Vienna (AT), Porgy & Bess
A Kind Of Swing feat. the PaCoRa Trio & The Brahms Song Book
Did you know that you could take a ship from Schwedenplatz straight to Bratislava : )? I didn‘t – up until I was on my way to my rehearsal with the amazing PaCoRa Trio! You might know Stano Palúch – a wonderful violine player from Bratislava. You might know him from our Schumann album and our live concerts, he has been one of our live soloists for quite some time now and when he showed us a video of his Trio with Marcel Comendant on cymbalom (it‘s familiar to a „Hackbrett“) and Robert Ragan on bass, we decided to invite this exceptional Trio for a set at the Porgy! They are incredible, they‘ve been playing together since 15 years and it was such an honour & pleasure to play with them!!! There are musicians who are dedicated to their instrument and to music with all their heart and soul combined with an incredible level of artistry that just blows your mind and yet they are so humble about their craft – it is inspiring and deeply moving! We decided on six songs that we would gonna play together, a couple of my favourite standards like Devil May Care, a bossa version of Cry Me A River, Comes Love in 12/8 , Ain‘t Misbehavin‘, an up-up-tempo Version of Them There Eyes and an intimate duo version of Angel Eyes with wonderful Marcel on the cymbalom. It was a very special set for me and enjoyed every minute of playing with you guys, thank you so much!!!
The second set was our beloved "Brahms Song Book" with Stano on violine, Ingrid Oberkanins on percussion, Hans Strasser on bass and of course mister rüegg on the piano. And after our opener „Lied“ aka „ A Song“ I couldn‘t wait any longer to share the story that mathias told me in the afternoon...sometimes there are such coincidences that seem to proof, that there might not be any at all : ). Before the soundcheck mathias went to „Saturn“ to buy something and when he got to the cashier there was a man in the line in front of him buying five CDs and on top of the pile was our „Brahms Song Book“ : ) - can you believe it!!! He then asked the man if he would like a signature which the man, who turned out to be British and in town for a couple of days, happily accepted. Then mathias told him that he could hear the music he just bought live at the Porgy & Bess tonight : ) and we are pretty sure that he actually came...ah and after this lovely encounter the cashier also wanted mathias‘ signature : )...what a crazy and wonderful coincidence on the day of our Porgy concert!!! Back to the concert : ) - our Brahms is still very fresh and we enjoy playing these colourful songs so much! Hans and Ingrid were groovin‘ as always while mathias was laying his complex soundclouds and Stano playing wonderful Soli over it. Thank you Christiana Uikiza for your whistle solo in Sleeping Beauty - I still can't believe that you can't whistle through your nose : )!!! And thanks to T for taking such good care of our sound as always, thank you „Mister T“ Thomas Egger. One of my favourite songs in the set is always „Liebestreu“ / „Faith in Love“ . To me it is such a powerful song and arrangement! So many, many friends came out that night and I would like to say thank you once more to Aurelia Roher for her wonderful pictures, Anne Gabriel for her help with my translations and Christine for always showing up and showing her support! We couldn‘t be happier to share our music with all of you and sincerely hope to see you next time, yours Lia!
P.S.: Here is Marcel's and my version of "Angel Eyes" recorded live at the Porgy & Bess, from my heart to yours!
