Featured Guest Vocalists – Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and Luciana Souza Joni Mitchell and Herbie Hancock, along with Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Pablo Picasso, and other great artists of our time, share an incessant and profound creative restlessness. They each have always had the desire and need to break fresh ground with each note played or stroke of the brush.

It was exactly this kind of curiosity which motivated Davis to hire Hancock in 1963 to be a part of, along with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, arguably one of the most important groups of musicians of the twentieth century. It was in fact Miles who told Hancock to “never finish anything.” Hancock, like Joni Mitchell, has gone on to explore many different genres and mediums to express his incessant curiosity, working in the context of jazz, electronic music, funk, orchestral, and film music.

Hancock first worked with Joni Mitchell on the iconic singer/songwriter’s Mingus record, an album comprised of collaborations between Mitchell and the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Together with Wayne Shorter, Hancock was part of a small group with which Mitchell tried to craft a new “conversational” approach to coupling lyrics with instrumental jazz.

“At this point in my career,” Hancock says, “I want to do something that reaches into the lives and hearts of people.” For “River”, Hancock enlisted producer/ arranger/ bassist Larry Klein (Mitchell’s long-time producer and creative partner, who has also produced albums by Madeleine Peyroux and Shawn Colvin among many others), to help him go deeply into Mitchell’s body of work to select songs that Hancock and Klein could adapt to a genre-less and conversational musical approach, while trying to portray the breadth of Mitchell’s gift as a musician and writer.

To add another dimension to their picture of Mitchell’s musical world, they also included two compositions that were important to her musical development, Wayne Shorter’s asymmetrical masterpiece “Nefertiti”, first recorded by Hancock and Shorter on Miles Davis’ classic album of the same name, and Duke Ellington’s prescient standard “Solitude”.

Hancock and Klein worked for months, carefully reading through Joni’s lyrics and music, eventually paring their list down to thirteen songs that they hoped comprised a panoramic view of the poet’s work. They then assembled a group of the top musicians in the world, including the incomparable Wayne Shorter on soprano and tenor sax, the brilliant bassist and composer Dave Holland, (a musical cohort of Hancock and Shorter’s who shares their adventurousness, as well as the Miles Davis imprimatur), drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (a recent member of Hancock’s band as well as having played extensively with Mitchell and Sting), and Benin-born guitarist Lionel Loueke, also a member of Hancock’s band.

They went on to craft arrangements for songs like the often recorded “Both Sides Now”, and “Sweet Bird” (from Mitchell’s overlooked classic The Hissing of Summer Lawns) that transformed the songs into lyrical and elegant instrumental tone poems, devoid of the trappings of conventional jazz records.

“We wanted to create a new vocabulary, a new way of speaking in a musical sense,” Hancock says. Klein adds, “we used the words to guide us. All of the music emanated from the poetry.”

They were also fortunate to be able to cast the vocal songs with some of the greatest singers in the music world. Joni herself sings the autobiographical musing on childhood “The Tea Leaf Prophecy”, Tina Turner turns the beautiful prose of “Edith And The Kingpin” into a timeless piece of song-noir, Norah Jones delivers the wistful classic “Court and Spark”, Corinne Bailey Rae turns the mournful Christmas classic “River” into an innocent and optimistic poem of bittersweet romance, Brazilian-born Luciana Souza becomes a dark third voice to Hancock and Shorter on “Amelia”, and in a stark and cinematic closer, Leonard Cohen recites the brilliant and surreal lyric to “The Jungle Line” as Hancock provides film score-like improvised accompaniment. River: The Joni Letters represents a journey into a new world in Hancock’s search for fresh ground. A world of words.

Blue Note Records proudly announces the signing of guitarist Lionel Loueke, one of the brightest and most original young stars in Jazz today. Loueke will enter the studio in September to record his major label debut, which will be released in early 2008.

On June 14, Loueke will be the opening performer at Blue Note Records’ Somethin’ Else jazz club at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The Jazz Journalist Association has also just nominated Loueke for Up & Coming Musician of the Year in their 2007 Jazz Awards. The winner will be announced later this month in New York City.

Born in Benin, Africa, Loueke has already forged a remarkable career path. His musical studies brought him from West Africa to Paris, France, and later to the United States where he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles.

It was at the Monk Institute that Loueke first met and gained the admiration of Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter. Before even graduating from the Institute, Loueke had already started performing in Blanchard’s sextet, becoming an integral member of that progressive band both as a performer and a composer, and appearing on Blanchard’s first two albums for Blue Note Records, Bounce and the Grammy-nominated Flow.

Loueke has released several independent recordings, including In A Trance (Space Time), Gilfema (Obliqsound) and Virgin Forest (Obliqsound). He is also currently a member of Hancock’s touring band.

‘Pilgrimage’, Michael’s final recording session is released to great critical acclaim. Featuring Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette, Pilgrimage consists entirely of Brecker originals and over 78-minutes of music.

On this day, April 12th, legendary jazz pianist, Herbie Hancock entered the world. The world is a brighter, more musical place because of you. On behalf of your management, your web-team and your fans, we wish you a year filled with much successes and joy! Happy Birthday Herbie!

(AP) One of the jazz world’s foremost learning institutions will move to New Orleans, amid hope that it will ensure the genre has a future in its birthplace.

To celebrate the move, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trumpeter Terence Blanchard joined the program’s incoming class and drummer Thelonious Monk Jr., the son of the pianist and composer for whom the institute is named, for a performance Monday at Loyola.

“Jazz can help the re-emergence of New Orleans after the worst natural disaster,” Hancock said. Having the program in New Orleans will help “foster the next generation of jazz greats,” he said. The program, which will be based at Loyola for the next four years, is dedicated to developing musicians who are teachers as well as performers. “We have finally, finally found our home here in New Orleans,” Monk said.

Only a handful of students who audition are chosen for the graduate-level college program, which previously was based at the University of Southern California. The selection process lasts several months.

Presented by Jamie Cullum and featuring George Benson, Joni Mitchell, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, guitarist John McLaughlin, jazz pianist Julian Joseph, record producer Michael Cuscuna, film director Michael Winner, music producer Bill Laswell, Grand Mixer DXT, musician and director Kevin Godley, DJ Carl Craig, journalist Kevin Le Gendre and critic Gary Giddins.

Everyone at Herbie Hancock’s management and web teams extends their condolences to Michael Brecker’s family. Mr. Brecker passed away today (Saturday, 1/13) in New York.

He was a great musician and friend to many in the worldwide jazz community, and he brought wonderful music and unforgettable moments into many lives.

The following is excerpted from an Associated Press report on Mr. Brecker’s passing:

Brecker died in a hospital in New York City of leukemia, said his longtime friend and manager, Darryl Pitt. In recent years, the saxophonist had struggled with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer in which the bone marrow stops producing enough healthy blood cells. The disease, known as MDS, often progresses to leukemia.

Throughout his career, Brecker recorded and performed with numerous jazz and pop music leaders, including Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell, his website said.

His most recently released recording, Wide Angles, appeared on many top jazz lists and won two Grammys in 2004. His technique on the saxophone was widely emulated and his style was much-studied in music schools throughout the world.

Jazziz magazine recently called him “inarguably the most influential tenor stylist of the last 25 years,” said a news release from his family.

Though very sick, Brecker managed to record a final album, as yet untitled, that was completed just two weeks ago. Pitt said the musician was very enthusiastic about the final work. “In addition to the love of his family and friends, his work on this project helped keep him alive and will be another jewel in his legacy,” Pitt said.

Herbie Hancock mourns the loss of friend and fellow jazz lover Ed Bradley, who died November 9th of leukemia in New York. From his tour in England, Herbie issued the following statement:

“Ed was a great friend and fan of jazz. I saw and spoke to him several times at jazz festivals which he eagerly supported. He also wanted to do more on “60 Minutes” to bring jazz to the attention of a broader American and international audience. I’m going to miss his warm and relaxed way, his kind humility and respect for all others.” – Herbie Hancock

A limited number of VIP reception and seating packages are available at $1,000 each through the Monk Institute.

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit education organization established in memory of Thelonious Monk, the legendary jazz pianist and composer. 100% of funds raised will benefit Monk Institute Jazz Programs at performing arts schools in New York City; Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

Herbie’s band on almost every stop will feature drummer Richie Barshay, bassist Matt Garrison, violinist Lili Haydn and guitarist Lionel Loueke.

Coming off a performance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival that drew overflow crowds, Herbie will pull together a special “Herbie and Friends” ensemble for the Sonoma Jazz Fest on May 28th before debuting his road band at the JVC Jazz Fest in New York on June 23rd.

From there, it’s Europe for six weeks before hitting the western part of the U.S., currently wrapping up at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on August 9th.