It’s Dr. Mitchell, now — and she’s got the beret to prove it.
Joni Mitchell received an honorary doctorate from Boston’s Berklee College of Music in a private ceremony last week in Santa Monica, Calif.
The folk icon wore her signature blond pigtails, red lipstick, and a beret embroidered with the words “Dr. Joni Mitchell,” as she accepted the honor from Berklee president Erica Muhl.
“Well, luckily I’m too old to get a swelled head,” Mitchell, 78, said at the private Aug. 23 event, according to Berklee. “I wish my parents were alive. My mother in particular would be really proud of this because she wanted me to go to college. I went to art school and I quit after a year. She thinks of me as a quitter. So to see this achievement would be really impressive to her.”
Terri Lyne Carrington, director of Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, joined Muhl in presenting the degree. Carrington said she’s had a “mission” to honor Mitchell since before the pandemic.
“This industry has not always been kind to women,” Carrington told the Globe in a recent phone interview. “In so many ways, Joni was a perfect match for our first time being involved with [presenting] an honorary doctorate.”
“She’s always represented herself; she’s always controlled her visual aesthetic, which is not common for women,” said Carrington, herself a three-time Grammy winning drummer and producer. “I’m sure she had to fight to do that. It would be harder for me if someone like Joni Mitchell didn’t do that first.”
“To be a complete artist — one that not only makes great music but also allows their politics and self-perception to be a part of their artistic statement — she was a real renegade with all that,” said Carrington. “She calls a spade a spade, and she speaks her truth. It’s so inspiring.”
Carrington first met Mitchell in the 1980s at jazz musician Wayne Shorter’s home in LA. Carrington and Mitchell also both worked on Herbie Hancock’s album “Gershwin’s World.”
Both Hancock — who received his honorary Berklee degree in ‘86 — and Shorter — who earned his in ‘99 — attended the event Aug. 23. The night included performances by Grammy winner Dianne Reeves, who received her Berklee honorary degree in ‘03; Berklee alum/Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding; Grammy-nominated vocal group säje, whose members include Berklee alum Erin Bentlage; and Berklee students.
Mitchell made headlines when she was in New England this summer — she delivered a powerful set at Newport Folk Festival, marking a triumphant return to the stage after her 2015 brain aneurysm.
“I was crying watching that video,” Carrington said. “To have overcome what she’s overcome — she’s just a powerful woman.”
Lauren Daley can be reached at ldaley33@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurendaley1.