17/06/2023
A seriously good 7 piece band “Hejira” featuring singer/guitarist Hattie Whitehead will be performing in St Jude’s church, Hampstead Garden Suburb at 7:30pm on Saturday June 17th.
Video clips accessible from the linked page. They are very good.
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 jazz 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.
Hattie Whitehead ~ vocals & guitar
Ollie Weston ~ tenor & soprano saxophones
Will Barry ~ keyboards
Pete Oxley ~ guitar
Dave Jones ~ bass
Rick Finlay ~ drums
Marc Cecil ~ percussion
A selection of beers, wines and soft drinks can be ordered from the bar and we are accepting both cash and cashless payments.
Proceeds from this event will go towards the Church Roof Fund, just the beginning of looking after this unique Edwin Lutyens design so that the building can continue to serve the local community.
Mind if I pitch my tent outside your kitchen door for the duration?
Goose bumps just listening to that video.
Cancel the tent request. They are playing just down the road from me in November. I will be there. Thank you for the heads up. Revelation to be able to hear this material played live once more.
Exquisite performance. As I see you have already put the title track up below, so I won’t paste the link here as well!
How did you get to find this? My Google results are thin on the ground. Frome in July, when I’m in Fife. Not a lot else coming up.
They are only just starting out really, this Hampstead one being their 4th gig together and due to the drummer being friends with one of that diocese’s vicars.
The drummer is a personal friend who runs a regular pub jazz event in North Finchley.
The overall organiser of the venture is guitarist Pete Oxley, who runs the Spin Jazz Club in Oxford. The band’s first two gigs were Spin events held at Tap Social in Botley, just outside Oxford. The third one was at Peggy’s Skylight, a large jazz club in Nottingham. I think they’ve been booked to appear there again sometime.
I’ve been told that an outside promoter is getting involved, but I don’t know who that might be.
@thecheshirecat – I can’t see a forthcoming gig in Frome, but there is one listed in November at Bradford Upon Avon, which is, happily, even closer to me than Frome.
You need to click through to Pete Oxley’s webpage, as @Mike_H says below. The tickets are not yet on sale for the November gig, but you can sign up to the venue email newsletter to be alerted when they are available.
A-ha. Ta.
@thecheshirecat
Delighted to report that tickets for the Bradford Upon Avon gig in November can now be purchased (as of 10am this morning) from the following website:
https://www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk/whats-on?category=All&date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bmonth%5D=11&date%5Bvalue%5D%5Byear%5D=2023
See you there!
Sadly not. Bradford, West Yorkshire would be nearer the mark! I was merely mentioning Frome as it was the only gig that was coming up. However, I now have the link for Pete Oxley’s page, so I will keep my fingertips peeled, as it were.
That’s two of us if Bradford does come up.
Another couple of clips.
.
The top half of this page is Hejira’s gig list, for anyone who’s interested.
https://www.peteoxley.com/gigs
@Mike_H If I have the opportunity to be down in Muswell Hill in June I may just pop over.
Nice work, Mike! Excellent that you are giving this fine band some publicity.
Vulpes hit the nail on the head. Great that a very accomplished combo are out there breathing life into these wonderful songs again.
I suspect that jazz festivals all over Europe will be standing in line to book them.
If they appear at Jazzclub Fasching, I’ll be there.
Not sure that Hattie would want to do just Joni shows in future. She has her own pretty good material to perform.
It’s an excellent project to do for a year or so, I’d say. After all, Joni herself is never going to be touring again.
She is playing a gig later this year. Who knows?
Surely, she doesn’t need to just do Joni shows, @Mike_H?
She can do shows in her own right and shows with Hejira during the same year. That way, punters will want to see her twice!
Some extra logistics but well worth the effort.
Hopefully she’ll raise her profile and earn some money from this, that’ll be useful in her other guise as singer/songwriter. Perhaps she’ll be able to afford to make an album.
can i just say blimey!
Sounds wonderful, but too inaccessible, sadly.