…buy this album, and if you get the chance, see them live in concert – just remember to book early. This is most definitely an album of the year for me.

Spin Jazz Productions – SJP CD-001

Hattie Whitehead (guitars and vocals); Pete Oxley (guitar); Ollie Weston (saxophones and bass clarinet); Chris Eldred (keyboards); Dave Jones (fretless and fretted bass); Rick Finlay (drums); Marc Cecil (percussion)

Recorded The Cockpit, Marylebone, 17 November 2023

The years between 1974 and 1980 are often described as Joni Mitchell’s ‘jazz era’. It was a time when she was busily experimenting with jazz harmonies and improvisation, and playing with an array of jazz musicians. In 1974, she released the album Court and Spark, featuring the jazz fusion combo Tom Scott and the LA Express, whose members included Joe Sample and Larry Carlton.

Over the next six years, Mitchell would work with numerous jazz musicians including, Charles Mingus, Robben Ford, Victor Feldman, Wilton Felder, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer, Tony Williams, Gerry Mulligan, Eddie Gomez, John McLaughlin, Airto Moreira, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Don Alias and Lyle Mays. The last five musicians on the list toured with Mitchell in 1979, and a live album, Shadows and Light, was released the following year.

The band’s repertoire was dominated by music from Mitchell’s jazz-infused albums: The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975); Hejira (1976) and Mingus (1979). Old favourites like ‘Woodstock’ and ‘A Case Of You,’ were also included. One notable absence was the 1977 double album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter – there were no songs from this album on the set-list. It is a shame, because I would love to hear the band Hejira tackle tunes such as ‘Jericho’ and ‘Talk To Me.’

The Hejira band was formed by guitarist Pete Oxley, founder of The Spin Jazz Club in Oxford, which has been running for 25 years. He’s also played in the jazz band Time is of the Essence, and formed the Oxley-Meier Guitar Project, with guitarist Nic Meier –Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge has sat-in with the band. Oxley was entranced by the music on Shadows and Light, and the band that made it. Hejira’s repertoire is mainly from this album.

Hejira started out as a one-off tribute event to Joni Mitchell, held at The Spin in Christmas 2022. But such was the audience response that it mushroomed into a full-blown seven-piece band that has gained a large and enthusiastic following – their gigs sell-out very quickly.

The album features twelve tracks, mostly from the jazz-era albums, plus a few old favourites such as ‘Woodstock’ and ‘A Case Of You.’ The CD comes in a well-packaged digipak, but I have to repeat the observation of my Jazz Views colleague Barry Fox, who laments the lack of liner notes on CD releases. It would have been nice to have had liner notes explaining the backstory to the concept and the band, and an explanation of how the musicians approached Mitchell’s music.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the addition of singer/guitarist Hattie Whitehead (daughter of saxophonist Tim) has taken Hejira’s music to new levels. Initially, Oxley struggled to find the right vocalist for the band, but it was more than worth the wait.

Hattie Whitehead is a remarkable musician. She can play both acoustic and electric guitar in Mitchell’s style, and her vocal performance is nothing short of breathtaking.

She captures Mitchell’s power, phrasing and intonation with startling accuracy, but this is no mere pastiche; Whitehead sings with her own voice. It seems a little unfair to single out one musician, because this band has no weak link. The Shadows and Light band included two musicians whose influence on jazz reverberates today: bassist Jaco Pastorius and tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker.

These are big shoes to fill by bassist Dave Jones and saxophonist Ollie Weston, and they fill them admirably. Neither musician is a mere copyist, and indeed, Weston – who also played in Time is of the Essence – also plays bass clarinet to create new tones and colours. Keyboardist Chris Eldred plays an understated – but vital – role in the band, mainly comping or adding dashes of colour or subtle washes of sound. Don Alias played both drums and percussion in the Shadows and Light band, but Hejira’s rhythm section includes drummer Rick Finlay and percussionist Marc Cecil. Oxley says all the band members are enthusiastic fans of Joni Mitchell’s music.

I have to confess that I am not a big fan of tribute bands that merely recreate the original music note-for-note – and this is what makes Hejira stand well above such a description. There’s a fine line between staying true to a musical piece and adding your own sound to the mix. Hejira does this in spades. While the band sticks to Mitchell’s original melodies and vocal lines, there are subtle changes in harmony and sound. Oxley has explained in an interview how the band started out learning the parts from the song, but then progressed with him writing new orchestrations, arrangements which also leave scope for improvisation, and enable to band to stomp their mark on the music.

The band’s sublime cover of ‘Hejira’ for example, starts off in a similar way to the original, with acoustic guitar and fretless bass, but whereas the original had Alias on conga drums (which were high in the mix), Cecil uses a shaker, only adding light flourishes of conga much later on in the tune. On Shadows and Light, Brecker played soprano sax, with a long solo at the coda. The Hejira band uses the same arrangement, but Weston’s solo is no mere copy of Brecker’s.

Likewise on the opener ‘Coyote,’ Alias played congas, but on this version, percussionist Marc Cecil is joined by drummer Rick Finlay, who plays with brushes. There’s an exciting version of ‘Black Crow,’ with Weston playing powerful tenor sax riffs and Jones recreating the marvellous lightning run Pastorius played on the original live version. Oxley’s fine guitar playing is highlighted by his subtle take on ‘Pat’s Solo,’ which has him duetting with Eldred, who plays slow, shifting chords on synthesiser and an extended solo at the coda.

There is so much to enjoy on this album: a joyful rendition of ‘In France They Kiss On Main Street,’ moving renditions of ‘Edith And The Kingpin,’ ‘Woodstock,’ ‘Amelia’ and ‘A Case Of You,’ and a stirring version of ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,’ featuring Mitchell’s lyrics. The band has posted some concert clips on YouTube, which are well worth checking out. Better still; buy this album, and if you get the chance, see them live in concert – just remember to book early. This is most definitely an album of the year for me.