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 - Awesome!!! Awesome!!! Awesome!!!Herbie Hancock is a genius. The sound engineer who did this CD is a genius. Together, they created something that sounds like they are in my listening room. They are simply there! The music is perfect, chords like nowhere else. Rating: - One Fabulous CDThis is a very fine CD with Joni Mitchell songs rendered by various artists, including Joni and Herbie. I've had it about a month and listen to it about once a day, average. Buy it, it's worth every penny! Rating:  - Second half really makes this CD a good oneA terrific CD, although the early songs didn't quite hook me the first time I listened to this CD. Once I got to "Sweet Bird", however, I was loving it. While the first few songs are good, the second half of the CD is definitely better than the first. Rating: - Nice Surprise!This CD was a wonderful surprise to me. I was expecting more of a pop feel and was pleasantly surprised by how improvisational it was. Norah Jones' gorgeous take on "Court and Spark" is beautifully realized and extremely haunting. I enjoyed Tina Turner's version of "Edith," as well. There's much here to absorb...especially for jazz fans. Others would find this material difficult to penetrate. It's so nice that it won the Grammy. It's a deep and rather dark musical journey, but well worth it. Lovely. Rating: - The jazz-piano icon turns choice Joni Mitchell songs into a beautiful, melancholic, jazz suite.On his latest album "River: The Joni Letters", the phenomenal jazz pianist and composer reinterprets the soulful poetry of Joni Mitchell's lyrics.The good news is that his homage to Joni Mitchell digs deeper, with the help of cameo appearances from Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen and Mitchell herself With some starry guest vocalists, Hancock pastes a selection of Mitchell tunes, plus standards, on to a high-octane ensemble (including Wayne Shorter, bassist Dave Holland, on-his-way guitarist Lionel Loueke and Vinnie Colaiuta, the drummer who grew up in Fayette County), that aspires to the zeniths of the mid-1960s Miles Davis quintet. Sublime stuff, but you can't help feeling that it subsumes Mitchell's musical signature. The best tracks are those where the vocal performances are strong enough to balance out the improvisation: Tina Turner steals the show with her magisterial "Edith and the Kingpin", but all the other guests sit comfortably alongside the pianist and the band : Joni Mitchell's own "Tea Leaf Prophecy"; Leonard Cohen's weird but brilliant recitation of "The Jungle Line", accompanied by Hancock's peerless acoustic piano, Corinne Bailey Rae, who sings the title track "River", Brazilian jazz singer Luciana Sousa's elegant "Amelia". In many ways, this album of mostly Joni Mitchell songs embodies what jazz is all about. Great personnel, songs and interpretations make this album a delight. He may have one of the most distinguished Curriculum Vitae in jazz, yet there has been a jarring tone to some of Herbie Hancock's outings: not so much music-making as upmarket product placement. The best vocal numbers show how much there is to be gained from the union of improv and intelligent pop. Herbie Hancock provides strikingly fine piano work, but does it without insisting on showing virtuoso bits of flash. If fact, his support to saxophonist Wayne Shorter on "Court and Spark" perhaps shows his genius more than anything. He also gets great credit for his interpretations of these songs, which take Mitchell's pop classics and turn them into solid jazz numbers. His version of "Both Sides Now" shows only harmonic ties to the familiar song but is a great display of the instrumental musicians. Just to add a different touch, the band also does a great version of Shorter's "Nefertiti" and Duke Ellington's "Solitude".
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