Seven-piece band Hejira plays outstanding arrangements of Joni Mitchell's songs from 'Court and Spark' to 'Wild Things Run Fast'.
Hejira are playing the Royal Hall in Harrogate on Thursday 8 April 2027, with a seven-piece band working through Joni Mitchell's songs. The set draws its spirit and repertoire from Shadows And Light, the live album Mitchell recorded during a brief tour with a band of contemporaneous musicians — Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker, Jaco Pastorius and Don Alias — and the arrangements cover mostly the period from Court and Spark through Wild Things Run Fast.
At the front is Hattie Whitehead, who sings with Mitchell's pitch accuracy, poise and dignity and plays guitar with her stylistic mannerisms, incorporating various open tunings. Behind her is a full band: Immy Churchill on vocals and guitar, Ollie Weston on tenor and soprano saxophones, Chris Eldred on keyboards, Pete Oxley on guitar, Dave Jones on bass, Rick Finlay on drums and Marc Cecil on percussion. It's a large ensemble for a tribute, and that's by design — the Shadows And Light era was when Mitchell moved away from the folk-club format and into a jazz-inflected, full-band sound, and this line-up mirrors that shift.
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Since their first one-off gig in Oxford in 2023, Hejira have toured hard throughout the UK and embarked on a debut US tour in July 2026, drawing regular standing ovations and sell-out gigs like London's Jazz Cafe, with their YouTube videos approaching 2 million views. The Royal Hall is a big room, and this is a big band, so it should suit the scale of the arrangements. The show runs on Thursday 8 April 2027 at the Royal Hall in Harrogate.
