Judging from the turnout at Hamer Hall, Joni Mitchell still has a huge fan base. Among them are seven of our most accomplished singers, who were here to pay tribute to Joni, still a powerful force after forty years of recording.

The stage was set up with keyboards, percussion, drum kit, guitars and saxes when the seven singers came on stage and launched into a heart-stopping version of Shadows and Light, a track recorded with multiple overdubs of her own voice by Joni in the album The Hissing of Sumer Lawns in 1975. The layering of these wildly differing women's voices was a stunning opening to the show.

As the show progressed, with each woman soloing on four songs, we saw various elements of Joni's magic being brought into focus: the iconoclast and protester; the dreamer; the romantic; the raunchy rock chick; the jazz legend. Just looking at these seven women on stage, so individual in their sense of style, coming together to pay tribute to a mentor, you could feel the spirit of Joni - the strong-minded and uncompromising woman with a sexual power and artistic genius - who has inspired a new generation of women.

The singers, Katie Noonan, Wendy Matthews, Kristin Berardi, Tania Bowra, Louise Perryman, Virna Sanzone and Rachel Gaudry had chosen their favourite songs to make up a programme that spanned Joni's career, with particular emphasis on the earlier folk and jazz albums, recorded from 1969 (Clouds) to the late seventies, but including work up to the nineties. Each soloist also performed backing vocals on a selection of songs. Katie Noonan opened and closed the show with some of Joni's more poignant early material, from Blue and Ladies of the Canyon. For her first song, Noonan accompanied herself on the piano in an elegantly phrased version of Blue, perfectly suited to Noonan's angelic higher register. In this song and the final number of the night Circle Game, Noonan's voice spun gossamer threads of sound that reached up into the ether.

The eight-piece band was used in different combinations to recreate Joni's arrangements, with Rex Goh on guitar as band leader and Nick Sinclair on bass guitars as pivotal players. Sinclair provided a mellow bass support, reproducing on six-string bass some of the lines made famous by Jaco Pastorius. Goh was most effective on lead guitar solos, but sometimes failed to keep the groove on rhythm guitar. With the band strung out across the large stage, it was a problem creating an intimacy that would complement the subtlety of the vocal performances, and at times the band overpowered the vocals. A string quartet played on several numbers, a reference to Joni's talent for orchestration, though she would often pare down the instrumentation on later releases and a more selective approach might have worked better here.

Rachel Gaudry, the show's musical director, had a light voice that was at its best when she accompanied herself on piano, and shone with an emotional authenticity in River. Virna Sanzone sang with an easy sense of rhythm and smooth ballad style that lent itself to the two songs about France, Free Man in Paris and In France they kiss on Main Street.

Wendy Matthews has an earthy smoke-flavoured voice that lent some grit to the proceedings. Originally from Canada, like Joni, she chose a challenging set of songs spanning four decades, including the hard-hitting Cherokee Louise, holding back her powerful voice to come up with some of the more original interpretations of Joni's songs. Louise Perryman also dipped into the rock era of Joni's career, but gave her most heartfelt and moving performance in Come in from the cold, where she worked sensitively with the backup vocalists and musicians.

Kristin Berardi is wonderful to watch and listen to. Her mobile face and contortionist body are part of her quirky approach that reaches deep into the songs and expresses the emotion of the lyrics and the textures within the composition. She is a true jazz performer, happy to scat between verses and keen to interact with the musicians, who were on the whole far too focussed on their sheet music (Joni's parts are complex and the musos were faithful to her arrangements), although the sax player Aaron Michael was always ready to rise to the occasion with a brilliant solo.

Tania Bowra was the closest to channelling Joni Mitchell. Similar in appearance and voice, she had a mastery over her material, a fine way with an acoustic guitar, and a raunchy manner - she was a no-nonsense sunny girl straight out of California in the seventies. She took charge in the encore, when the girls came together to sing Big Yellow Taxi, the unforgettable 1970 hippie anthem about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot.

There were moments of pure joy, perfect balance and exquisite singing, and others when the rhythm was jagged and the vocals muffled. But throughout, there was the thrill of seeing Joni's music come to life through these remarkable women and their startling and emotional reimagining of Joni's body of work.

Spiritworks and Jeff Lewis in association with Melbourne International Arts Festival present JONI A tribute to the legendary Joni Mitchell

Venue: Hamer Hall | the Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road Melbourne
Date/Time: 23 Oct @ 8:00pm
Bookings: the Arts Centre 1300 182 183 | Ticketmaster 136 100

JONI also performs at the Sydney Opera House October 30 and QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane on November 4.