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
