Herbie Hancock [ tickets ] hit the road last week for a handful of US shows ahead of his forthcoming album, "River: The Joni Letters."

The acclaimed jazz keyboardist/composer continues his Northeast stint tomorrow (8/28) in Red Bank, NJ, and will visit Chicago, Detroit and Ridgefield, CT, through the end of the month. In October, he'll set out for a tour of Japan and then be back in the States in November for a West Coast run. US dates are listed below while those overseas can be found at Hancock's website.

"River: The Joni Letters," a 13-song tribute to the great Joni Mitchell [ tickets ], is due out Sept. 25. In addition to appearances by saxman Wayne Shorter, bassist/composer Dave Holland, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and guitarist Lionel Loueke, the album features guest vocalists including Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza, Leonard Cohen and Mitchell herself.

Hancock enlisted the help of Mitchell's longtime producer and creative partner, Larry Klein, in arranging and producing the set, which is described as a blend of jazz, funk and soul.

"We wanted to create a new vocabulary, a new way of speaking in a musical sense," Hancock said of the record in a statement. Klein added, "We used the words to guide us. All of the music emanated from the poetry."

The new album follows 2005's "Herbie Hancock: Possibilities," an all-star duets project featuring Sting, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Paul Simon and Carlos Santana, among others. That set scored the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Top Contemporary Jazz albums chart and hit No. 22 on The Billboard 200.

Hancock, whose storied career spans five decades, continues to be known as one of the great innovators of jazz, electronic, funk, orchestral and film music.