When you're a musician, there's probably no greater tribute than your contemporaries banding together to record your songbook. So it goes for Joni Mitchell, thanks to close pal Herbie Hancock, who is about to release "River: The Joni Letters," (Verve) on Sept. 25. The disc pays homage to some of Mitchell's most compelling work, if not necessarily her most famous. The two music icons have been "compadres," Hancock says, for decades, and had worked together previously on several projects, including Mitchell's 1979 album "Mingus," a tribute to jazz great Charlie Mingus.
On the new album, Mitchell guest stars on a special version of "The Tea Leaf Prophecy," while other notables include Tina Turner on "Edith and the Kingpin," Norah Jones on "Court and Spark" and Corinne Bailey Rae on "River."
Hancock headlines "An Evening with Herbie Hancock" at Symphony Center on Thursday night to officially kick off this year's Chicago Jazz Festival festivities. The iconic pianist spoke to the Sun-Times about his new album.
Q. Why did you decide to record an album of Joni Mitchell music?
A. I feel like I'm discovering her for the very first time. I've known her since the "Mingus" project all those years ago. I've been on a couple of her records, she's been on a couple of mine [including "Gershwin's World"], and in between we've performed on the same bill for several concerts for famine relief efforts and other social causes. And I've long admired her as an incredible, multidimensional artist. She's also a Renaissance woman. She just finished composing a ballet. She's a wonderful painter, an incredible poet.
But when she first became famous, I had tunnel vision. I was so into jazz that I wasn't paying attention to folk music or pop music, so it took me a while to appreciate her lyrics. So for the first time, I got to delve into the poetry of her lyrics with this album project.
Q. What is it about Mitchell's lyrics that entrances you so?
A. She talks the way she writes. I'm amazed at her writing talent. I looked at her [song] catalog, looked at words she had written when she was 20. I'd read two phrases and then stop because what she had written was so rich with imagery and metaphors. How was it possible that a person that young could write like that?
Q. What was her reaction when she found out about your album project?
A. She didn't know I was gonna be doing this record, actually, for the longest time. I finally let her know when I was invited to Toronto to present her with the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame award.
Q. What still surprises you about Joni Mitchell the songwriter?
A. Well, when I was up there in Toronto, she invited a bunch of us music types back to her hotel suite and we were all there just partying and having a good time. And she had this room with a hi-fi system and she just up and says, "Here's what I've been working on." And she played these tracks from her upcoming album. She's on there doing all these tracks with keyboards and synthesizers. She's fallen in love with the synth sound and she's doing it all herself, accompanied by a drummer and bassist. And as far as I know, the guitar work is all her own, too. She is just this unique artist. She's fearless about music.
Q. How did you did get her to sing on "Tea Leaf Prophecy"?
A. Joni's mother passed away in January, and we thought the song would really resonate with Joni. It's this wonderful story about her mom who went to a fortune-teller who told her she would fall in love and be married in a month. Well, this soldier comes home from WWII on two weeks' furlough, meets Joni's mom, and two weeks later, they were married. That's all in the lyrics. And for the first time, Joni uses her mom's real first name because on the original recording, the woman's name is Molly McGee. On my album, Joni uses Mabel, her mom's name. That made the song even more special for all of us.
Q. How good has jazz been to you?
A. [Laughing] It's been fantastic to me. I wouldn't be able to play the music I played, going off into the directions I went off into if I didn't have jazz as a foundation.
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