Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

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Professional reviews
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Studio album by Joni Mitchell
Released	1977
Recorded	?
Genre	Folk jazz, Singer-songwriter, World fusion
Length	59:38
Label	Asylum
Producer(s)	?
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone (not rated) link Robert Christgau (B-) link
Joni Mitchell chronology
Hejira (1976)	Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977)	Mingus (1979)

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is a 1977 double album by Joni Mitchell. The opening "Overture" is played with six simultaneous guitars, some in different tunings from others. "Dreamland" features only percussion and voices, many of which are provided by Chaka Khan. "Paprika Plains" is a 16-minute song played on improvised piano and arranged with a full orchestra that takes up all of Side 2, and "The Tenth World" is an extended-length instrumental of fiery Latin percussion. Critics are divided as to whether Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is pretentious and overwrought or one of her masterpieces. The black pimp on the cover is Mitchell, dressed up in the character of her alter ego Art Nouveau.

The album arguably contains some of Jaco Pastorius's finest bass playing, including what many consider one of the greatest single notes of all time on "Cotton Avenue" as Pastorius breaks through the slow intro. Wayne Shorter also plays notable sax solos on the album, recorded at a time when Weather Report and the jazz rock movement were at the height of their powers. The title track has very much the sound of Mitchell's 1976 Hejira, and could easily have been a track on that earlier album. Track 3, "Jericho", is a studio reworking of a song she first sang live on Miles of Aisles.

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter peaked at #25 on the Billboard charts and was Mitchell's last album to attain gold record status.