HERBIE HANCOCK
River: The Joni Letters
Verve
It would be easy to see Herbie Hancock’s
latest project, the Joni letters, as an extension of his
attempts to delve deeply into popular music with deep jazz
arrangements and interpretations, as he did on the groundbreaking
New Standards and the more pop-oriented Possibilities.
However, Hancock and producer/arranger Larry Klein, Joni
Mitchell’s longtime partner and collaborator, spent
a long time looking very closely at Mitchell’s lyrics
and attempting to create arrangements that would do more
than accompany them. Instead they sought to use the music
to help convey the song’s lyrical meaning and feeling.
The result is an album of musical depth,
with a lot to listen to for jazz fans and music lovers,
even though more pop-oriented listeners can still enjoy
the vocal performances of the six singers (five female,
including Mitchell herself, and one male) that were chosen
to sing several of Mitchell’s songs. For example,
the opener, a rendition of ‘Court and Spark’
sung by Norah Jones, benefits from Hancock’s ability
to go outside the song’s prescribed chords as well
as from the way Wayne Shorter plays with the song’s
melodic elements. The result features Jones’ pleasant
take on Mitchell’s writing and phrasing, but provides
a much deeper listening experience than would likely result
from Jones merely covering the song, accompanying herself.
Most of Mitchell’s material here is
from the period 1974, when she released Court and Spark,
1975, when the much-underrated Hissing of Summer Lawns
was released, and 1976’s Hejira. The outliers
are the instrumental rendition of ‘Both Sides Now’,
which came from 1969’s Clouds, “River”
from 1971’s Blue, and ‘The Tea Leaf
Prophecies,’ from 1988’s Chalkmark in a
Rainstorm, sung by Mitchell herself. From 1974-1976,
Mitchell moved increasingly in the direction of jazz. Her
first attempts were less than convincing on some level,
because they maintained a high degree of pop sensibility
and because her studio backup musicians (including Tom Scott’s
fusion band L. A. Express on Miles of Aisles) just
didn’t seem free enough to convey the way that Mitchell’s
lyrics were helping drive her music itself to a different
place. The take here on the Court and Spark and
Hissing of Summer Lawns material is especially
gratifying. Tina Turner turns in a fine vocal performance
on “Edith and the Kingpin,” while Hancock and
Shorter, aided the ubiquitous Lionel Loueke on guitar, Dave
Holland on bass, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums lace the accompaniment
with the cheesy glitz and sense of foreboding of the lyrics.
Luciana Souza has a difficult task in interpreting “Amelia”
from Hejira, because its lyrics seem such a personal statement
of artistic and human independence that there would seem
to be little room for interpretation. Though Souza and the
band don’t venture too far from the song’s original
feel, it ends up being very much Souza’s interpretation.
“Tea Leaf Prophecy” places Mitchell in front
of this stellar jazz ensemble, reuniting her with Hancock
(who played on Mingus), and demonstrates as well as any
track here that Mitchell is an artist with a jazz heart
whose work has not always been well served by the pop music
industry’s insistence on adapting one’s sound
to suit the time which one is recording.
The instrumental numbers are equally gratifying,
with the band deconstructing ‘Both Sides Now,’
but maintaining the song’s inherent beauty and melancholy
even while exploring its harmonic possibilities. “Solitude”
and “Nefertiti” are jazz instrumentals that
both speak to the influence of jazz music on Mitchell’s
own work. Ellington’s “solitude” speaks
to the influence of Ellington himself, as an artist and
composer of jazz standards, show music, ambitious suites
of music, sacred music, and more. Ellington’s ‘beyond
category’ statement would certainly be appropriate
in any in-depth examination of Mitchell’s work as
well. Like a few other female songwriters—most notably
Laura Nyro and Rickie lee Jones—Mitchell finds her
inspiration in jazz, rhythm and blues, female singing groups,
and gospel as well as other mainstream forms of popular
music. Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti,” composed
when he was with the Miles Davis Quintet, is a touchstone
in the way it emphasized rhythm over melody. Mitchell has
always considered Davis, along with visual artist Pablo
Picasso, to be a major influence. “Nefertiti”
gets a nice updating and features Shorter on tenor sax.
Mitchell’s music will continue to be
of interest to jazz singers and songwriters (see my piece
The
New Singer-Songwriters) as well as musicians
who value music that responds well to a deep reading.
River: The Joni Letters is a valentine from the world
of jazz to Mitchell, communicating that her heartfelt experimentation
with that world has stood the test of time and come full
circle to influence the music that influenced her.
