LOS ANGELES  On the anniversary of his surprising Grammy Award win, Herbie Hancock reminisced and was still handing all the credit to Canadian Joni Mitchell.

Hancock stunned onlookers last year by nabbing the album of the year prize for the Joni Mitchell tribute, "River: The Joni Letters."

"It was her music, her vision and her artistry - one of a kind," he said backstage at Sunday's show. "The thing is without Joni Mitchell's music I couldn't have won album of the year. Her greatness, her vision, the heart, the beauty and the truth of her lyrics.

"She is very, extremely passionate about what she does. And so it takes that kind of tenacity to become an artist that she is."

Yet Hancock said that Mitchell was "kind of oblivious" to the whole honour.

"She said: 'You (won)?"' he recalled. "And I said: 'No, we did.' She said: 'Oh. Congratulations."'

Most important, Hancock said, was staying true to Mitchell's words.

"In order to do justice to Joni, I felt I had to use her lyrics as the engine to making the music," he said. "I studied those lyrics and really tried to make them my own."