The same day that Joni Mitchell releases her next album, Shine on Hear Music (the Starbucks label), Herbie Hancock will release his new album, River: The Joni Letters on Verve. Hancock’s new album features illustrious guests Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza, with accompaniment from Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Vinnie Colaiuta and Lionel Loueke! Snap!

Joni and Herbie

Joni Mitchell sings on the new version of “The Tea Leaf Prophecy” and the album also includes Shorter’s “Nefertiti” (originally recorded for Miles Davis’ Nefertiti album) and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude.” Herbie Hancock’s website describes the album thus:

“We wanted to create a new vocabulary, a new way of speaking in a musical sense,” Hancock says. Klein adds, “we used the words to guide us. All of the music emanated from the poetry.”

Sounds smooth.

Read all about it on Hancock’s website:
Herbie Hancock site

Audio from “Nefertiti” by Wayne Shorter:

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