Herbie Hancock The Imagine Project ***

Arie, Oumou Sangare, John Legend, Céu, Susan Tedeschi, Lisa Hannigan, Juanes, K’Naan, Dave Matthews, James Morrison, Chaka Khan (v), Tinariwen, Los Lobos, The Chieftains; Jeff Beck, Lionel Loueke, Derek Trucks (g), Marcus Miller (el b) and Vinnie Colaiuta (d). Rec. dates not stated

New album The Imagine Project by Herbie Hancock is probably going to delight and confound in equal measure. He’s changed record company but the album still follows a pattern laid down by previous albums, the hugely successful vocal-led Joni Mitchell songbook album River and Possibilities, by putting singers centre stage singing familiar and not so familiar pop or rock standards. The singers are a who’s who of famous faces with stellar instrumentalists appearing too, including Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks and Anoushka Shankar. Herbie sits well back and hardly dominates although his wistful piano motifs and elegiac flourishes are, as you’d expect, very tasteful. And if you turn to his solo on ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ after James Morrison’s vocal you’ll find a beautiful improvisation that speaks volumes.

Inevitably with a project such as this some tracks work and some don’t. The project lacks the tight songbook structure of River although it hinges on an idea of music as a force for global unity, with tracks recorded at many locations around the world, and there are a few grating moments (the segue from ‘Tamatant Tilay’ into Bob Marley’s ‘Exodus’ is hard to love) and Lisa Hannigan’s Celtic version of ‘The Times They Are a Changin’ is as miscast as Corinne Bailey Rae was on the title track of River. But John Legend and Pink make an evocative fist of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Don’t Give Up’ and Indo-jazz album closer ‘The Song Goes On’ has some beguiling improvisations by Wayne Shorter and Anoushka Shankar that begs the question, why didn’t Herbie record a whole album with them? At 70, Herbie shows no signs of retreating into the comfort of his past glories and this album, to his great credit, is reaching out to a wider audience without being too gimmicky. It won’t please everyone and if you’re a jazz purist it’s probably best to skip The Imagine Project. For everyone else it’s a pleasant stroll through some well chosen songs and a fine way for Herbie to celebrate his 70th birthday year.

 - Stephen Graham