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Finally Flavio Poltronieri (many of you know him from the homage CD at the Berlin Event 2006 ) has fixed the details of his latest organized homage concert which will be held here in Verona in december:

Title of the concert : Canzioni del desiderio (Songs of Longing)-in italian language*added 13.10.07
Singer: Veronica Marchi and guests (Flavio hopes to have Henning as a special guest, but we must check with him if he can realize to come that date)
http://www.veronicamarchi.it
Organizer: Flavio Poltronieri (flavio.poltronieri@libero.it ) as he is hardly online, you can contact also me (anschwa@libero.it) and I can forward your comments, questions or suggestions it to him personally.

Saturday evening 15th December 2007 in Pizzeria Fontana - Verona (a concert location with Pizzeria) ca. 100 seat.
Flavio would be happy if some of the worldwide cohenites would take part
ciao from Italy
Andrea and of course many greetings from FLAVIO

2 months in advance is a nice announcement:-) Will be in contact as soon I check the train connections!

Dear Tom , you are of course very welcome I am sure Flavio will be happy if you come
Let us know your plans in time. Will you be in London next week ? If not, just write email and we organize all the details
saluti da Verona
Andrea

For those who think of coming Verona, I can suggest a nice little Hotel in the heart of Verona

http://www.hotelaurora.biz/indexD.htm

or http://www.hotelitaliaverona.it/ only 5 minutes walk to the center

or a bed and breakfast near to the Pizzeria La Fontana where the Concert will be
http://www.casamagnani.it/contatti.php

there are anyway a lot of possiibilities if you look in internet, before booking you can ask me where and how it is.


Andrea

Well, everything is settled down, see you in two days! (this is just to keep this up! ) Can't wait to see all of you, guys, and walk in Venice and train ride with Ta Ken also sounds exciting Plus double Book of Longing show - the Italian one and the Henning's one

All of you are sure to have a wonderful time together. Enjoy .


~ Lizzy

I came back from Venice-Verona 4 hours ago and am now in my office. It was great, the great fun with Ta Ken and Henning and Elke and Kerstin and Andrea and Marco and Paola, plus few others on the concert itself. The show was great (although I was little sleepy) - you know that I don't like covers, but Veronica Marchi and Flavio's production, it's great. I liked the attachment to Ten-New-Songs-songs (we heard Here It Is, A Thousand Kisses Deep, The Letters) and that was near the masterpiece. The originals were speaking thru Italian language, it sounded profound and probably was supported by congenial arrangements (one girl was seating on wooden resonating box, drumming it - I think it's called Cajon - and she was giving the rhythm honestly following Sharon's rhythms. Supported by violin and Veronica's own guitar and voice, I guess that's what made it great). The songs were sensual, rhytmical, dreamy-like, meditative, melodic. The appreciation of original drums and rhytmical arrangements - now produced live on that drumm-box - is what probably blew my head, and I think Sharon would be happy as it seems she was tributed there as much as Leonard was. Namely, Waiting for the Miracle was alse greatly rearranged to piano solo (played also by Veronica while singing). (Maybe somebody could suggest to Sharon to get that box instead of Pro-Tools?) That impression was supported by the choice of rest of the songs - Story of Isaac, Bunch of Lonesome Heroes, The Law - their arrangements were different (guitar only, exc. maybe for The Law, I can't recall) and the complete mood and setting different than those of Sharon's songs. Those didn't strike the chord with me as the previous ones. I was also not sure are these songs appropriated for a girl in her 20s - I could hear that she can attach herself to A Thousand Kisses Deep or The Letters (in great duet with a guy which name I didn't hear), but I couldn't imagine 20-years-old girl lighting the cigarette and singing this to the crickets, before she turns into gold ... you know To make it short, I was glad to see that Ten New Songs are becoming the sort of a cult; it's popularity and sales in Central Europe were in any case great. Good show, we heard Henning & Kerstin's work with Book of Longing (which was previewed on Hydra in June) - the CD is in plan for 2009, says Henning - we had great sight-seeing in Verona (I believe there's a photo of me as Romeo and my Giulietta ), Ken and I walked thru Venice for few hours before that, I will say only that the venue maybe should be different for the next Verona show (cold, cold, pizza, pizza ...), and that I hope that Flavio will bring the girls and songs to the 2010 Event as he announced. In the end, the smaller meet-up is, it becomes more interesting ... I like to seat with local Cohenites in their houses and browse thru their Cohen collections on bookshelves and to see all the posters on the walls, and to hear their life stories, like Ken's about his involvement in the famous Liverpool dock strike ... Mucho grazie to Lucca for the ride, Marco & Andrea, and to Flavio for the accomodation and the very special preview to the next tribute CD during the breakfast at his village house (and particularly for that English A Thousand Kisses Deep cover, completely programmed, played, and sung by Valentina, which is not going to be released) !!!

(ps. http://www.myspace.com/veronicamarchi)

Good to see you back Tom. We had a good time together as we always do when we meet in the name of the Captain. Veronika Marchi was a delight, indeed. She was accompanied by a violinist and a percussion player. They are so bloody, fucking young and so talented. They all have studied music and they did nice interpretations of Cohen songs. The italian style in music is not my favorite one, but I do accept more styles in music when I see it live as on listening to it on CD. It was not easy for me to step on stage at 11.15 p.m. after this 100% perfect and well received performance by Veronica. But to me, these are always occasions to test my courage and to strengthen the personality. On this occasion I again thank Flavio for inviting me and also a big hug to my sister Kerstin who so bravely joined in with her beautiful voice. Can't wait to see you guys at some other place soon.

Hi Tom ~

I knew your gathering would go well and reading your fresh account, I can see just how well it did . Thanks for sharing some of the details. Perhaps, when you get some rest, you can break it up into paragraphs for easier reading .

Thanks to you, too, Henning. I'm glad to see that Kerstin joined you . Were anyone's performances captured on video? Do we have that to look forward to?

Finally, thank you for the link to Veronica's MySpace account. It felt like half an hour to come up, but once it did... wonderful. Her first, auto-playing song was reminiscent of Yoko Ono to me; for me, a high compliment. The others veered other directions, though, and were equally appealing. It sounds like a cd I'd really enjoy having .

When will you be posting photos?


~ Lizzy

Thanks for posting the Verona info too Tom. Our Henning sure gets around...from Australia to Verona. He's practically on tour. Such is the life of a troubadore and "man about town"!

Enjoyed reading the report.

Dar

Hi, Tom,
really nice to see you back and I hope you got a bit of sleep at the train. Yes, there exists a photo with Giulietta and you. Have a look.
Thanks, Henning. It was a pleasure for me to support your singing

And I truly enjoyed the LC-fan-company and sight-seeing, and of course Veronica Marches. Thanks to Andrea and Marco for your welcome and hospitality. My regards to Luca, I didn't say goodbye to him.

Kerstin

Here are a few other photos:

Hi guys,
thanks a lot for the nice comments. Indeed we had a great time and did assist to a very nice concert evening. Tom did describe it very well. Grazie Tom.

I also enclose some pics. And thanks for coming. Flavio is also happy you liked it
love from Italy
Andrea, Marco, Luca and Flavio

just some more pics

the last ones , don't want to bother too much
andrea

Lovely photos, Kerstin and Andrea. Thanks for posting them. Now, the only thing left is some Live footage. Got any ? I forgot that it might actually be chilly there about this time, so all of you being so bundled up caught me off guard . Did anyone get a photo of the wooden box that was being used to keep the rhythm?


~ Lizzy