I think what she meant by "I've always been a jazz singer" is that she was never for a moment a "folk singer," as she was labeled for her first decade, when the label applied to similar art-jazz performers like Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, late Tim Hardin, or the Dylan of "Another Side."

I.e., she never played other people's songs; she never sang from any folk tradition; and even her guitar instrumentation was compositionally at odds with folk because her polio-weakened hands required her to use open tunings.

If you think of her as a poet, spinning improvisation out of an individual personality, the way Plath or Sexton do, ask if they wouldn't be jazz singers if they had any music in them.

I'm not saying this to be argumentative -- it's just what you got me to think about.

Mike, I agree on both counts, though despite her open tunings & harmonic invention, she worked early on in a folk idiom. And my references to Plath & Sexton weren't really meant to denigrate them--just to point out that Mitchell had done very interesting things with similar material.

We blog enthusiastically en masse here - there is a kind of Drakean common thread.

But I have been doing more and more Travelogue in the last few entries. The expression "art-jazz" is exactly right for this album and for Nick's. I have blogged at length on the algonet ND files eg on River Man and Poor Boy.

There is a long piece to be written comparing the use of arrangement and improvisation on Travelogue and the first two ND albums. I am not sure I can manage that this very minute.

Travelogue is massively rich and dense without being at all indigestible. You get the voice, the tune, the interpretation, the "other voice" - Wheeler Shorter Preston etc, and then framing it all these sensitive and compelling arrangements.

The other clear reference for me is the work Joshua Rifkin did for Judy Collins in the mid 60s - and it was those albums that made me look for Song for a Seagull in the first place. Maybe also John Cameron's work (no relation) with Donovan but its so long since I heard this stuff that I don't know how it stands up today.

I have to say I think the Travelogue arrangements probably have the edge on Robert Kirby's with Nick - at least on 5 Leaves Left

Three of the loveliest and best vocals ever, in my opinion, from Joni are on this album: God Must Be A Boogie Man, The Dawntreader, and Otis And Marlena. Though I love this album, and consider her current voice richer and more expressive than her younger one, I am still confused/saddened that there is nothing from Summer Lawns here.