Hejira: A Celebration Of Joni Mitchell at St Jude On-The-Hill

"Hattie Whitehead’s wonderful soulful vocal was echoed first by Oli Weston’s sax and then by Chris Eldred on keys… an absorbing evening that was a triumph for Hejira …spell-binding!” The Jazz Mann

Bandleader for the project, Pete Oxley, writes:
”I have long been a massive fan of Joni Mitchell’s music, ranging from the sparse, folky early albums (such as Blue) to the late, gorgeously lush albums arranged by the brilliant Vince Mendoza (Both Sides Now and Travelogue). Somewhere in the middle of her career was what some people describe as her ‘jazz period’ – and it is from this era that we will be creating the programme for this gig....

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"Hattie Whitehead’s wonderful soulful vocal was echoed first by Oli Weston’s sax and then by Chris Eldred on keys… an absorbing evening that was a triumph for Hejira …spell-binding!” The Jazz Mann

Bandleader for the project, Pete Oxley, writes:
”I have long been a massive fan of Joni Mitchell’s music, ranging from the sparse, folky early albums (such as Blue) to the late, gorgeously lush albums arranged by the brilliant Vince Mendoza (Both Sides Now and Travelogue). Somewhere in the middle of her career was what some people describe as her ‘jazz period’ – and it is from this era that we will be creating the programme for this gig.

Many of you will be aware of the album called Shadows And Light. This is a ‘Desert Island Disc’ for me – not just because her band comprises a whole load of my favourite musicians, but because as a live album, it fizzes with an incredible, electric atmosphere from the off! The songs on the album are beautiful, exciting and, as always with Joni, totally touching in the poignancy of the lyrics. There is a DVD of this concert and it is clear that Joni must have been totally living the dream, performing her masterpiece works with this group”.

Taking on the role of Joni Mitchell will be 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 outstanding saxophonist, Tim Whitehead. Aside from mastering Joni’s mannerisms, Hattie is a great singer/songwriter in her own right: she won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition in 2016 and has had hundreds of thousands of streams of her original works.

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