_{Thurs. May 3}

Taylor Swift is rumored to be playing Joni Mitchell in a bio-pic about her, Carly Simon and Carole King, based ont the "Girls Like Us" book. I think I'm about to groan, but I have to accept the inevitability of Taylor Swift in my life, as I do Justin Bieber. But there's another Joni project and it's here in town at Berklee Performance Center Thursday May 3: "Back to the Garden: The Artistry of Joni Mitchell," with featured guest Grammy winner/Berklee grad Paula Cole. We did a quick email Q and A with Cole about this one-off.

JSInk: What attracted you to this? I'm guessing you may have been a big Joni fan growing up.

Cole: The magnificent Terri Lyne Carrington asked me to be part of the performance - she is the musical director and also a true Joni fan.  I discovered Joni Mitchell during my seven-week summer stint at Berklee when I was 17 years old, in 1985. Someone recommended her, and I was just beginning, open to listening. So, for the remainder of the summer, upon my return to Rockport, MA, I scraped and painted a cottage while listening to "Blue" and "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" in my headphones daily. From the simpler folk tunes with dulcimer, to the 16-minute art pieces featuring Jaco Pastorius I was drinking in her artistic journey. That began my path.

JSInk: What did her music mean to you? Did it change as you grew up?
Cole: I continue to touch base with Joni's work throughout my life, throughout my creative process. I continue to discover her eras. After meeting her, sharing the stage, reading about her, learning her songs, I dearly appreciate that there has been Joni in our world pushing the boundaries as a feminist and as an iconoclastic musician, writer. She gives us breathing room for artistic expression and a high bar for greatness.

JSInk: Did you follow Joni's progressions from folk into the jazzier more difficult stuff?
Cole: I was studying and listening to jazz in high school. Literally, I was driving myself to Berklee for lessons with a trumpet player/drummer/vocal professor when I was a senior at Rockport Public High School. I was shedding my "two-five" chord progressions, practicing my scat-singing with Jamie Abersold tapes, listening to Miles, learning the Real Book, listening to Sarah Vaughn, Annie Lennox from Eurythmics Aretha Franklin and Joni -all great singers and musicians. I discovered Joni's different musical phases all at once, I never thought she was deviating from hit-pop or folk writing.  Her range was completely natural for me, who was already a student of jazz. Now as a grown woman I see how FEW singer songwriters have lived in both stylistic camps of pop and jazz unless they ARE jazzers. And for me to have had and be known for a pop hit? It's odd, ill-fitting, incomplete. Musicians tend to know who I am, as do my true fans.

JSInk: What's the shape of the show vis-a-vis music and chat?
Cole: I want to add that I have watched Joni a lot in interviews. I've also had the great honor to just have lunch. If you know Joni, she talks! But what makes it palatable in light of the authoritative  monologuing is her wisdom. She'll let phrases roll that are Confucian, prophetic, important. Like Picasso said, "the artists are the politicians of the future." The truth is, she IS the Queen, the Innovator, the mother of modern singer songwriters. SHE knows that and so should we!

JSInk: Does it get into the turbulence, her romances, the finding of the daughter she gave up for adoption, or does it focus solely on music?
Cole: Yes, the student-written play has done its best to represent the whole of Joni, who faced great loss and challenge in life and in the music business. We will come away hopefully reflecting on the choices of an innovator, a feminist who reminded true to her process, even at great cost. We should come away reflecting upon these narrow expectations and definitions for females in music. We are so much more, we are everything.
JSInk: Are you using her words, yours or the Berklee writers?
Cole: Remember that I am not acting! I am but a special guest among the students, who occupy the real platform. I sing her songs with love and respect.

The band is a nine-piece picked by Carrington (who recenty won a Grammy for "The Mosaic Project")  Carrington called them "advanced to the point of sounding pro. They have the technique, good sound and are steeped in the history of jazz." There will be new arrangements written by students and Berklee faculty. Students also handle the stage managing, assistant directing, lighting and sound etc.
The show starts at 7:30 and tickets are $8 and $13 in advance and $12 and $17 day of. The event will also be streamed on Concert Window. http://concertwindow.com/3007/may-3-tuesday-berklee-world-strings

136 Massachusetts Ave., 617-747-2261 www.berkleebpc.com