VAN Morrison – surely a veteran Van at 72 – shows no sign of slowing.
Hot on the rhythm and blues-tapping heels of Roll With The Punches, he whisks out this collection of jazz standards, plus a few of his own. Sixteen tracks and no short-changing.
He starts with one of his songs, Broken Record, with its playfully barked refrain, following that with the first of the classics, the Gershwins’ A Foggy Day, beautifully done – along with all the other covers. The old familiars sway on a big-band train: Let’s Get Lost, Bye Bye Blackbird, Makin’ Whoopee, I Get A Kick Out of You, The Party’s Over, I Left My Heart In San Francisco and – back with Mrs Gershwin’s boys – They Can’t Take That Away From Me.
Van covers himself too, with retakes of I Forgot That Love Existed and Start All Over Again. Nothing surprising here, but all delivered in supremely relaxed style, with Van sounding as if he’s being doing this stuff for ever; which he has.
Review by Spencer Taylor
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