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Tribute to Joni Mitchell
   featuring Rachel Z





New York-born pianist Rachel Nicolazzo, nicknamed Rachel Z, is one of the more musically open-minded "young lions" to have emerged from the 1990's.  Besides recording eight overwhelmingly received recordings of her own, she has worked with a variety of artists from Steps Ahead to Wayne Shorter to Peter Gabriel.  This graduate of The New England Conservatory of Music with a "Distinction in Performance" award, Rachel Z is in big demand by her fellow musicians and her many fans. 

This project is Rachel's heartfelt tribute to Joni Mitchell.  Rachel Z and her trio extends and elaborates on the sophisticated harmonies and visual poetry of Mitchell's music.

While being true to Joni's beautiful melodies, Rachel Z puts her own stamp on these arrangements with her exquisitely melodic and inspired interpretations.   On "Help Me," "Ladies Man," and "All I Want," Ms. Z weaves in some sly Bill Evans and Charlie Parker rhythmic changes and chords.  "Moon At The Window" bops with harmonic hints of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," while "Free Man in Paris" is redone with a Latin lilt.  Rachel Z understands that the beauty of Joni Mitchell's music is its ability to communicate and nothing demonstrates this more than her hymnlike reading of "Both Sides Now," where Ms. Z makes the piano sing in Mitchell's moody and moving voice.

"Joni is an artist whose song poems have been a life guide which helped me grow up and accept the duality of life," says Rachel.  "She's a great artist and storyteller.  As a woman I turned to Joni's lyrics on "Chinese Cafe" and "River" to teach me how to value each moment and to treasure life and the love of my life."

Rachel also states, "Joni also embraced great jazz artists whom I treasure.  I remember the night I went to her house with Wayne Shorter and heard him play gorgeous melodies on her poems.  She was confident and inspiring to me and I left feeling more determined to follow my heart!  Harmonically Joni uses interesting chords due to her alternate tunings on the guitar that made the songs easy to expand upon for improvisation."

"New York pianist Rachel Z and her contemporary trio put all kinds of lateral spins on the songs of Joni Mitchell.   Ms. Z can take just about any mainstream material and turn them into startling art."
John Fordam
London Guardian

Master Clinic
> Rachel Z Master Clinic and Master Performance Syllabus (pdf)

"Big Yellow Taxi" from "Moon At The Window" (Tone Center) (mp3)

"Moon_at_the_Window" from_"Moon_at_the_Window" (Tone Center) (mp3)


  "Free_Man_in_Paris" from_"Moon_at_the_Window" (Tone Center) (mp3)