The Joni Mitchell Tribute Album is now finished and scheduled for release before the end of the year. Chaka Khan, Elvis Costello, Bjork, Etta James, Janet Jackson and others have recorded their favorite Joni songs for this long-overdue salute to one of the best songwriters of our generation. A complete track-listing should be available soon.

Following her attendance in the audience at July 1st's "Joni's Jazz" concert in Central Park, Mitchell flew to the U.K. to record the orchestral tracks for her next album, tentatively entitled Both Sides Now. In addition to some of Joni's personal favorite standards, she's also re-recorded her own compositions "Both Sides Now" and "A Case Of You" for this new album. Last Monday (August 30), Joni began recording her vocal tracks in a studio in L.A., and if this process goes well, the new album may also be ready for release around the same time as the tribute album, but don't count on it- a date in February or March of 2000 seems more likely.

Whenever this album of standards is released to the public, Joni has been invited to debut her album with a full orchestra at La Scala, the birthplace of opera, in Milan, Italy. If Joni accepts this invitation to perform, the show will be filmed for a TV special.