duaneiac

I tried the search function here, but did not find a general purpose thread related to Van Morrison That kind of surprised me, so it's time to start one. I think the two living musicians who have brought the most joy to my heart over the years are Sonny Rollins and Van Morrison. The two are somewhat alike. While each has produced a few classic albums, for the last half of their careers, each man put out albums which often had moments of inspired beauty, but which did not come close to fully capturing the performer's unique greatness. The only way to fully appreciate their artistry was to see them live. Last night I saw Van Morrison perform at the Fox Theater in Oakland. It's the fourth time I've seen his show. While this one did not give me the soul stirring experience I have had in previous shows, this one did certainly fill my heart with gladness and brought tears to my eyes. This was a tight 95 - 100 minute show in which he covered a lot of his musical history. He sang several of the crowd pleasing hits -- "Brown Eyed Girl", "Moondance", "Wild Night" -- but also included a lot of treasured album cuts like "Sometimes We Cry" and "Real Real Gone". He also seems to really like the title songs from his albums, as he sang "Enlightenment", "Days Like This" and "Magic Time". There were also a couple of standards -- an uneven version of "Let's Get Lost" on which the drummer and bassist did not seem to be on the same page at the start, but they later got it together (still I didin't much care for the "Caribbeanishesque" arrangement) and "The Party's Over" as well as his interpolation of "My Funny Valentine" tagged onto "Moondance". He concluded the concert with a beautiful, grooving verison of "Into The Mystic" and that's when the tears came to my eyes. After VM left the stage, the band kept playing on and gave one hope that there might indeed be an encore. But the band just kept jamming for 5 or 6 minutes, with every one getting some solo time. It was a soft, beautiful end to the show, not at all disappointing that there was no encore. Here's this band playing "Into The Mystic" from Feb. of this year. The video, though, gives you just a hint of how great and grooving it was in person Wow, those L.A. audiences are a rowdy lot compared to the Oakland crowd last night. Sounds like they were a lot younger audience too. This was perhaps the jazziest performance I've seen by VM. The band consisted of guitar, bass (electric and acoustic, depending on the song), keyboards/trumpet (same guy), drums, and two female backup singers, one of whom doubled on vibes and percussion. Since there was no saxophonist, VM featured his alto playing quite a bit. He also included "Symphony Sid" in the show and the Ray Charles classic, "I Believe To My Soul". One thing that really stands out about VM is his productivity. He's still writing new songs and still putting out new albums. His second album of this year alone will come out next month. Two albums in one year is what rock/pop stars might have done 50 years ago, but it's practically unheard of nowadays. One thing I would really like to hear from him would be an album full of his interpretations of songs from the Great American Songbook. He may not tour as prolifically as Dylan, but hey, at least it's more than the Stones. His next US dates will be in Vegas at the end of January, so if you are a fan who has never seen him in concert, now might be a good time to plan your Vegas vacation. I would certainly recommend catching this show.

Listened to this one last night on my way to and back from the concert. It's long been one of my favorite VM albums. He sang a couple of songs from it last night, "In The Afternoon" and the title song, and he also made brief allusions to a couple of other songs here, "Raincheck" and "Ancient Highway". (Edit to add -- When this CD first came out, I was working in a record store and when we got the first shipment of these CDs upon their release, the plastic tab thing that runs across the top of the CD that you can almost never pull off in one piece was printed with "Raincheck" as the title. I wonder what that was about. Was there some last minute decision to change the album title?)

Both discs 1 & 2. It had been a long time since I listened to this one. What an amazing concert that must have been -- or "concerts" I should say, because the liner notes indicate that some unspecified tracks were recorded a few days earlier at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma. (Boy, I wish I had been there for that show and had arrived early enough to watch Van Morrison go "Into The Mystic". ) In addition to Georgie Fame, the band had special guests galore -- Candy Dulfer, Junior Wells, Jimmy Witherspoon and John Lee Hooker. A really strong -- I was gonna say "later" album, but this is from 21 years ago now, so it's more like a mid-career album at this point. I have heard him sing some songs from this album in concert before, but I'm guessing "Burning Ground" will not be included in his concert Wednesday night. Not the appropriate time for that song with all the haze and smoke lingering in the air around this area.

I hope I'm not alone in this, but every time I listen to a Monk recording, I laugh out loud -- well "at" is not the correct word, nor is "with" right, maybe "because of" is the best phrase -- Monk's playing. Because his playing is so audacious -- seemingly simple, yet so profoundly deep, so corny on the surface, yet so very hip in the details. On this disc, I was laughing with joy quite a bit as he played "The Man I Love".

More VM: and then the DVD and CD 3 from which both document July 23 & 24, 1973 performances at The Rainbow in London. Granted, I pretty much stopped listening to new rock/pop music back at the turn of the century. However, if there is any rock/pop music being made today that can surpass the depth and beauty of these performances with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, I'd love to hear it.

An absolutely essential album to me. The whole album is very uplifting, but the title song is sheer musical ecstasy. I'll be going to see him in Oakland next week. It's been several years since I've seen him perform, but each of the times I have seen him have been quite memorable. I hope he's still giving it his all in concert these days.

Disc 1. An intriguing concept to me, combining two of my favorite things -- jazz music and the Sherlock Holmes stories. The music (small group swing) stands up quite well on its own. One needn't have any familiarity or even interest in the stories to enjoy it. The narration does add some atmospheric background and invites the listeners to hear certain soloists as characters from the tales. I had to wait a long time to find an affordable copy of this CD, but after hearing Disc 1, I'm glad I finally snared a copy of it

I'm guessing you won't get too many replies simply because one would then have to admit that one listens to the music of Turk Murphy. Well, I ain't too proud. When I first moved to the SF Bay Area 38 years ago, I discovered by accident that Turk Murphy had a weekly radio show -- Saturday afternoons, I think it was, from Earthquake McGoon's. I fell in love with his music then and still revisit it once in a while. You might try this disc: In these radio broadcasts from 1946 & '47, you get Lu, Turk, Bob Scobey, Bob Helm, Wally Rose -- SF trad jazz legends all! Try tracks 5, 13, 15 or 18.

Hmmm. What's "The Nandnow"? I'm curious what you thought of this one, Bill. I like Benny Green's playing ever since I first saw him in Joshua Redman's and Ray Brown's bands. I have a few of his CDs, but I admit it has been years since I've checked out any of his new releases. So much music, so little time.

Well, damn. That news made me cry -- and by cry in this case, I mean sob uncontrollably. I really did love his playing. I went to see him a few times up at Yoshi's -- twice when he was the headliner with his own group and at least once when he was a sideman with some one else (exactly who has escaped me). What really stood out for me was his ballad playing. I know it is all a subjective matter, but when he played a ballad there was something in his tone or his phrasing or his conception -- something which just moved me deeply, in a manner unlike any other trumpeter of the past 30 years. It's like the notes went straight from his horn into my heart. Rest at last Mr. Hargrove. You will be remembered. You will be appreciated. You will be missed.

Amazon US currently has 8 copies of available for a mere $5.08. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000003BAY/?coliid=IRNY2F1XVNYBJ&colid=21MLL4Z1HVFCD&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

For the past three days, when I have had time to listen to music, this has been the only music I've listened to -- This is, by far, my favorite late period Bob Dylan album. Each song has its own special merits, but the totality of the album just has a very calming effect for me.

It seems like one vital audio format has been completely overlooked- that is, records which came on the backs of cereal boxes! That's where jazz really missed the boat. They could have hooked a whole generation of kids just by putting some Horace Silver on the back of Honeycomb or Art Blakey on Alpha-Bits or Sonny Criss on Super Sugar Crisp. Start your day with a nutritious breakfast including juice, toast, eggs, cereal and Monk.

Yup.

Wow! "Introducing Barbara Morrison" -- what year was that? It was certainly a different time back then. Not many white band leaders could get away with recording a song titled "Nigger, Please!" without being eviscerated on social media at the very least these days.

I have the Early Jazz Greats cards (which, if I recall correctly, I picked up at Tower Records' going-out-of-business sale) and the book. They are fun items to have and would serve as a great gift (to give or receive) for the jazz fan.

The first album here was a quartet with Andre Previn, Red Mitchell and Frank Capp. It's an all Kurt Weill album, but the focus is on his German theater songs (all but two of the tunes do come from The Threepenny Opera), so no "My Ship" or "September Song" will be found here. It's an okay album, worth hearing , but not a "must hear" item. The second album finds J.J. Johnson as the only instrumental soloist amid an orchestra and a group of "voices" who would fit someplace between Esquivel and Anita Kerr. There are some good trombone solos to be heard here, but I'm sure few jazz fans would want to wade through the rest of the musical muck simply to savor those few moments. It would be nice if someone could extract Mr. Johnson's solos, back them up with some newly recorded rhythm section with perhaps some added guest horn soloists as well, and thereby construct a decent album. Sure it would be a musical Frankenstein's creation, but it's that time of year . . .