Joni Mitchell - Hejira

Titles

1.    Coyote

2.    Amelia

3.    Furry Sings The Blues

4.    A Strange Boy

5.    Hejira

6.    Song For Sharon

7.    Black Crow

8.    Blue Motel Room

9.    Refuge Of The Roads

“Joni Mitchell is the only artist who could have made ‘Hejira’!” said the legendary singer-songwriter decades after the release of her legendary album. The work, ranked 113th on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest albums of all time, is, according to Mitchell, a narrative about her inner turmoil at the time and is also intended as an unconventional tribute to freedom. Most of the songs were written by Mitchell on a trip across the US, which she embarked on shortly after the end of her relationship with drummer John Guerin. The album title refers to the Islamic “Hijra,” Muhammad's journey described in the Koran. Compared to her previous, folk-heavy albums, jazz elements dominate on “Hejira” – sonically influenced by the outstanding bassist Jaco Pastorius, who contributed to four tracks – adding musical spice to the sparse, beautiful, meditative arrangements, floating harmonious pop, gentle rock and Mitchell's sensitive vocals.

“Hejira” is at once observant and personal, expansive and insular, cheerful and poignant, spanning a sea of human conditions and emotions. It addresses drifting, isolation, pleasure, place, time, and environment – with a strikingly poetic discourse. The Canadian has dealt with such themes before. But never before as on “Hejira”, whose liberating aura suggests a rejection of traditions and better alternatives. The music itself, with the exception of the crooner ballad “Blue Motel Room”, dispenses with conventional structures and choruses. Of course, Mitchell's intimate vocals and abstract guitar parts take center stage, but there's no getting around the visionary range of guitarist Larry Carlton and Pastorius' fretless bass on “Hejira”: both musicians literally fuse with the characteristics of the songs, which often seem to emerge from nowhere.

“Hejira” went gold shortly after its release in the fall of 1976 and is now receiving the audiophile attention it deserves thanks to Mobile Fidelity's remastering from the original tapes: The numbered hybrid SACD plays with impressive detail, tonality, immediacy and clarity. The reference-worthy immediacy, airiness and presence allow Mitchell's dense chains of words, stream-of-consciousness phrasing and forward-moving dynamics to shine through in a transparent light. The instrumental contributions of her top-notch accompanying musicians, including John Guerin, Max Bennett and Tom Scott, as well as Neil Young, Victor Feldman and Abe Most, also come across with outstanding clarity and three-dimensionality. The hybrid SACD version of “Hejira” comes in a mini LP-style gatefold cover, including the iconic album artwork.