On Friday, I drove down to the tiny village of Lafnitz in the state of Styria, Austria, with my friends singer/songwriter Raya O. Coal and her partner drummer Robin Gillard, to hear a concert of Joni Mitchell music performed by an incredible band of musicans currently residing in Graz, Austria. The concert was held at a tavern called "Irish Pub" - a small piece of Ireland in the wilderness of Austria where you can drink Irish beer and choose from among 40 different types of Irish whiskey!
The band consisted of the following persons: Vesna Petkovic' - vocals Martin Woess - keyboards Thomas Mauerhofer - guitar Reinhard Ziegerhofer - bass Ismail Barrios - percussion Aaron Ofner - drums Reinhard Ziegerhofer, the founder of the band, is a classically-trained bass player best known for his participation in and compositions for the Austrian jazz-folk fusion group, Broadlahn. Reinhard was a member of the Graz Symphony Orchestra for eight years, has composed music for film and theatre, and has worked with other well-known musicians such as Vienna avant-garde musician Fritz Novotny, as well as Joe Zawinul, Mario Rechtern, Bill Elgart, Chuck LeMonds, and Monika Stadler. Reinhard can play like Jaco Pastorius. I am not kidding. It is worth buying the Broadlahn CDs just to hear his wonderful bass playing! Vesna (her name means "Springtime" in Russian) was born and raised in Nic', Serbia, and has been studying voice in Graz for a number of years. She normally performs jazz music with her partner (a jazz bass player), but she also sometimes performs with an eleven-member traditional Serbian band where the quality of the singing is very similar to that of the Bulgarian Women's Choir which has been mentioned once or twice here on the list. She and her partner want to move to New York next year to participate in the jazz music scene there. She really has a very beautiful voice - she sang very expressively in the ballads and very powerfully in the rock and roll tunes. Ismail Barrios is from Venezuela, but has lived in Austria for some time and apparently knows most of the Brazilian music contingent in Vienna. He had three large vertical drums and an impressive array of various other percussive devices which he played sensitively into the musical arrangements. He was also really nice to watch - very fluid, energetic, charismatic - exuding happiness and pleasure. Martin Woess (keyboards), Thomas Mauerhofer (guitar), and Aaron Ofner (drums), are all exceptional jazz musicians based in Graz, Austria. I had a chance to ask Thomas about the guitar parts - if he had found www.jmdl.com/guitar/ on the internet. He said he did find a lot of things on the internet. He said before he started preparing for this concert, he had never done any playing in open tunings, so it was new territory for him. I noticed that he used standard tuning for some of the songs rather than the open tunings, but he seemed to have used the JMDL info for Coyote, Amelia, and Woodstock. He must have seen the Painting With Words And Music video to learn the guitar arrangement for Woodstock, as it was pretty true to Joni's recently performed versions and that's the only official version in circulation. Thomas had four guitars set up for the various songs, and even detuned his electric guitar for a couple of the songs. Sometimes he played standard tuning chords dur! ing the singing with amazing lead guitar between verses - in these songs, the supporting chords for the lead guitar were played by Martin on keyboards. The entire band are Joni fans. What is amazing to me is that the band managed to learn all of the songs in only 12 sessions and could play all the songs so perfectly with so little rehearsal. There were all very very professional - it was like seeing Joni in concert, but with a different vocalist - very high quality. All of the arrangements were flawless. The concert opened with the recording of Shadows and Light from Joni's S&L album as the band members came onto the stage and picked up their instruments. This then segued into a rocking version of In France They Kiss On Mainstreet. The setlist was (mostly in this order - I didn't write the order down exactly): In France They Kiss On Main Street How Do You Stop Free Man In Paris Big Yellow Taxi Raised On Robbery Man From Mars Black Crow All I Want Coyote Both Sides Now This Flight Tonight Amelia Dreamland Encore: Woodstock Big Yellow Taxi The most impressive songs for me during the evening were: The ballads - Man From Mars, All I Want, Amelia, Both Sides Now - because Vesna sang them so expressively - I was literally mesmerized by her beautiful voice! In All I Want, the piano was the main supporting instrument and the arrangement was totally gorgeous. Black Crow - they did an amazing and very original arrangement of the song with a sort of jungle rhythm underneath - it was haunting. Vesna spoke the words to the first and last verses, hauntingly over the underlying rhythm and music; the middle verse was sung and was faster and more intense musically. I really can't describe what they did with the song very well, because I am not so familiar with the modern musical genres and don't know what terminology to use - the song had a sort of techno feel to it. I was amazed that Aaron could keep the complicated rhythm going throughout the song - it was very complex. This Flight Tonight - another amazing arrangement - slower than Joni's version with a sort of Blues feel to it. Really nice. Dreamland at the end was fun, because they got the audience singing "Dreamland Dreamland.... Dreamland Dreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaamland!" and clapping - a good way to end before the encore. The audience was very attentive and very appreciative. There were probably about 60 people there - kind of surprising for such a little place out in the middle of nowhere! The band has only scheduled three concerts. I think they ought to do more, since they are so good, and I think they should also record. I wish I could have a recording of the concert, as it would be something I would enjoy listening to again and again - especially the different arrangements of Black Crow and This Flight Tonight. It was a great evening!!!! Marian Vienna