Picture Postcard Charms: Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters

One could trace Joni Mitchell’s jazz sensibilities perhaps as far back as Court and Spark, certainly by the time of The Hissing of Summer Lawns. In the mid-to-late 1970s, many of Mitchell’s compositions utilized jazz musicians due, in large part, to the instrumental dexterity required to play them. One such musician, Herbie Hancock, now leads a brilliant tribute to Mitchell on his latest release, River: The Joni Letters.

The album features an impressive guest list, including Leonard Cohen, Luciana Souza, Norah Jones, and Corinne Bailey Rae. Also involved is saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who, in addition to having played with Hancock as far back as in the Miles Davis Quintet, has also lent his talents to some of Mitchell’s recordings. Mitchell herself even makes an appearance, reinterpreting one her past works, “The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms).”

Rather than presenting literal translations, Hancock takes liberties in spacing out the sound of each song, giving the musicians license to improvise or perhaps to allow a vocalist to slip into a groove. A prime example of this occurs on “Court and Spark,” during which Norah Jones sings in a sparing yet sultry manner while the music sprawls on for nearly eight minutes.

Another facet of this album is how the music, even in its more liberal variations, arcs to the sonic contours of Mitchell’s lyrics. On “Amelia,” for instance, Luciana Souza’s voice, which sounds eerily like Mitchell’s on the original track, serves as a through line for Shorter, particularly, to play around. As well, Tina Turner’s refined performance on “Edith and the Kingpin” is the centerpiece of the song, while the musicians deftly compliment its sophisticated phrasings.

No one song on this album signifies Mitchell’s command with language better than “The Jungle Line.” Lyrics once buried by Burundi drums now resonate in lucid and striking fashion, as Hancock’s lone piano accompanies Leonard Cohen’s cadenced recitation.

Lyrical in their own right by way of their musical structure and sound, four instrumentals fill out the album. Although not written by Mitchell, two of those compositions, Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” and Miles Davis’ “Nefertiti,” were included because they influenced her as an artist. Incidentally, Hancock and Shorter played on the Miles Davis original, from the album of the same name.

On each song, Herbie Hancock conducts a compelling rendering of Joni Mitchell’s music and muse. River: The Joni Letters not only represents an exceptional album, but also an appropriate tribute to the most influential female singer/songwriter of the 20th century, the quintessential Lady of the Canyon.

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Nice and Rough: Tina Turner - Rio ’88 Live in Concert

In the late 1970s, Tina Turner worked as a Las Vegas lounge act, a performer known more for her past than for any effort she was making to move beyond it.

On January 16, 1988, however, she entered Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro to an ecstatic audience of 180,000 like a triumphant heroine.

Recorded on the final night of her Break Every Rule world tour, Tina Turner: Rio ’88 documents the Queen of Rock & Roll in all her exhilarating glory, thrilling a massive Brazilian crowd, marking the apex of the mother of all music-career comebacks.

With only thirteen tracks, most of them from Turner’s two 1980s smash albums, Private Dancer and Break Every Rule, this DVD doesn’t comprise an entire concert. It does, however, capture the spirit of Tina Turner’s hard-earned resurgence to mainstream success. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it offers sufficient evidence as to what made this woman one of the most riveting and legendary live performers in music.

“Are you ready for me?” she asks at the start, like a cautionary warning.

Once the music begins, Tina Turner explodes in full force with a raw version of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love” that, for all intents and purposes, switches ownership right then and there. While belting out “Better Be Good To Me,” she dances and struts around the stage like (or better than) Mick Jagger. And once she hits the bridge to “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” Turner looks and sounds like she has conquered the world.

More-subdued performances, like “Private Dancer” and “Paradise Is Here,” underscore Turner’s colossal strength and versatility as a vocalist. Her tempered, soulful version of The Beatles’ “Help” stands out as one of the finest highlights of this show.

With fireworks cascading over the stadium, Turner ignites on “Proud Mary,” gyrating, jumping, kicking, shimmying, and singing to the Credence Clearwater Revival classic that she had transformed into her own signature anthem.

Though, as indicated, Tina Turner: Rio ’88 does not make for a full show, it does offer the essence of a Tina Turner concert of that era. In doing so, it documents the immense talent of one iconic woman who exuded the energy, sex, and sweat of Rock & Roll better than almost anyone before or since.

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