..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page     The Desert Island     Copyright Notice
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Herbie Hanccock: River (The Joni Letters)

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Verve Records
Released: 2007
Time:
 67:56
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.herbiehancock.com
Appears with: Chick Corea, Jack de Johnette
Purchase date: 2003.01.04
Price in €: 17,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Court and Spark (J.Mitchell) - 7:36
[2] Edith and the Kingpin (J.Mitchell) - 6:33
[3] Both Sides Now (J.Mitchell) - 7:39
[4] River (J.Mitchell) - 5:26
[5] Sweet Bird (J.Mitchell) - 8:17
[6] The Tea Leaf Prophecy [Lay Down Your Arms] (J.Mitchell) - 6:35
[7] Solitude (J.Mitchell) - 5:44
[8] Amelia (J.Mitchell) - 7:28
[9] Nefertiti (J.Mitchell) - 7:31
[10] The Jungle Line (J.Mitchell) - 5:00 

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Herbie Hancock - Piano, Producer, Management

Dave Holland - Bass
Vinnie Colaiuta - Drums
Lionel Loueke - Guitar
Wayne Shorter - Soprano & Tenor Saxophone

Norah Jones - Vocals
Tina Turner - Vocals
Corinne Bailey Rae - Vocals
Joni Mitchell - Vocals
Luciana Souza - Vocals
Leonrad Cohen - Vocals

Larry Klein - Producer
Helix Hadar - Engineer, Mixing, Vocal Engineer
Dahlia Ambach Caplin - Executive Producer
Brian Montgomery - Assistant Engineer
Wesley Seidman - Assistant Engineer
Justin Gerrish - Assistant Engineer
Steve Chrisanthou - Vocal Engineer
Bernie Grundman - Mastering
Kwaku Alston - Photography
Lisa Hansen - Release Coordinator
Hollis King - Art Direction
Cameron Mizell - Release Coordinator
Evelyn Morgan - A&R
Melinda Murphy - Production Coordination, Management
Cindi Peters - Production Coordination
John Newcott - Release Coordinator


 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2007 CD Universal 1100
2007 CD Verve 000979102
2007 CD Verve 1744826

The legendary pianist and innovator Herbie Hancock explores the words and music of another musical pioneer, Joni Mitchell, on his first new studio recording for Verve since 1998's GRAMMY® award-winning Gershwin's World. Inspired in equal parts by Mitchell's poetic lyrics and unique melodies, Hancock and saxophone giant Wayne Shorter play with a restraint and elegance that achieves a perfect balance between the adventurous aesthetics of jazz improvisation and the emotional directness of the finest Adult Pop music. Hancock builds upon his (and Shorter's) previous collaborations with Ms. Mitchell to create a sound that will appeal not only to fans of both artists, but to the listener familiar with the work of Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and the other brilliant guest vocalists featured on this session. River: The Joni Letters is the perfect CD for the music fan looking for something new that's based in the familiar.



On paper, River sounds like a match made in several versions of heaven. Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock re-imagines Joni Mitchell with his hand-picked, star-studded band - including saxophonist Wayne Shorter - in tow. Luminary guests lend vocals to a song apiece: Norah Jones ("Court and Spark"), Tina Turner ("Edith and the Kingpin"), Corinne Bailey Rae ("River"), Luciana Souza ("Amelia"), Leonard Cohen (with an unsettlingly sanguine version of "The Jungle Line"), even Mitchell herself ("Tea Leaf Prophecy"). In the event, though, a few fundamental elements go awry. Hancock plays with almost saccharine understatement throughout, and even Shorter's seminal "Nefertiti" and Duke Ellington's "Solitude" fall into the album's presiding, somnolent surface, though to a lesser degree does the instrumental version of Mitchell's "Sweet Bird." But girding, and in some measure, saving, the proceedings, the lyrics here testify to a subtler wisdom guiding Hancock's set list. The mix includes a continuum from intrepid classics to dusty, fans-only fare, but a distinct reverence for Joni Mitchell the Poet threads them together, and, in the end, this album works best as a sleepy window into one fan's giddy and particular love affair with his source material. Fans of Hancock win out.

Jason Kirk - Amazon.com



Ein Traum: die ersten Takte machen alles klar. Herbie Hancock spielt Klavier; er saugt den Hörer auf, unvermittelt, unausweichlich. Das neue Album River – The Joni Letters ist eine Liebeserklärung an Joni Mitchell und ihr Werk, es besingt ihre Songs, flirtend, aufmerksam, mit sensiblen Arrangements. In einen insgesamt eher traditionellen Jazzstil mischen sich poppige Joni-Harmonien und manches Mal moderne Töne. Überall ist Luft zum Atmen, Zeit zu sprechen oder zu schweigen. Dave Holland spielt Bass, Wayne Shorter am Saxofon beschenkt die hochkonzentrierte Aufführung mit Eindringlichkeit – er strahlt, mit soviel Kraft in jeder einzelnen Note; seine Solopassagen setzen dem musikalischen Diamantenregen die Krone auf.

Erklärtes Ziel von Herbie Hancock war es, die poetischen Texte von Joni Mitchell instrumental umzusetzen. Da ist es schade, dass diese nicht im booklet abgedruckt sind. Mehr als die Hälfte der Melodien werden übrigens gesungen; von Joni Mitchell selbst und von anderen SängerInnen, die ihre Sache ausnahmslos hervorragend machen: Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza, Loenard Cohen, ja sogar Tina Turner macht mit. River – The Joni Letters ist ein intimes, ein durchlässiges Album, anders als 2002, als Joni Mitchell, mit Herbie Hancock und Wayne Shorter als Gästen, eine Big-Band-CD mit ihren Songs einspielte. Von Herbie Hancock ist man immer wieder überrascht. Der Jazzgigant ist oft genial, manchmal stand er schon mit ausgeflippten Experimenten am Rande des geschmacklichen Nirvana. Hier gibt es mal gar keinen Zweifel: diese Aufnahme ist ein Volltreffer geworden.

Katharina Lohmann - Amazon.de



When Herbie Hancock released Possibilities (2005), a collaborative effort that paired the great pianist and composer with a group of pop and rock stocks from the world over, it was obvious the restless master was entering a new phase of his long career. In that context, River: The Joni Letters makes perfect sense. Hancock and his fine band - Lionel Loueke (guitar), Wayne Shorter (soprano and tenor saxophones), Dave Holland (bass), Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) - prepare a series of instrumentals and vocal interpretations of the songs of Joni Mitchell. The vocalists here include those who were inspired by Mitchell, namely Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Mitchell herself on one number (her own recording, Shine, was released on the same day), and some of her peers in the pop world, including Tina Turner and Leonard Cohen. Cohen's connection to the songwriter is direct in that they are both Canadians and both came up playing clubs and venues in the then new "folk" scene. But Hancock understands something implicit about Mitchell: she was never - ever - a folksinger. Her compositions have always walked wildly adventurous rhythmic and harmonic terrain. Indeed, she has played with jazz musicians solidly since the 1970s, beginning with the L.A. record, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, and toured with jazz groups, including the all-star band assembled for Shadows and Light that included Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Lyle Mays, Don Alias, and Michael Brecker (Shorter played on a number of those dates as well). Indeed, when Mitchell asked no less than Robbie Robertson and the Band to back her on a tour, they had to excuse themselves because they simply couldn't find a way to play behind her. The material here doesn't walk the line between pop and jazz - something Hancock is very comfortable doing. This is a jazz record with vocals. The album's ten tracks are, for the most part, programmed for a vocal tune, followed by an instrumental. This holds true with only one exception in that the disc's first two songs are vocals. First there's the lovely, spooky, smoky "Court and Spark," sung by Jones, followed immediately by the ethereal yet from-the-gut version of "Edith and the Kingpin," sung by Turner (it should be noted here that she is in fine voice, since she hadn't been heard from in quite a while). In this latter cut, it's a testament to the singer, the writer, and Hancock, how deeply soulful this performance is. Turner is one of the great soul singers, but this ballad lends itself to another kind of reading and is therefore radically reinterpreted here with Turner's trademark phrasing, and the restraint doesn't give up an ounce of the emotion in it. The instrumentals begin with "Both Sides Now," which is harmonically rearranged by Hancock and indeed feels like it is being played from the inside out. Shorter's meaty yet understated tenor solo is reminiscent of the great tenderness of Ben Webster. It's utterly gorgeous. The shimmering "Sweet Bird" is hiked up a notch and really begins to cook about a third of the way through without losing any of the song's naturally dreamy quality. Again, Shorter handles the lyric lines on his tenor with real grace. Hancock's wonderfully large chromatic interplay in both his chords and right-handed lines from the middle register are achingly beautiful. The final two instrumentals on the set are surprises, but they are placed here, perhaps, because they were inspirational to Mitchell. The first is a fine reading of the Edgar de Lange/Duke Ellington/Irving Mills tune "Solitude," a sweet, tender ballad that nonetheless contains some unusual moments in its drifting structure and in its changes. The latter is Shorter's classic "Neferititi," written while both he and Hancock were with Miles Davis in the second quintet. It didn't sound like this then, but that's the beauty of Shorter's best work: it can be revisioned a hundred times over in so many different ways yet is unmistakably his. The other vocal performances here are basically stellar. Rae's version of the title cut offers a completely different dimension of her voice. The soul feel is still there - and she pushes it into the grooves of the tune. But her clipping of her lines at the end, making them so clean - especially in the way they interact with Shorter's soprano - is rather stunning. The hinge of the set is Mitchell's performance of a song she wrote with Larry Klein (who co-produced the album with Hancock and has been Mitchell's producer for ages). Her voice has lowered a bit after a lifetime of cigarette smoking and age, but she's lost none of her power. Her unique phrasing and ever-shifting rhythmic invention brings the listener back to why exactly this recording makes so much sense! She is a jazz singer and always has been. This band lends even more weight to that argument. The nearly seductive interplay between Hancock's and Loueke's six-string fills and her voice is almost erotic. Luciana Souza's "Amelia" is, while hauntingly gorgeous, the most outside performance on the record. Her voice is closest in some ways to Mitchell's own in timbre, but her way of holding syllables until they melt into the ones that follow adds space and texture to the band's accompaniment. She is one of them, not in front of them. Finally, of course, there is Cohen, the only male vocalist on this collection. He doesn't even try to sing. Instead, accompanied only by Hancock, he recites "The Jungle Line" as poetry. Perhaps because Cohen is a poet as well as a songwriter, he is able to offer a completely new interpretation out of the tune. He allows the words to represent themselves, plaintively reading them as Hancock improvises the melody line, in a modal frame and in a startling array of minor key permutations. River approaches brilliance; it's another accomplishment in a career full of them for Hancock. The album doesn't simply recontextualize Mitchell. Any fan of hers has known that she never comfortably fit the whole singer/songwriter thing anyway. It actually does that more for jazz and pop. He takes a sound that has been floating around since Jones issued her debut album, and roots it deeply in the jazz camp without giving up the immediacy of sophisticated adult pop -- which is, in a way, an element of the tradition of jazz itself. For jazz fans, this is a wonderful new chapter, a new way to hear him (and Shorter). For pop and Mitchell fans, this is a way to step quietly into another world and experience wonders. This CD was nominated for a Grammy award in 2007 for Best Album, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and Hancock's improvisation on "Both Sides Now" was also nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



Any doubts about the incongruity of jazz icon Herbie Hancock covering singer-songwriter extraordinare Joni Mitchell will be obliterated on the first journey through RIVER: THE JONI LETTERS. For starters, the premise is not especially incongruous. Hancock has had a long, adventurous career in which he's traversed genres and masterfully blended styles, while Mitchell has always been deeply influenced by jazz as both a composer and a singer. RIVER features many of Mitchell's finest songs, stunning in their own right and reinterpreted beautifully by Hancock, plus a stellar assortment of musicians and guest vocalists. Mitchell's pop and folk tendencies have been assimilated into the arrangements; the album plays like a vocal jazz outing. Hancock is joined by fellow Miles Davis alums Wayne Shorter and Dave Holland, among others, and the guest vocalists include Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen, and - on one track - Mitchell herself. Sophisticated, soulful, and gorgeous, RIVER is a must for fans of Mitchell, classic jazz, adult contemporary artists like Norah Jones - and, well, just about everyone.

CDUniverse.com



 "This is Hancock's finest album since GERSHWIN'S WORLD....RIVER inspires complex reflections on the wonders of Joni, the renewable and re-workable nature of great art..."

JazzTimes (p.88)



"RIVER: THE JONI LETTERS puts real jazz into Mitchell's bohemian oeuvre..."

No Depression (p.94)
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!