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Herbie's Take on Joni Mitchell, and the Value of Gigging
by Fradley Garner
Herbie Hancock, winner of the 2008 Album of the Year Grammy for River: The Joni Letters, took the stage with collaborator and inspiration Joni Mitchell when he taped a show for Nissan Live Sets that debuted April 1 on Yahoo! Music. Mitchell sang three of her songs, “River," “Tea Leaf Prophecy" and “Hana." Hancock, backed by guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, vocalist Sonya Kitchell and DJ C-Minus, also played such classics as “Chameleon," ...
Continue ReadingHerbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters
by George Kanzler
The participation of such former and present Grammy nominees and winners as Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza and Leonard Cohen (reading “The Jungle Line" like a beat poet), as well as the iconic stature of Joni Mitchell herself, may have immeasurably helped in winning this CD the Grammy Album of the Year award. But that doesn't diminish the significance of it being the first jazz album to win the award in forty-three years. For make no ...
Continue ReadingBennie Maupin: The Jewel In The Lotus
by Budd Kopman
For the collector, a first-time issue on CD of any of ECM's early releases is most welcome. Which ones are chosen for release--and when they are issued--may well appear to be arbitrary to the outsider, despite a certain plan internal to the label.That The Jewel In The Lotus, first released in 1974, has finally been issued on CD is worth celebrating for two reasons: first, the music is of the highest quality; and second, Bennie Maupin has not ...
Continue ReadingBennie Maupin: The Jewel in the Lotus
by AAJ Italy Staff
Non mi stupirebbe che, in una delle tante trasmissioni televisive che si occupano di misteri, proponessero un servizio sul perché The Jewel in the Lotus di Bennie Maupin sia rimasto per così tanto tempo privato dell'onore della ristampa in CD. Artista appartenente alla scena di Detroit, Maupin ha attraversato in modo poco appariscente, ma in realtà intenso, le vicende del jazz contemporaneo a partire dalla seconda metà degli anni Sessanta, comparendo a fianco di Marion Brown, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, ...
Continue ReadingHerbie Hancock: Inspired By the Written Word of a Friend
by R.J. DeLuke
If Herbie Hancock never played another note, or gave the world nothing more for the rest of his life other than electronic pop or dyed-in-the-wool, straight-ahead, VSOP-style jazz--it wouldn't matter. His stature, accomplishments and legacy are secure. But he doesn't do that. Not his nature. Which is one of the reasons why, even among great pianists--and Hancock resides at the zenith of his instrument--he is held in a particularly higher esteem. The musician who made his bones killin' ...
Continue ReadingBennie Maupin: The Jewel in the Lotus
by John Kelman
Of the ECM titles that have remained unavailable on CD, woodwind multi-instrumentalist Bennie Maupin's The Jewel in the Lotus (1974) has long been considered a holy grail for collectors in search of a vinyl copy, and a title that's been on many fans' wish lists for release on CD. Well, it's finally happened and it's been worth the wait. Those familiar will recognize it as still classic thirty years on; for those unfamiliar with its magic, it's time to get ...
Continue ReadingHerbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters
by John Kelman
While it might be easy, on the surface, to view pianist Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters as a continuation of Possibilities (Hear, 2005), nothing could be further from the truth. Possibilities was an unapologetically pop record; River is unequivocally jazz--although such broad classifications shouldn't matter. River is, quite simply, a superb disc that takes Joni Mitchell's extant jazz proclivities and gives them an even greater interpretive boost. The majority of River is culled from Mitchell's “classic" songwriting ...
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