The Royal Festival Hall hosted a new treatment of Joni Mitchell’s album Hejira famous not only for its spiritual compositions but also for the inclusion of fretless bass by Jaco Pastorious
The concert was performed by the Nu Civilisation Orchestra conducted by pianist/composer Peter Edwards and included members of Tomorrow’s Warriors
The vocals were provided by Lisa Hannigan and Nadine Shah in the first half and Sabrina Mahfouz, and Emel Mathlouthi in the second half. Emel Mathlouthi sang ‘Kelmti Horra (My Word is Free)’ which was the anthem for the Tunisian revolution/Arab Spring. Towards the end all the singers came together for the finale and sang Big Yellow Taxi – slightly out of context but fun anyway
Unfortunately no one bothered to introduce the band members but keyboardist Sarah Tandy played soulfully. It would have been interesting to know who had arranged what numbers. Sometimes major venues give out performance factsheets and these would have been really useful
Celeste Madden
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