16/10/2024
Only a few more days to go before Hejira perform at St Brides!!
Hejira’ - celebrating Joni Mitchell (a 7-piece band featuring Hattie Whitehead, performing Mitchell’s greatest works)
For all info about Hejira and the band's forthcoming tour dates, please visit www.hejira.co.uk
Taking on the role of Joni Mitchell will be the outstanding vocalist Hattie Whitehead - who not only pulls off the qualities of Mitchell’s singing…but also plays guitar like Joni, involving all sorts of Mitchell’s ‘open tunings’. Hattie grew up, surrounded by world-class musicians - being the daughter of the brilliant saxophonist, Tim Whitehead. Aside from mastering Joni’s vocal mannerisms, Hattie is a great singer/songwriter in her own right: she won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition in 2016 and has subsequently had hundreds of thousands of streams of her original works listened to.
The material that this band performs is drawn primarily from Mitchell's masterpiece live album, ‘Shadows And Light’. The songs on that album are beautiful, exciting and, as always with Joni, totally touching in the poignancy of the lyrics. Importantly, as with the original personnel, the band - though comprised of great and highly experienced jazz musicians - is there with the primary objective of serving the music!
As it was Joni Mitchell’s 80th birthday last year – and what with her being awarded a Grammy this year – we feel that there couldn’t be a better time for celebrating the major works of, arguably, the greatest singer-songwriter of the 20th century.
Expect an evening of Joni’s ‘great songs’, such as ‘Amelia’, ‘Woodstock’, 'A Case Of You’, ’Song For Sharon’, ‘Free Man In Paris’ 'Hejira', 'Black Crow' etc.!
The band comprises:
Hattie Whitehead ~ vocals & guitar
Ollie Weston ~ tenor & soprano saxophones; bass clarinet
Chris Eldred ~ keyboards
Pete Oxley ~ guitar
Dave Jones ~ bass
Rick Finlay ~ drums
Marc Cecil ~ percussion
Check out these videos to get a taste of the band:
Free Man In Paris:
https://youtu.be/Mc48imlvsU4?si=o54Tv6CgTvCTC2ES
In France They Kiss on Main Street:
https://youtu.be/dTjfE9F2KIE?si=-FKo6NqOwdGGbIIG
Hejira:
https://youtu.be/MhAs1YpaS1w?si=_N_guf2kOWn1Bd-9
