River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) - Amazon.com Exclusive

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Track Listing
1. Court and Spark featuring Norah Jones
2. Edith and the Kingpin featuring Tina Turner
4. Both Sides Now
5. River featuring Corinne Bailey Rae
6. Sweet Bird
7. Tea Leaf Prophecy featuring Joni Mitchell
8. Solitude
9. Amelia featuring Luciana Souza
10. Nefertiti
11. The Jungle Line featuring Leonard Cohen
12. All I Want featuring Sonya Kitchell (Exclusive Bonus Track)
13. A Case of You (Exclusive Bonus Track)

Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #4 in Music
- Released on: 2007-09-25
- Number of discs: 1
- Format: Special Edition

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com :

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

Album Description

This Amazon.com exclusive version of River: The Joni Letters includes two bonus tracks, "All I Want" featuring Sonya Kitchell and "A Case of You."
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.

Customer Reviews

Joni and Jazz

This a "sit and listen carefully" cd. For those who know the originals as Joni Mitchell did them, these will stretch your ears - they are, as you'd expect, more jazzy. At times a bit too "spaced out" for my tastes (starting with the solos in "Court and Spark") it is nevertheless fascinating to hear the way others interpret these magnificent songs.

Repositioned and reinvented

What I love most about this album is what the music on this album does to reposition the singers to re-invent themselves. Tina Turner singing Edith and the Kingpin, starts off with her readily recognizable "Tina" voice and after a few bars, she's repositioned by the context of the music such that I'm hearing a Tina Turner that I've never heard before - and I LOVE what emerges because it is like hearing to her voice for the very first time - or at least "rediscovering" it in a different setting that allows her to show us something more of how amazing she is as a performer. A similar phenomenon occurs for me with the other singers on this album - I am thrilled by what I am hearing.

Tina Turner steals the show!

I have been a fan of Tina Turner all my life. I have seen her sing R&B,Blues,Country,Pop, and Rock. I was nervous when I heard she was going to perform a jazz track. When I heard it was with Herbie Hancock I was relieved, he is music royalty also. I read that Herbie flew to Tina Turner's home in Switzerland to get her to record Edith & Kingpin. Wow, was that flight worth it. I am entranced by this song. Tina's delivery is spot on. Her emotion, her sensuality, her slow gentle persuasion is like no other "Turner" sound you have heard before. I say this track is worth the price of the CD, heck even worth the price of a flight to her home in Switzerland.