For more than 40 years, Herbie Hancock has had an illustrious career as a jazz and funk artist. With River: The Joni Letters, Hancock takes a stab at the immense catalog of folk singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, but don’t expect any jazzy takes of Mitchell’s early work. Instead, the album is a pleasant yet uneven mix of Mitchell’s later songs and albums, covered by Hancock and a variety of other artists.
To create River, Hancock has enlisted some talented females to round out the album, such as Norah Jones, Tina Turner and Corinne Bailey Rae. Even Mitchell herself joins Hancock on his version of her 1988 song, “The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms).”
Hancock also uses the services of producer/arranger Larry Klein, who has served as Mitchell’s creative partner and producer for many years. This is not the first time that Hancock and Mitchell paired up – the two collaborated before on Mitchell’s 1979 album, Mingus.
The album splits time between collaborative efforts with vocals and soft-jazz, piano-based instrumentals; both kinds of tracks, however, are relaxing, calming and pleasant.
The piano melodies, when featured alone, are excellent twists on Mitchell originals, but when featured with one of the chosen vocalists, the songs strike a great balance between honoring the original recording and trying something a little different. This way of spinning off the Mitchell version of the song is absolutely necessary when attempting an album of this sort. No one wants to hear direct covers of the songs, so Hancock attempts to spin them into his own style, and he excels in this aspect.
For example, Jones lends her vocal talents to “Court and Spark,” which starts off the album and is the radio single. She fits right in alongside the smooth jazz piano and drums laid down by Hancock and his band and complements the music with her fine vocals – in fact, her contribution is so immense that the song seems more like an original Jones composition as opposed to one by Mitchell.
The album’s title track, “River,” gets the benefit of powerhouse vocals from Rae, who elevates this song above the rest of the covers on the album. Her fantastic voice and vocal range melds with the woodwinds and piano in perfect harmony – as a result, Rae’s vocals shines.
As an overall work, River is a very up-and-down affair. While there are certainly strong points, most of the songs are on the lengthy side, which tends to drag even the better songs into mediocrity (the shortest song on the album is five minutes; the longest eight). Despite this shortcoming, much of the vocal work is excellently performed, and the performers were well-paired with the songs they performed. But don’t pick up River expecting to hear the funky, jazzy rhythms Hancock is better known for – you won’t find it when you open this letter.
tripp@umd.edu
