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In a coup for jazz, Herbie Hancock's tribute CD to Joni Mitchell, "River: The Joni Letters," won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

In wonderful interview back when the album was nominated, Herbie remarked:

"It's pretty strange on one hand," Mr. Hancock, 67, says by phone from his LA home. "Here is this music that is constantly evolving and growing, that's improvised, that's an American creation. That bridge is the virtuosity of classical music and the soul and heart and feeling of the blues ... and only twice in 50 years. I'm glad I was one of them."

He continued:

"When it comes to lyrics, it doesn't get much better than Joni Mitchell," he says. "Here I have a challenge to my own deficiencies of my own abilities."

"I never pay attention to lyrics. But I wasn't thinking of it as a tribute to Joni. My motivation for picking her had to do with the way I feel about her, which suggests a tribute. I have a deep respect for Joni as a human being, not just as a poet and lyricist. She really stands for what she believes in."

And finally there's this, which says it all about jazz today:

"The nature of jazz is that it is eclectic. That's why it continues to evolve and grow and expand. It has borrowed from European classical music. Its roots are in African music, but it has expressed Middle Eastern influences and in many cases this is perhaps why many Jewish artists in the '20s and '30s could easily gravitate to jazz, like a George Gershwin or Benny Goodman. It relates to the folk music of Jewish people."

"There's a folk connection period in jazz that others can respond to. Which is why people all over the planet have been able to embrace jazz. Certainly today it has been embraced in a larger way outside the U.S. than in the U.S.

"America today is very much in the short-term focus. Whatever is the now and whatever makes the most noise at the moment is what everybody pays attention to. The rest of the world is not like that. They still embrace what they feel is quality, no matter when it first reached their shores."

It's the first time in forty-four years that a jazz album has taken that honor. Amazing!

Congratulations, Herbie (and Joni)!

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