At Colbourne Ave, we have a half-arsed kind of tradition where on the anniversary of the first gig we ever put on (it was Bill Risby) we have a jazz tribute night to a pop band. Kind of like Frisell plays Lennon. Or Eckleberg plays Jackson.

It’s Thursday the 25^th of Feb, and we’re doing Joni Mitchell (almost a year since the aneurysm from which she's still recovering). Three songs per musician, no song twice, more interpretations than covers. There will be moments of genius from :

Spike Mason (and Barney Wakeford)
Leonie Cohen
Bonnie Stewart
Jonny Maddox
Bill Risby
Joseph Zarb

and they'll be playing, in chronological order of publication :

And we leave the last work to Chaka Khan, who in an interview a couple of months ago said :

See, Joni Mitchell, she's actually funky, she just doesn't know it, and I'm bringing that forward. The jazz is in there. You get her, but I've slowed a lot of the stuff down because a lot of the lyrics - she's a very fast singer, so sometimes it's hard to catch her words - but I think she's so relevant

Gadjo Guitars, the gypsy jazz trio featuring Nigel Date, Jose Zarb from Marsala and Cameron Jones all playing Django-style guitar will for this concert also include special guests Daniel Weltlinger (violin) and John Maddox (acoustic bass).  "Gadjo" is a word gypsies have for non-gypsies, and these three guitarists don't have a drop of gypsy blood in their veins - but their hearts are with Django Reinhardt, the famous French gypsy who, despite having two paralysed fingers on his left hand, developed the most original and virtuostic guitar style in the history of jazz.