Have you ever seen Van Morrison happy? At the Theater At Madison Square Garden last night he was positively beaming, staring in rapture at his surprise guest, just ten minutes into Van’s set, introducing him as a “spontaneous gift” and Morrison got it absolutely right. The 92 year old King of vocalese (improvising words over instrumentals) Jon Hendricks, one of the greatest jazz singers ,is performing the song he wrote “Baby You’re My Centerpiece” from back in 1958. This is a thrilling experience, Hendricks scats, spats, speaks gibberish, like another, unknown, unnamed instrument he flips his words around and through and over and above the melody. It is towering and the audience is enthralled, this is so purely entertaining, such a height of artistry… sitting next to me are two teenage boys and they start by smiling but they end up by laughing. They’ve never heard this sort of stuff before. Morrison? Beaming. “What a treat” he says.
Of course it was the highlight and except for a superb “All In The Game” where Morrison takes off for places unknown before moving over to “September Song” and connected them perfectly. What else: a two song connected sound “Enlightenment” followed by “Whenever God Shines His Light On Me”, only ruined by the self-evident truth that his daughter Shana is no Cliff Richard, and then “Days Like This”.
It is a strange set, both important and irrelevant, any time you get to hear Van call out his late old friend Bert Berns, and mention that Bert’s son is in the audience, there is a sense of specialness. And when he follows that with “Baby Please Don’t Go” and a brilliant “Here Comes The Night” it is hard, but not impossible, to dub the set unfulfilling.
After the concentrated force of will of his Astral Weeks performances some of the evening came across as Morrison business, and I guess that’s exactly what it was. The band are good but background, and while Morrison merges himself with them, especially when playing his sax, they don’t take off and the set only really finds on occasion and then for a line or two, Van scatting “Chopping wood”, or speeding up on the “I can see right out my window…” Not only is “Brown Eyed Girl”, given a jazzy interpretation, ready to be sent to pasture but so is “Gloria”. Better are the three songs off his new album, Born To Sing: No Plan B. “Open Your Heart” reveals itself as a late Morrison pop triumph and the interspersed “Born To Swing” is just fine. But neither song quite takes off, the set is nearly there all the time but the emotional lift off you come to Van for is missing.
One problem is his back up singer sucks. I realize Shana is his daughter, but their voices are ill suited, her three song opening set is not bad though it’s not good enough, and she doesn’t have a great tone and that is a problem. I just can’t hear her, she is terrible on “Whenever God Shines His Light On Me” -a song I adore. “Sometimes We Cry” was initially recorded with Georgie Fame and Brian Kennedy singing back up… I think you can see where this is leading.
Perhaps being in a good mood doesn’t suit Morrison, there is no tension in the proceedings; relatively talkative, involved, a good setlist, well sung , well performed, songs I wanted to hear, all of them, loved the lot, but with Morrison he is always trying to reach a certain place and just let loose, he wants to fly into the mystic of sound and vision: there are times, very last time I saw performing “Slim Slow Slider” at the Beacon, where you think your heart is gotta to stop it is so beautiful. He isn’t there, he has transformed and transported himself. I know you know what I mean, I know you’ve felt it in concerts from time to time, it is why we care, and Morrison can do this: he can transmute every powerful emotion into the sound of his voice.
The band aren’t helping, they are oddly non-descript though these are great players. On “That Old Black Magic” -again, bloody damn Shana, but the band veer close to what Van once cursed as “pseudo jazz”. The full band, you know the drill, are large and in tune with Van but they aren’t leaping through hoops and here they seem to be treading water.
I am not claiming they aren’t good, or Van isn’t good, but they aren’t great and Van only reaches greatness for a moment here and there. The claims against Van the performer, disinterested, won’t acknowledge the audience, ten minutes singing a phase, too late to stop now, none of that is happening. But he can’t nail day “Help Me”. That’s where Van got “it’s too late to stop now”, how can’t he nail it dead?
How bad was it? I’d go again today if I could. How good was it? I won’t be mentioning it five years from. Well, maybe I will remember it five years from now but it is Jon Hendricks I’ll be remembering.
Grade: B+
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