Peter Viney's Blog

Tomorrow’s Warriors …
Nu Civilisation Orchestra featuring Eska
“Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Mingus”

Poole Lighthouse
The Theatre
20 November 2022
19.15

The 19-piece Nu Civilisation Orchestra (NCO) featuring:

Peter Edwards – Musical Director

Eska – lead vocals

Jihadi Darwish – fretless bass guitar
Georgio Serci- electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Tello Morgado- percussion, whistles
Eddie Hick -drums
Maria Graspa – piano, keyboards
Will Gibson – alto saxophone, flute
Denys Baptiste- tenor saxophone
Rhiannon Jeffreys – baritone saxophone
Becca Toft- trumpet
Rosie Turton – trombone
Valleria Pozzo- violin
Rhiannon Dimond- violin
Jules Dos Reis – viola
Miranda Lewis- cello
Cara Crosby-Irons – backing vocal
Kianj Harvey Elliot – backing vocal
Loucin Moskofian – backing vocal

SET LIST

PART ONE

A Chair In The Sky
Coyote
Dry Cleaner from Des Moines / Lucky
Hejira
Blue Motel Room (amended instrumental)
Refuge of The Road
Furry Sings The Blues

PART TWO

Amelia
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
A Strange Boy
Musings on “Haitian Fight Song”
The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey
Black Crow

ENCORE
God Must Be A Boogie Man

SEE “MINGUS” in “Reviled! The albums Critics Loved to Hate” on the companion website, Around & Around

Two of my favourite Joni Mitchell albums are The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira. However, Hejira did not lead to her best moment in The Band’s The Last Waltz. She insisted on three songs. Everyone got one or two songs … Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, Eric Clapton. The exception was to be Bob Dylan with four (though he then reprised one). Joni Mitchell then insisted on three, and seemingly failed to understand the concept of the show by choosing Coyote and Furry Sings The Blues from Hejira, and Shadows and Light from The Hissing of Summer Lawns. The songs took up a great deal of the rehearsal time, because the semi-Weather Report backed songs were a long way stylistically from The Band. It was apparently fractious, with Joni critical of the playing. Above all the groove was wrong for the show.

The result on the night was described diplomatically by Levon Helm who said that Joni lost the momentum of the show, but fortunately Van Morrison brought it back. Only Coyote made the album and film, and it is a highlight. The unadorned bootlegs show clearly that both Furry Sings The Blues and Shadows and Light were execrable on the night. It would have been clear to anyone with less ego, that the night called for either Both Sides Now or Big Yellow Taxi (preferably both) plus one newer one, definitely Coyote. She was not alone. No one could understand why Dylan chose the lugubrious Hazel on a night which demanded Like A Rolling Stone instead.

Mingus is a difficult album. See the review above. It should have been issued as an esoteric side project, not as a mainstream LP.

The Joni Mitchell live album Shadows and Light is part of the background as that mixed Mingus and Hejira songs in this sequence … Coyote, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Dry Cleaner From Des Moines, Amelia, Hejira, Black Crow, Furry Sings The Blues, God Must Be A Boogie Man. It retained Jaco Pastorius in bass.

Joni Mitchell was defensive on Hejira. Barney Hoskyns asked her what her most under-rated album was:

Joni Mitchell: I would say Hejira. It was not understood at all, but that was a really well-written album. Basically it was kinda kissed off. It’s a travelling album. It was written driving from New York to Los Angeles over a period of time, and people who take it with them, especially if they’re driving across America, really find it gets to them.
Quoted in Both Sides Now by Brian Hinton, 1996

Joni would say all her albums are under-rated compared to Bob Dylan’s, and she’s quite right about some of them. We discussed this in the interval. Better singer? Unquestionably Joni since around 1980. Better guitar player? Joni. Better painter? Joni by a mile. Better lyrics? Not “better” but like Messrs Cohen, Simon and Robbie Robertson, much more crafted and revised than Dylan.

So here we are, and though we hold every hope Joni will continue to perform, realistically she’s not going to do a ‘whole album’ show on either of these albums. I’m not going to see her again … I saw her at the Wembley CSNY / Band Show, backed by Tom Scott &The LA Express.

Last year, the Nu Civilisation Orchestra did a show based on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, and I dearly wished I had seen it.

The concert was only announced to me a fortnight in advance by e-mail. I saw no other publicity. I told everyone I knew, but two friends with independent record shops said they had received zero publicity. Poole’s publicity is weak. It was scheduled for the large Concert Hall, but shifted to the smaller The Theatre on the night, which meant a crowded stage. They just hadn’t sold enough tickets. The Lighthouse screwed that up too. I’d booked a central premium seat, L23 in the Concert Hall, but in the Theatre, L23 was a long way back and right to the side. They said I could go to the Box Office and transfer my ticket. I was given G29- an aisle seat at the extreme side, showing a lower price than I had paid. I didn’t argue, I just shifted myself to the centre of the almost empty Row F.

Both Peter Edwards and Eska mentioned the intimate feel with a small but hugely enthusiastic audience. Before we go on, the sound mix was impeccable. I always judge this. They also had the best bass guitar sound I’ve heard in many years. With nineteen musicians on stage, and I noted even the string quartet was wired individually, the sound mix was among the two best I’ve heard in several years (the other being The Unthanks). Every instrument distinct, vocals clear. They credited their sound engineer, Marina Martinez. It’s an unusual credit, but well-deserved … The Unthanks credit their sound engineer too.

As well as Eska on vocals, Jihadi Darwish on bass was the co-star. Those two Joni albums featured Jaco Pastorius on bass at his height. Darwish played fretless electric bass guitar (as did Jaco Pastorius) and got that crunchy, precise tone playing by the bridge with maximum attack. The idea of the orchestra is developing young musicians so Jihadi Darwish is older and more experienced (Van Morrison, Sting etc) as is tenor saxist Denys Baptiste. When you are featuring material played by a great bassist, Jaco, in tribute to another great bassist, Mingus, it is the central role in the orchestra. Not only was it the best bass sound, he was as great a bass player as I’ve seen in many years … along with Bakitho Kumalo (Paul Simon) and Roscoe Beck (Leonard Cohen).

This is NOT a “Tribute Band”. All the material is in new and innovative arrangements. As Musical Director, Peter Edwards has a larger palette at his command than Joni ever did, and uses it. In the late 70s, the thought of taking along a string quartet had hardly occurred in rock or jazz. In recent years, John Cale, Brian Wilson, The Unthanks have all incorporated strings … and not just in Eleanor Rigby / Ruby Tuesday style either. It is an orchestra, so musicians had the dots in front of them.

I always played Side Two of Hejira complete without ever noting track titles mentally. They flowed. I

I had wondered in advance whether they would do one set for each album, or like Shadows and Light, mix them. They went for the latter.

A Chair In The Sky (Joni Mitchell – Charles Mingus) was the opening number. Eska didn’t come on until the end, so an instrumental take on the tune.

Coyote opens Hejira, and due to The Last Waltz is probably the best-known song in the show. I have to note that Eska sang that the Coyote character had “my scent IN his fingers” which sounds like he was holding her bottle of perfume. At least two of us commented that Joni’s lyric is “my scent ON his fingers” which is altogether different. Did they bowdlerize it? Or did she misread? Naturally with such long and complex lyrics she was partly reading.

Dy Cleaner From Des Moines from Mingus started with extraordinary vocals from Eska, howling almost. The song is lyrics by Joni, music by Mingus. I noted she had a small pad which I think enabled her to add effects to her vocal. As throughout, bass guitar was the lead instrument … probably that’s why I love those two albums so much. The original was basically ‘Wether Report minus Joe Zawinul.’ On the record, Mingus was recorded on what they called ‘Lucky (rap) which is a mere four seconds. ‘Lucky’ was incorporated as a chant with the three backing vocalists.

Hejira came next, and the long meandering lyric is the hallmark of the album. The long trumpet solo was particularly impressive.

Blue Motel Room (amended instrumental version). A great favourite- it was niggling because I knew the tune but couldn’t name it without the lyric! They took solos … trumpet, piano, saxophone.

Refuge of The Road is the long closing song on Hejira. Eska did an introduction, reading part of the lyrics. The instrumental colours were ever shifting with the strings and vocals together outstanding.

Furry Sings The Blues was very different to the original, more arranged. Because of my many years of listening to The Complete Last Waltz box sets I’m very familiar with that version as well as the original, incorporating scat singing and an outstanding tenor saxophone solo.

The interval came here.

Amelia opened the second half, the second song on Hejira. The three backing vocalists took a section, which emphasized the ever-shifting focus on this wonderful ensemble.

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is a Charles Mingus original from 1959, to which Joni added lyrics for the Mingus album. This started with a long tenor sax solo from Denys Baptiste, and more later- so good that it drew applause mid-song. So many people have recorded this piece, and it was a showcase number for the orchestra.

A Strange Boy from Hejira. It started with effects … bass guitar with echo applied and whistle in bird song mode from percussionist Tello Morgado with Eska vocalising wordlessly.

Musings on Haitian Fight Song’ which started with a bass guitar solo. Marvellous horns. I knew that riff – but d the name escaped me! It’s a Charles Mingus piece from 1957.

The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey was dramatic and memorable. It was a trio … Tello Morgado on a wide range of percussion and whistles, Eska on vocals, then Georgio Serci switched from electric guitar to acoustic guitar, and played jangling accents and effects, while drumming with his hand on the guitar body. This was an incredible, chilling sound … definitely better than the original for me.

Black Crow Peter Edwards announced the last song and that they were going to ‘funk it up’ and funk it up they did. Strong work from the string quartet, the only electric guitar solo of the night, and a focus on the drummer (not quite a drum solo). I noted Eska added a vocoder effect at the end … she seemed to be able to control effects, as did Jihadi Darwish.

ENCORE

The encore was God Must Be A Boogie Man … with audience participation.

It was a tremendous performance. They deserved a far bigger audience, though all of those who were there loved it. I’m going to order their album, and I noted that as the aim is to develop young musicians, that the orchestral line-up is ever changing. It stands with The Unthanks as the best music this year.

*****

The 2021 album I Am Warrior is available digitally and on vinyl at tomorrowswarriors.org