My apologies to those of you who have seen this post before.  For some reason it disappeared from my blog.  As a result, I am recreating it here as best as I can remember it.  Here's the new version:

I was going through my email inbox the other day to sort the many messages there into the many folders I have, and I ran across one from my mother over a year ago that had a link to the video below.  I am amazed that I didn't write about it then, as it is one of the most impressive performances of any type I have ever seen.

The name of the group is Perpetuum Jazille.  The are from Slovenia, which means that their native language is a slavic one, not English.  And yet, their pronunciation of English words is impeccable.  However, that's only a small part of my excitement.

What they sing here is their interpretation of the Toto  song, "Africa ", from the Toto IV album released in 1982.  Toto was a band consisting of two writers (keyboardist David Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro) and studio musicians who filled in the rest of the instruments.  The song made it to #1.

Perpetuum Jazille performs the song a cappella, which is an achievement all on its own, since the song depends heavily on keyboards and (you guessed it) drums.  As I listened to it with the speakers I recently hooked up to my Mac, I realized I was hearing bass guitar and drums.  What I'm saying here is that I could hear those instruments, even thought they weren't there!  The keyboard piece is mimicked by the many female voices, so that works.  Where are the bass guitar and drums?

Well, they are on the right side of the stage.  The gentleman all the way to the right is doing most of the drum work, while the guy to his right (our left) is holding the main beat.  To HIS right are several guys up on the first riser, and they are the bass guitar.  The guy in the blue shirt with glasses leads the way.  Huh!

OK.  That cool, but not the biggest rush I get from this performance!

During the first several minutes of this video is an interpretation of a rain forest in Africa, with the breeze first (rubbing hands), then a sprinkle, then hard rain, then fast hard rain, and then...... the climax, which I will not spoil for you.  I still get a kick out of it and wonder who came up with it.

Anyway, i"ve seen this too many times (according to MBH).  It's a little over six minutes long, and worth every second of it.  When it is over, there are links to other works from this group (they are not strictly a cappella, and they are quite good).  Some of the songs are in Slavic, one is in Spanish, one in Portuguese.  Watch some of the others.

Rumor has it they are coming to the US in 2011.  I hope they make it close to the Atlanta area, 'cause I plan to find tickets.