Music CD - Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) - Amazon.com Exclusive

	Music CD: River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) - Amazon.com Exclusive Artist: Herbie Hancock List Price: $18.98 Our Price: $12.99 Your Save: $ 5.99 ( 32% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Verve
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Tracks: 1. Court and Spark featuring Norah Jones 2. Edith and the Kingpin featuring Tina Turner 3. Both Sides Now 4. River featuring Corinne Bailey Rae 5. Sweet Bird 6. Tea Leaf Prophecy featuring Joni Mitchell 7. Solitude 8. Amelia featuring Luciana Souza 9. Nefertiti 10. The Jungle Line featuring Leonard Cohen 11. All I Want featuring Sonya Kitchell (Exclusive Bonus Track) 12. A Case of You (Exclusive Bonus Track)
Binding: Audio CD Format: Special Edition Label: Verve Manufacturer: Verve Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Verve Release Date: 2007-09-25 Studio: Verve
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Never let spirit die Comment: There's so much going on in this recording that it's hard to gain purchase on the album as a whole. Great to hear Nefertiti brought back with the marvelous Wayne Shorter. I had recently relistened to the Hissing of Summer Lawns where a lot of Joni's later music is prefigured so there is definitely a memory lane aspect to the listening experience. I just don't think it gets much better than this. On the vocals: I love Luciana Souza ("perhaps like a soft brazilian singer"), Corinne Bailey Rae merges and flows with the river, Joni is simply supreme. Wasn't all that thrilled with Norah Jones, though. And the master himself, Herbie Hancock, who knows how to assemble, blend, step into the foreground when needed, and hang back when that's the thing to do. I listen to this recording all the time. Customer Rating: Summary: Corinne Bailey Rae's River Comment: I just heard this one track so that is all I'm commenting on. This was absolutely painful - she's sounding happy when she's singing it! Even though I love this song as Mitchell did it, I was open to hearing a different interpretation but this one is total junk.. "I made my baby cry" doesn't really rate a smile in the voice, does it? Customer Rating: Summary: best album in years Comment: Since receiving this album several weeks ago, I have not been able to take it out of my cd player. Herbie lays down the piano tracks like no one else can. Wayne Shorters haunting soprano sax in the background adds texture to the melodies and all of the vocals are right on. This is the only Grammy album of the year that is deserving of the honor. Customer Rating: Summary: Just like a heart of ZEN ! Comment: A sound abreast of a heart of ZEN is calm and is beautiful. It seems to be able to totally take in streamflow in the heart. Customer Rating: Summary: A Once In A Life Time Convergence Of Two Geniuses! Comment: Two geniuses converge, Joni's music and lyrics interpreted by Herbie's avant garde jazz arrangements. Although not a perfect CD the music is captivating! The vocals here are performed by artists of the highest caliber. The jazz instrumental arrangements are quiet and progressive performed by the very best jazz musicians in the world. Don't pass this music by! If this were an vinyl LP I would have worn it out by now. 'River: The Joni Letters' is the 2007 Grammy-winning album by Herbie Hancock. Who cares about awards? I only care about content! Highly recommended. More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: 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