New Arrangements And Duets Van Morrison

• 1Ain't Gonna Moan No More05:32
• 2Broken Record04:20
• 3Avalon Of The Heart03:57
• 4Close Enough For Jazz03:38
• 5I'll Be Your Lover, Too06:40
• 6Only A Dream05:30
• 7So Quiet In Here07:11
• 8Someone Like You05:03
• 9The Beauty Of Days Gone By04:24
• 10The Master's Eyes05:13
• 11So Complicated04:08
• 12Choppin' Wood03:32
• 13You Gotta Make It Through The World03:23
• 14What's Wrong With This Picture04:44
• 15Steal My Heart Away03:41
• Total Runtime01:10:56

Info for New Arrangements And Duets

"New Arrangements And Duets" is just a small portion of the vast unreleased material that Van Morrison plans to release in the near future, ensuring it doesn't simply gather dust in the archives. The big band tracks on the album were recorded in 2014, with Paul Moran and Chris White individually selecting the songs they wanted to arrange for a big band. The duets, recorded between 2018 and 2019, feature an impressive lineup of vocalists including Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers, Joss Stone, and Willie Nelson. The duets with Willie Nelson – ‘What’s Wrong With This Picture' and ‘Steal My Heart Away' also highlight the guitar skills of Lukas Nelson, Willie's son.

It begins with a superb rendering of his 2018 song “Ain’t Gonna Moan No More”, on which Van is joined by the mellifluous voice of Kurt Elling, and which was recorded alongside the other duets on the album in 2018 and 2019.

It then winds through a mix of duets recorded in 2014 (alas, no Sir Cliff) and what they're calling "big band" arrangements of catalogue classics like “Avalon of the Heart”, “So Quiet in Here” and “The Master’s Eyes”, a gem from 1985’s A Sense of Wonder. This extremely likeable scoop of slightly random songs is the second of a series of releases from the vaults on Orangefield Records (the first, Beyond Words: Instrumental compiled instrumental cuts from the Seventies to the 2000s).

While there are a handful of deluxe editions from Van Morrison's catalogue – Moondance, Astral Weeks, 1997’s The Healing Game – it transpires there’s a motherlode of archive sitting there waiting to be brought blinking into the light, and it all appears to be personally curated for the singer’s own archive label. And it's a great listen.

The big band arrangements are held tight by Paul Moran and Chris White, who chose the tracks they wanted to work on, and they're not that "big" but they are adapt at hitting the sweet spot of a familiar song to bring out a different shine. The album’s longest cut, “So Quiet in Here” is one of the best. Of the duets, which include Curtis Stigers getting “Close Enough for Jazz” and Joss Stone getting worked up on “Someone Like You”, it’s the two that close the set that take the crown, “What’s Wrong with This Picture’ and “Steal My Heart Away” with Willie Nelson and his son Lukas on guitar. They’re are a pairing made in heaven, and “What’s Wrong” is a hell of a track, and you have to hope more of this manna descends upon us down here on earth. (Tim Cumming, theartsdesk.com)

Van Morrison

Van Morrison
One of music’s true originals Van Morrison’s unique and inspirational musical legacy is rooted in postwar Belfast.

Born in 1945 Van heard his Shipyard worker father’s collection of blues, country and gospel early in life.

Feeding off musical greats such as Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson and Leadbelly he was a travelling musician at 13 and singing, playing guitar and sax, in several bands, before forming Them in 1964.

Making their name at Belfast’s Maritime Club Them soon established Van as a major force in the British R&B scene. Morrison’s matchless vocal and songwriting talents produced instant classics such as the much covered ‘Gloria’ and ‘Here Comes The Night’.

Those talents found full astonishing range in Van’s solo career.

After working with Them’s New York producer Bert Berns on beautiful Top 40 pop hit ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (1967), Morrison moved to another realm.

Recorded over 3 days with legendary jazz musicians Astral Weeks (1968) is a still singular album combining street poetry, jazz improvisation, Celtic invocation and Afro Celtic Blues wailing.

Morrison would weave these and myriad other influences into the albums that followed in quick succession.

Reflecting on new life in America on the joyous Sinatra soul of Moondance (1970) and the country inflected Tupelo Honey (1971) he summoned old spiritual and ancestral life in the epic St Dominic’s Preview (1972) closer track Listen To The Lion.

Double live album Too Late To Stop Now (1973) highlighted Morrison’s superlative performing and bandleader skills. Mapping out a richly varied musical course throughout the 70s he shone among an all-star cast including Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters on The Band’s Last Waltz.

Indeed, borne of his Irish Showband instincts, the magic of the live performance has been a consistent feature of Morrison’s career.

Settling back into life in the UK in 1980 he released Common One an album centring on Summertime In England an extraordinary invocation of literary, sensual and spiritual pleasure the song would often become a thrilling improvised centrepiece to his live shows.

Steering his own course throughout the 80s on albums such as No Guru, No Method, No Teacher he claimed Celtic roots with The Chieftains on Irish Heartbeat. Teaming with Georgie Fame brought new impetus to his live show while Avalon Sunset saw him back in the album and single charts by the decades end.

Van Morrison continued to advance on his status as a game- changing artist through the 90s and into the 21st century.

Awards and accolades - a Brit, an OBE, an Ivor Novello, 6 Grammys, honourary doctorates from Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster, entry into The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and the French Ordres Des Artes Et Des Lettres - attested to the international reach of Van’s musical art.

Yet there was never any suggestion that Morrison, one of the most prolific recording artists and hardest working live performers of his era, would ever rest on his laurels.

Collaborations with, among others, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Lonnie Donegan, Mose Allison and Tom Jones confirmed the breadth of his musical reach.

Morrison’s visionary songwriting and mastery of many genres continued to shine on albums celebrating and re-exploring his blues, jazz, skiffle and country roots.

The influence of the musical journey that began back in Post War Belfast stretches across the generations, and Morrison’s questing hunger insures that the journey itself continues.

Constantly reshaping his musical history in live performance, Morrison reclaimed Astral Weeks on 2009’s album Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

The subtitle of Van Morrison's latest album, Born to Sing: No Plan B, indicates the power that music still holds for this living legend. "No Plan B means this is not a rehearsal," says Morrison. "That’s the main thing—it’s not a hobby, it’s real, happening now, in real time."

With one of the most revered catalogues in music history and his unparalleled talents as composer, singer and performer Morrison’s past achievements loom large. But, as throughout his extraordinary career, how that past informs his future achievements and still stirs excitement and keen anticipation.

This album contains no booklet.