Van Morrison - 2017 - Versatile (qobuz Hi Res) [[email protected]]
Artist: Van Morrison
Title: Versatile (qobuz Hi Res)
Format: 16 × File, FLAC, Album, Remastered, 24bit 96kHz (qobuz Hi Res)
Producer: Van Morrison
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Recorded: 2017 at Hollywodd Studio, NI
Label: Caroline Records (i)
Genre: Jazz, Blues
Duration: 68:25
Van Morrison:
Wikipedia:
Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBE (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer, songwriter and musician. He has received six Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland.
Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands covering the popular hits of the day. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks (1968).
Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially a poor seller; Moondance (1970), however, established Morrison as a major artist, and he built on his reputation throughout the 1970s with a series of acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and the Chieftains. In 2008 he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.
Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B, such as the popular singles "Brown Eyed Girl", "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", "Domino" and "Wild Night". An equal part of his catalogue consists of lengthy, loosely connected, spiritually-inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as the album Astral Weeks and lesser-known ones such as Veedon Fleece and Common One. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic soul".
Versatile:
AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek:
Versatile is Van Morrison's 38th album, and follows the release of the excellent R&B and blues covers collection Roll with the Punches by less than three months. Like its predecessor, it's primarily a covers set, but its focus is on jazz and pop standards from the Great American Songbook with six originals added for good measure. Historically, these experiments haven't worked for rock artists: Rod Stewart delivered five overblown, badly sung collections from the canon, and Bob Dylan delivered five discs of highly idiosyncratic interpretations of the stuff. Even Boz Scaggs tried them with very mixed results. Morrison fares better than his peers due to experience -- standards have peppered his set lists for decades. Versatile is not a pillar in his catalog, but it's not a cynical cash-in, either.
Morrison surrounds himself with a septet that includes saxophones, trombone, keys, guitar, bass, and drums. Most of these tracks were recorded in hotel lounges in Ireland's County Down, adding to the slippery jazz feel. The canonical material proves a real interpretive challenge. Curiously, he opens the record with a throwaway new original entitled "Broken Record," that shows off his band's fingerpopping swing quotient but little else. He quickly recovers with a fine reading of the Gershwin's "A Foggy Day," showcasing his fluid phrasing and empathic lyric interpretation. His Chet Baker worship is well known, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that he takes on "Let's Get Lost." His take is jaunty, offering tinges of Jimmy Rushing-inspired R&B while remaining a jazz tune. While his muted scat groove on Cole Porter's "Bye Bye Blackbird" is overly strident, he gives a polished, nuanced performance to the composer's "I Get a Kick Out of You." "Makin' Whoopee" contains a nice bluesy chart (Dave Keary's electric guitar playing recalls Grant Green's), but Morrison's vocal is uncomfortably stilted. Among his own tunes are two other new ones -- the punchy, Jimmy Witherspoon-esque "Take It Easy Baby" and the contemplative, nearly spiritual, modal, almost totally instrumental "Affirmation" with Sir James Galway guesting on flute -- as well as beautifully rendered rearrangements of catalog material -- "I Forgot That Love Existed," "Start All Over Again," and "Only a Dream." There is also a deeply satisfying arrangement of the traditional "Skye Boat Song" that melds Celtic soul with Celtic jazz as Morrison's smoky alto sax tone leads the rest of the horn section's lithe groove. While he could have left off the too-often covered "Unchained Melody" and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" because they add nothing to the originals, readings of "The Party's Over" and the Gershwin closer "They Can't Take That Away from Me" are impeccable examples of Morrison's mercurial phrasing and limpid modern arrangements that make swing their top priority. Versatile certainly has its flaws and will likely appeal mostly to longtime fans, but Morrison invests himself in each tune, singing as if he wrote them. This is head and shoulders above similar efforts by his peers.