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Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters [Verve]

For his latest project Herbie delves into the Joni Mitchell songbook. With a band including Wayne Shorter and vocal performances from Norah Jones (‘Court And Spark’), Corinne Bailey Rae (‘River’), Leonard Cohen (‘The Jungle Line’) and Joni herself (‘Tea Leaf Prophecy’) this makes for a pleasant listening experience and could well see some airplay on the likes of BBC Radio 2. The real standout here though is a version of one of my all time favourite Joni tracks, ‘Edith And The Kingpin’ featuring Tina Turner. I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of Ms Turner but here her vocals are more restrained than usual yet retain those wonderful earthy tones which sit perfectly on this glorious laid back jazz interpretation.