Joni Mitchell's influence now runs deep within the jazz world, hopefully redressing the frankly sexist abuse she received around the time of Mingus and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Thankfully, musicians can have more nouse than journalists. Herbert has taken predominantly later material (though there's an achingly earnest cover of the timeless ‘Blue’ here) and pitched it against a string quartet and electronics. His own sonorous bass, annoyingly, is played down, but he wanted the songs to the fore. To this end, he employs the voice of Ena who eerily recreates that moody Joni timbre. It's almost too good an impersonation – unlike Ian Shaw, say, who re-visited Joni on Drawn To All Things and radically re-worked Joni's delivery – Ena echoes many of Mitchell's curlicues and careening swoops. At times the strings feel unnecessarily complex, dragging down the beat, but on the likes of ‘Cherokee Louise’ they counterpoint Herbert's swinging groove. Even better are the eastern colours on ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’. If you like your Joni, dark intense, and decidedly bedsit, this CD is for you. But for Joni's love of life Shaw's interpretations remain peerless.