 12th GRAMMY Awards, for her sophomore 1969 album Clouds. Fans appreciated the self portrait Mitchell painted for that album cover and many continued to enjoy her creative path as a mixture of Mitchell's musical and visual art. In Oct. for the first time, the general public will have access to new and intimate insights into her gifted imagination.

Joni Mitchell Tribute 'Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration' Coming To Theaters

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan 

Photo: Gary Gershoff/WireImage

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Chaka Khan And Michael McDonald Announce Summer 2019 Tour

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This summer is the chance to catch the hitmakers on stage together, both with fresh material for the first time in years
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Feb 7, 2019 - 3:51 pm

Multiple GRAMMY winners Chaka Khan and Michael McDonald announced co-headlining tour dates beginning on June 20 in Huber Heights, Ohio and wrapping up on Aug. 4 in Rohnert Park, Calif. Both artists are back with new music, after long waits, and seeing them on the same stage is bound to be memorable.

McDonald's Wide Open was released in Sept. 2017, his first album of new material since Blue Obsession in 2000. The album was co-produced with drummer Shannon Forrest and includes contributions from artists Warren Haynes, Robben Ford, Branford Marsalis, and Marcus Miller. Back at the 22nd GRAMMY Awards, McDonald's "What A Fool Believes" with the Doobie Brothers won Record Of The Year.

Chaka Khan's Hello Happiness will be released on Feb. 15, and its title track came out on Jan. 14. Her previous solo studio album was 2007's Funk This, winner at the 50th GRAMMY Awards for Best R&B Album.

At the 27th GRAMMY Awards, the two each took home respective R&B wins. Khan won Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for "I Feel For You," for which Prince won Best R&B Song as its writer, the same year.  McDonald won Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for "Yah Mo B There," his duet with co-writer James Ingram.

Tickets for the summer co-headline tour go on sale on Feb. 8 at McDonald and Khan's websites. 

Chaka Khan Reveals First Album In 12 Years Coming Soon, Drops Video For Title Track "Hello Happiness"

Norah Jones

Norah Jones

Photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage 

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Norah Jones Announces 2019 North American Summer Tour

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The GRAMMY-winning jazz classic and innovator is crossing the northern U.S. and Canada this summer
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jan 29, 2019 - 1:15 pm

Norah Jones has announced several North American tour dates, making the colder U.S. states and Alaska nice places to come away with her this Summer. 

The tour beginning June 18 in Pittsburgh, Pa., and runs through Aug. 2 in Anchorage, Alaska, Jones will appear along the way at the Ottawa Jazz Festival on June 25, at the Toronto Jazz Festival the next day, followed by Montreal's Festival International de Jazz on June 27. Then she heads south to Northampton, Mass. and Saratoga Springs, N.Y. before stops in Colorado, Montana, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, with her closing in Alaska.

On July 16 near Denver, Colo., Jones will appear with Mavis Staples at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. But before then, Jones and Staples are scheduled to perform on Feb. 8 at the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute to Dolly Parton. Prior to the North American trek, Jones has 10 concerts scheduled in April touring Australia and New Zealand. 

Jones' most recent full-length album remains 2016's Day Breaks, but her 2018 collaborations have included "My Heart Is Full" with Thomas Bartlett and "A Song With No Name" and "Wintertime" with Jeff Tweedy. 

Tickets for most of the tour become available on Friday Feb. 1 at Jones' website but pre-sales begin on Jan. 29. Note the details of some shows vary including time of sale.

Billie Joe Armstrong, Norah Jones Talk Foreverly