Van Morrison: Versatile - American Songwriter

Folk Rock / Rhythm and Blues
premiera polska: 2017-12-01
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: kartonowe etui
opis:
Opis wydawcy:
Van Morrison zapowiada swój album "Versatile".

Po sukcesie ostatniej płyty "Roll With the Punches", która eksplorowała fascynacje rhythm and bluesem, tym razem artysta postanowił jeszcze głębiej sięgnąć do archiwów muzyki.

"Versatile" to wyjątkowe reinterpretacje największych standardów jazzowych XXw., utworów, które są prawdziwymi podwalinami współczesnej muzyki. Na płytę trafiły kompozycje, które swego czasu spopularyzowali m.in. Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, the Righteous Brothers, Tony Bennett czy Nat King Cole. Obok standardów na Versatile trafiło również 6 premierowych kompozycji autorstwa Vana Morrisona.

"Nagrywanie tych utworów – w szczególności standardów – dało mi możliwość przećwiczenia mojego głosu i pozwoliło na powrót do muzyki, która kiedyś zainspirowała mnie do śpiewania" – wyznaje Morrison.

"Versatile" jest dostępny na dwóch nośnikach: CD i Vinyl 2LP

Editor's Info:
Van Morrison has announced details of a new studio album, Versatile.

This is his 38th studio album and follows on from Roll With The Punches, released in September.

As well as songs originally made famous by the likes of Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, the Righteous Brothers, Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole, Versatile features three new Van compositions. Van says of Versatile: “Recording songs like these – especially the standards – gave me the chance to stretch out vocally and get back to the music that originally inspired me to sing – jazz!”

Versatile is released on Caroline International on December 1, 2017

All Music Guide
. . . 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) . . .


Independent * * * *
. . . Having served up a sterling R&B covers album a month or two ago with Roll With The Punches, Van Morrison swiftly turns his attentions to his other great love, jazz, for the aptly-titled Versatile. For the most part, it’s a masterclass in jazz phrasing: standards like “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “I Get A Kick Out Of You” are teased gently into new shapes, with no sharp changes, Van’s delivery dancing lightly around the melodies over well-drilled, simpatico arrangements. The only real failure is “Unchained Melody”, which is literally unrecognisable, so much so you wonder what attracted him to the song. But there’s plenty of compensation elsewhere: James Galway lends weightless flute to a version of Jose Feliciano’s “Affirmation” which also features Van scatting “ring-a-ding” like some mystic Frank Sinatra, and the new song “Broken Record” finds him cutely repeating the title, as if the needle’s stuck, and isn’t that Van himself, taking the sax solo on a jaunty instrumental version of the “Skye Boat Song”?. . .

The Irish Times
. . . Let it be noted that Versatile is far removed from the man’s masterworks. Rather, it sees the 72-year-old revisit the music that originally inspired him. Which is all well and good, but the last time I checked no one needed more versions of jazz standards such as Bye Bye Blackbird, I Get a Kick Out of You and I Left my Heart in San Francisco. Faring only slightly better are the originals. Songs such as Start All Over Again and Only a Dream might see Van in a late-night swing-jazz frame of mind, but it leaves this listener in a cabaret supper club booth desperately searching for the exit signs . . .

utwory:
1. Broken Record (Van Morrison)
2. A Foggy Day (George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin)
3. Let’s Get Lost (Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh)
4. Bye Bye Blackbird (Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon)
5. Skye Boat Song (Traditional. Arranged by Van Morrison)
6. Take It Easy Baby (Van Morrison)
7. Makin’ Whoopee (Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn)
8. I Get a Kick Out of You (Cole Porter)
9. I Forgot That Love Existed (Van Morrison)
10. Unchained Melody (Alex North and Hy Zaret)
11. Start All Over Again (Van Morrison)
12. Only A Dream (Van Morrison)
13. Affirmation featuring Sir James Galway (Van Morrison)
14. The Party’s Over (Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne)
15. I Left My Heart in San Francisco (George Cory and Douglass Cross)
16. They Can’t Take That Away from Me (George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin)

total time - 01:08:22
wydano: 2017-12-01
more info: www.universalmusic.com
more info2: www.vanmorrison.com