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Mitchell's wide-ranging vocals and her distinctive open-tuned guitar and piano compositions grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she explored jazz, melding it with her influences in rock n roll, R & B, classical music and non-western beats.

Mitchell's experimental run of jazz-inspired albums, including 1975's The Hissing of Summer Lawns and 1976's Hejira, confused many and hurt Mitchell's sales at the time, but they are acclaimed today.

In the late 1970s, she began working closely with noted jazz musicians, among them Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Charles Mingus, the last of whom asked her to collaborate on his final recordings.

In her later work Mitchell turned again toward pop, embraced electronic music, and engaged in political protest.

Mitchell was also the sole record producer credited on most of her albums, including all her work in the 1970s.

With roots in visual art, she designed her own album artwork throughout her career.

A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell quit touring and released her 17th, and reportedly last, album of original songs in 2007.

Now based in British Columbia, she describes herself as a " painter derailed by circumstance.