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Trembling in my bones – Hejira

by 14 Comments

Venue:

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford Upon Avon

Date: 03/11/2023

Just as natural as the weather; the band that calls itself Hejira.

We booked our seats for this about 6 months ago, just as they went on sale. Friends who booked a week or so later were nine rows behind us – the place had sold out fast. I’ve looked forward to hearing these songs played with the sort of musicianship and care they deserve ever since I bought our tickets, having been a Joni Mitchell fan since I first heard Big Yellow Taxi on the Light programme one weekend in 1970.

The set list was mostly made up of songs chosen from the four sides of Shadows & Light, the double live album that followed Joni’s album tribute to Mingus, possibly one of her least loved experiments. Before that, as Afterworders will mostly be aware, she’d had a run of completely staggering albums from Court & Spark through to Don Juan’s via Hejira. The fact that it is this last named LP that the band have chosen as their moniker says a lot – it’s laden with jewels. After Shadows & Light, she made a move to Geffen records and put out a couple of, for me anyway, slightly lesser releases, and then came up with something of a return to form with Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm in 1988. There have been many albums since then, sprinkled with genius and far better than anyone had any right to expect them to continue to be. But, as the existence of this band proves, Shadows & Light probably represents something close to the turning point of her peak at the start of the eighties.

If you are familiar with, and love, any of the albums I’ve mentioned above that preceded Shadows & Light, then this band will astonish you. You can follow the link I’ve provided in the comments and read about the musicians it contains, and in particular you can hear Hattie Whitehead’s pitch-perfect, soulful and confident rendition of Joni’s vocal clarity and delivery of lyrics that continue to evoke cinematic imagery and emotional understanding.

My only reservation about last night’s superb gig was that the drums were far too loud in that venue’s space; it doesn’t lend itself to a sound engineer being able to balance out a robust drummer’s presence. Don’t get me wrong, Rick Finlay is a great drummer, no doubt about that, but in that auditorium he was simply too loud for a performance that, for me, was all about Hattie Whitehead’s utterly sublime vocals and understated guitar. When I could hear her, I could hear every word, every note. When she was drowned out I was listening to a capable jazz outfit having a blast, but it was no longer paying tribute to Joni’s songs. I’d still go and see them again, mind you, for the magical moments were eyes-closed-good.

I listened again to my favourite sides of Shadows & Light this morning, and I’d forgotten how fine it sounds. Thanks to an evening with Hejira, its back on rotation at the Foxy Hi-Fi corner. Joni’s music hasn’t been with me quite from the forceps to the stone, but after over half a century, it’s still a powerful presence in my life.

At the time of writing this, there are nine not-yet-sold-out gigs left in their UK tour – if you can get yourself along to see any of them, I think you’ll come away very pleased you did so, and maybe you’ll dream of 747s over geometric farms.

The audience:

300 fans of Joni and jazz, there to hear the music and celebrate how lucky we are to have shared some years with the woman’s work.

It made me think..

I’m going to play Shadows & Light at home tomorrow.

11

Comments

      • Pete Oxley’s base is Oxford, where he’s been running the Spin Jazz Club for a number of years. He knows the area and it’s promoters and venues.
        Unfortunately, if nobody books them in Manchester, Liverpool, Stoke etc. then you probably won’t see them there. None of them are Big Names and they don’t have a big organisation behind them, so they are only able to play where promoters decide to book them.
        Not sure how long the project will last, as Hattie has a separate career as a singer-songwriter and Pete and drummer Rick both run regular jazz clubs.
        I don’t think they were expecting it to take off so well when they started doing it.

          • Not sure a live album would sell that many copies. Except possibly at future gigs, if there were any.
            They’d have to be very careful with the title/packaging to not fall foul of lawyers, too.
            They are very, very good, but wouldn’t the punters rather buy Joni’s own records if they’re record shopping after the event?

            • I’m not sure that’s true, Mike_H.

              After a very enjoyable gig, I think that many punters will buy an album at the merch table as a memory and as a way of supporting the artist.

              • This is exactly what I would have cheerfully bought into.

                I’ve got Hattie’s solo work, one a rare download for me, one a lovely physical disk, but I’d have also liked to have paid for a disc capturing the band’s live treatments of the songs in order to add support to the band including Hattie.

                Maybe a limited edition on CD put out via a Bandcamp presence? If that appeared I’d buy it right away, and I feel a fair proportion of the audience last week would do so too, judging by the fact that loads of folk were buzzing about in the atrium after the performance, chatting away to the band for ages.

              • That’s what I was wondering about, KFD.
                They could certainly sell some CDs at a merch table, but their gigs are fairly small affairs. Would enough people buy a CD from say Bandcamp or a website after the event to make it worthwhile?
                Particularly with such a faithful rendition of the original artist’s material, do people buy CDs by cover artists apart from at their gigs?
                If you wanted to listen to “Shadows And Light”, and you had both the Joni original and a Hejira live CD on your shelf, which one would you reach for?

  3. 1. Thanks for the review, Vulpes.

    2. Happy 80th Birthday for yesterday, Joni!
    What an extraordinary artist she is. We’re lucky to (still) have her…

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