Herbie Hancock enjoyed tremendous success with his 2008 record, River: The Joni Letters, winning the Grammy for Album of the Year and demonstrating that an established “star” in the jazz world could achieve crossover success by collaborating with a diverse roster of pop singers. It appears that Mr. Headhunter is aiming for the same target again with River’s follow-up, The Imagine Project, to be released June 22.
Featuring collaborations with India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Pink, Seal, John Legend, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and Dave Matthews, among others, the record, like its predecessor, is sure to elicit mixed responses from fans pining for Hancock to stick to pure, piano-driven jazz and others who appreciate the jazz legend’s recent steps into the world of pop with a mature sheen. This writer, for one, was indifferent to the 2008 record and is unsure about the next. When checking out the tracklisting, I was drawn to Hancock’s collaboration with Dave Matthews on the cover of the Revolver classic “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
After the initial spin, I couldn’t help but feel that the efforts to re-channel the hazy psychedelic swirl of the original had been lost. John Lennon’s druggy chant-via-Leslie-speaker, bathed in reverb, sounded sober and forced through Matthews’ delivery, and the trademark backwards guitar figure that added a hypnotic edge to the 1966 track (which was actually Paul McCartney’s “Taxman” solo played backwards) no longer sounds like accidental genius.
Perhaps I’m far too partial to the original to even consider another’s take, but I’m hoping the rest of the record will change my mind. What do you think? Give it a spin over at NPR Music.
[…] is more like it. I might have been a little tired, and perhaps a little cranky, when I spit venom over Herbie Hancock and Dave Matthews’ take on a Beatles classic. My day – musically, […]