Herbie Hancock - The Joni Letters

[bertrand]

Herbie's new CD, with Wayne all over it, is out tomorrow. Herbie had told me there would be bonus tracks on Amazon (due to space restrictions), which I didn't quite get. Perhaps they would be available as part of the new Amazon downloads, I thought to myself.

Think again.

The core album has 10 tracks.

The version available from Amazon has two bonus cuts, on the CD apparently.

iTunes has 2 different bonus cuts, which you cannot buy separately.

So to get all 14 tracks, you have to buy the physical CD from Amazon, and buy the entire CD as well from iTunes. And I am assuming there are no other bonus tracks on eMusic, Napster or other mp3 download sites. What's a Wayne collector to do?

[JSngry]

What's a Wayne collector to do?

Buy one version, find somebody who bought the other, and swap files accordingly.

[B. Clugston]

No wonder people are buying fewer CDs.

[Free For All]

I'm just hoping that it's good (even with the Wayne factor in its favor).

[Bol]

You can listen to the whole album here:

http://www.livedaily.com/herbiehancock/

It doesn't do much for me, but some may like it.

[jmjk]

I was excited to see The Jungle Line on there. Cohen doesn't do it for me. Thomas Dolby's version is better.

[Free For All]

Just listened to this, and I must say I really enjoyed it. The group includes Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Vinnie Colaiuta and guitarist Lionel Loueke. The featured vocalists include Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Joni Mitchell, Luciana Souza and Leonard Cohen.

Each singer does a Joni Mitchell tune and the group does four instrumental tunes (Sweet Bird, Both Sides Now, Solitude and Nefertiti). Now I'm afraid I didn't get the version with the bonus tracks (I forgot about the extras until after the fact), so I'll leave it to someone else to comment on those. It's a drag that some versions of the CD don't have that material.

There is a decidedly mellow mood to the recording, and Wayne does his thing as only Wayne can do- little murmurs behind the vocals, etc. I must say one of the biggest surprises is how great Tina Turner sounds on Edith and the Kingpin! I wasn't sure how the singers were going to do on Joni's tunes, but I thought they all sounded very good. Yes, even Norah!

I hadn't heard of the guitarist, but he adds a lot to the music. Vinnie sounds very good too- he plays a lot of Tony-isms on Nefertiti. The interaction of the group and the unhurried vibe of the whole thing really creates an effective mood. Great band.

For me, Wayne gets the MVP. No one can do what he does. One of a kind.

I'll be interested to hear what others think of this. I was a little skeptical going in (I'm not always a fan of the "singer buffet"), but I was very pleasantly surprised!

Edited September 29, 2007 by Free For All

[tonym]

On BBC Radio 3 this afternoon Julian Joseph interviewed HH about the album. Sounds like it was some A&R guy's baby ( I know many discs are) and Herbie was given pointers as to what they wanted. That's how it sounded to me anyhow.

They played some selections from the album and I gotta admit the guitar spoiled it -- a bit too Metheny-ish for me.

Yes, Tina Turner did sound good. Like a good singer. Not feeling the need to strangle every single phrase. Shame she couldn't have done a bit more of this sort of thing.

Edit: you can listen again from this page

Edited September 29, 2007 by tonym

[robviti]

as a long-time joni fan, these versions did little or nothing for me. the originals are just too good.

oh, and let me be the first(?) on the board to comment on herbie's performance at the pre-festival concert in chicago last august: HE SUCKED ASS!!

sorry, but you just had to be there.

[Kari S]

Tina Turner got me off-guard too, in a good way! Everybody plays absolutely beautifully on this, Wayne's fills and Herbie's colorful comping, although some versions (like, "Both Sides Now", of which the original is incredible) don't do it for me. I also would've maybe preferred Brian Blade to Colaiuta. It's also funny how Shorter doesn't have to play more than one note to be completely recognisable. I also think that whole bonus track business is lame and annoying.

But man... I wish Herbie would just do another "The Prisoner"

Edited October 11, 2007 by Kari S

[Lazaro Vega]

Luciana Souza channels Joni on her own cd "The New Bossa Nova" where Chris Potter plays wildly different obligato.

What of Joni's appearances on "Gershwin's World"?

Hancock's been doing the new standards approach for a while at Verve. Malachi Thompson jested, He stole my idea!

[clifford_thornton]

Luciana Souza channels Joni on her own cd "The New Bossa Nova" where Chris Potter plays wildly different obligato.

And might you be channeling dancerchick?

[Lazaro Vega]

What?

Who's she?

Potter contrasted to Shorter...

Edited October 12, 2007 by Lazaro Vega

[clifford_thornton]

Our resident spammer, or one of them, always talking about Souza.

[Lazaro Vega]

Ah.

[JSngry]

She's always in the need of relaxing, or so she implies.

[BruceH]

Herbie's new CD, with Wayne all over it, is out tomorrow. Herbie had told me there would be bonus tracks on Amazon (due to space restrictions), which I didn't quite get. Perhaps they would be available as part of the new Amazon downloads, I thought to myself.

Think again.

The core album has 10 tracks.

The version available from Amazon has two bonus cuts, on the CD apparently.

iTunes has 2 different bonus cuts, which you cannot buy separately.

So to get all 14 tracks, you have to buy the physical CD from Amazon, and buy the entire CD as well from iTunes. And I am assuming there are no other bonus tracks on eMusic, Napster or other mp3 download sites. What's a Wayne collector to do?

Say "fuck it" and not buy any.

Herbie sure likes to rip people off.

[mikeweil]

But man... I wish Herbie would just do another "The Prisoner"

Not quite what you requested (in the middle between The Prisoner and Maiden Voyage), but still:

Edited October 13, 2007 by mikeweil

[7/4]

I bought it yesterday, works for me. I'm missing the extra tracks.

[7/4]

They played some selections from the album and I gotta admit the guitar spoiled it -- a bit too Metheny-ish for me.

I can't hear that at all.

[Bluerein]

iTunes EU lists the extra track All I want as a single download for €0.99 and since my Japanese copy has the A Case of you as a bonus track there's no problem at all. The Amazon.Com version has both tracks as bonus so that's the route to go for anyone who doesn't have it already. So Bertrand what other 2 tracks are you refering at?

[bertrand]

iTunes U.S. has two different bonus tracks - 'Harlem in Havana' and 'I Had a King'. They cannot be bought singly - you have to get the whole CD. Since the latter is my favorite Joni composition, this really frustrates me.

Another annoyance is this whole crap about not being able to buy tracks on the iTunes from different countries. I put together the appendix of Wayne Shorter's compositions for the paperback edition of his bio, but I have not been able to get a hold of the tune 'Zero Gravity' which was a bonus cut on the Japanese edition of Beyond The Sound Barrier. I had to speculate about this track in the appendix - BMI credits the tune to the whole band, so I'm not sure what was up with that. Even more annoying - the track is not available on French iTunes either, so I can't ask my family to buy it for me. It's available in the U.K and other places, but I have no relatives there.

[JSngry]

Wow, it's a drag that we don't have any board memebers who live in the U.K. .....

[Kyo]

iTunes U.S. has two different bonus tracks - 'Harlem in Havana' and 'I Had a King'. They cannot be bought singly - you have to get the whole CD.

Have these tracks appeared on other CDs or download services meanwhile?

[djcavanagh]

Wow, it's a drag that we don't have any board memebers who live in the U.K. .....

I'd be happy to step into the breach (and I happen to have the Japanese cd too!). Just send me a PM Bertrand.