Joni Mitchell

Mingus music doesn't sound like anybody else's. Though Charles Mingus may have gone out
of his way to acknowledge how much the music of Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington
inspired him, even the various tributes he penned ("Reincarnation of a Lovebird" for
Parker, "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love," "Jelly Roll" for Jelly Roll Morton, "Goodbye,
Porkpie Hat" for Lester Young) boast pure Mingus melodies with no room for obvi... More >

Okay, okay, a brave experiment, but lots of times experiments fail. There's more spontaneity, wisdom, and humor in the 2:25 of Mingus "raps" than in all her hand-tooled lyrics, and her voice isn't rich or graceful enough to flesh out music that gains no swing from a backing band a/k/a Weather Report. (Grade: C+)