This just popped up – a live stream of Van Morrison at this years Montreux Jazz Festival.
It was streamed a few hours ago (as I post this) and is still available. Hopefully will still be up by the time you read this. Link in first comment.
p.s. there’s also a stream of James Taylor.
The playount in ‘Gloria’ – once Van has left the stage – is terrific. Those two facts may not be unconnected.
Not much here about the Van show itself – so I thought I might share some thoughts:
1: He looks like he’s lost weight so he seems even smaller. But the suit doesn’t seem to be stretching to hide his girth. I have no problem with some added weight but I found the hat, the sunglasses and the tight suit to be distracting.
2. I thought his voice deteriorated a great deal suddenly in his 40’s. Such a difference between the gruff, half spoken approach of the 80’s from the remarkably agile, rubbery, at times tender voice of his 20’s in that great run from 1968 to 1979. . Since then, it seems to have hardly changed at all. Its in good nick it seems but I can’t say I really enjoy his voice but that might be the material.
3. The material… so much supper club blues. Immaculately played but no real sense of anything happening. Music to be embalmed by. Van hasn’t learned a new lick on sax, harmonica since 1964.
4. I know the newish album got good reviews here but I don’t believe a word he says. ‘Ain’t Gonna Moan No More”? If only that were so…
5. Speaking of moaning. The most interesting thing was his old man moaning about the stage sound – “it suddenly got really loud”. “There is so much echo – who is in charge of the sound?” Hilariously weird question – what did he expect? “It’s me, Van – down here”
6. Van’s carping on stage shows that he never seems to enjoy himself at all – hidden behind those shades, he seems to share nothing with his musicians who are also devoid of smiles and any sense of joy in what they are doing.
7. Pleased to hear Enlightenment but now when he sings “still don’t know what it is” the irony of his childishness ruins a song that was once very moving.
8. Moondance – so he feels compelled to play it but not with the chordal grace of the song but as a kind of vamp.
9. Finishes with Gloria. He keeps moaning about how its just a job, y know, why must he always explain? His insistence on finishing with Gloria is not a crowd pleaser so much as an act of cynicism from an artist who is perhaps more cynical than John Lydon yet brought so much emotional depth to his greatest work its a complete mystery now where he ever found it.
10. He has what he wanted – to play blues n jazz n soul and to not clean windows. But he’s such a drag to watch it feels like a real tragedy at times.
That’s quite a lot of criticism. Van has always had good and bad nights on stage. I saw brilliant shows in the 80s, 90s and into this century, as well as a few where he phoned it in. I see him much more rarely than I used to though. I do like Remembering Now, but it may be a tad overrated after 3 decades of generally mediocre material. I think The Healing Game mid 90s was his last great album.
My last but one show was this one in 2009, really a setlist to die for, and he was really on that night:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/van-morrison/2009/madison-square-garden-wamu-theater-new-york-ny-2bf77c36.html
Probably because he doesn’t tour quite as much as Dylan his hit/miss ratio is rather better than his Bobness but, jingsarooney, I’ve seen some absolute stinkers from Van . Blicking Hall, Norfolk where in front of five thousand people he played not a single “hit” that punters knew and he spent most of the gig berating the backing band. We’d all paid considerable dosh for a summer evening in the park listening to Gloria, Brown Eyed Girl etc. Yeah, fat chance of that .
Hammersmith Odeon where he came on an hour late , played for thirty five minutes and left without an encore.
Then there was The Too Late To Stop Now tour which I’m pretty sure were the two best concerts I’ve ever attended.
And yes, Healing Game is the last great Van record.
Lol at “it’s me Van, down here”. 🙂
thanks !
Thank you sir. If I can stop playing The Waterboys ‘Atlantic Rain’ I’ll give both a look ‘n’ listen.
This is wonderful, thank you.
Has anyone on here actually been to the Montreux Jazz Festival in the last decade or so?
Considering going next year.
Not in the last decade, but a few times early this century when I was living in Switzerland.
Worth doing? I’m guessing so if you went more than once.
I went for certain acts rather than the Festival itself, it’s not a big outdoor festival with camping etc. Big name acts play indoors often in smaller venues than you would normally see them in. From memory I saw Bob Dylan, Radiohead,Kraftwerk, CSN and Steve Earle there, maybe The Pogues too. Other more jazzy acts were playing for free outside. Accommodation is tough to find in the town, we drove back to Zurich sometimes (3 hours or so) after the show. Maybe there is some camping nearby, not sure. Certainly a great place to see an act or two that you like for a few days and it is a breathtakingly beautiful (and expensive) place to spend some time in
You book for individual shows don’t you?
Yup, was there a dozen or so years back. Lots of events scattered around venues large and small. My main memory, apart from Freddie’s statue, is the staggering price of “lake caught fish”, chips and a glass of wine – holiday budget blown right there
It is extremely expensive, but luckily I was on a Swiss salary when I visited.
OK, own up, which of you took the fireworks?