12-December-2017
Wizink Center
Madrid, Spain
Wizink Center
Madrid, Spain
Maryann sent in this review
Van Morrison can do everything. He does it right, and extremely well. If Versatile (name of his new album, only released a short while after Roll With The Punches) means capacity, or adaptation or fickle genius, these terms are inadequate to describe the sound spectacle it offered in WiZink (Madrid) the night of the 12th of December. At 72 years, the voice of this living legend was in full form, rising from its historical height to choose between songs from the "Days before Rock and Roll" (Baby Please Don ́t Go) or Astral Weeks (The Way Young lovers Do) , reinvent Moondance for the umpteenth time (with the six musicians accompanying him sporting his virtuosity) or carry on with Georgie Fame, shoulder to shoulder, like two musical drunkards looking for balance to build a Danish pyramid called Vanlose Stairway, a tour on the musical currents of the twentieth century that only a handful of artists can navigate. An elegant and otherwise non-communicative Van Morrison (said "thank you" only twice) began by hugging the sax, mining it for delirious scats (Wait a Minute Baby, Symphony Sid, How Long Has This been Going On and Moondance). When it seemed that soft jazz was going to be prevailing mode, Paul Moran’s piano discovers the Blues (How Far from God); The master of ceremonies releases the keys and blows the trumpet to phrase Magic Time with Van on the sax again. Baby Please Don ́t Go bursts like a brilliant moment, splicing the classic Parchman Farm, Don ́t Start Crying Now and Got My Mojo Working. It is a versatile turn, glittering with the Blues with hooks to Midnight Train and the pioneers of the Delta. It vibrates with emotion the audience entranced (more than five thousand souls inhabit the room, with excellent, rare sound). They all agree that there's no one in the entire solar system that utters the word "Louisiana" as that Irishman. The harmonica launches flares and, with the mojo working, straight to the head, like a good "shot of Rhythm and Blues", words that engender ecstasy. Tears continue to run down faces when Ride on Josephine is put under the spotlights with Georgie Fame showing what he can do. Moran moves, giving the Hammond to Fame, and Van points to the keys for Going to Chicago and Vanlose Stairway, two exquisite pieces, reaching and plummeting heights, preying on emotions and old demons: Killroy was Here, Railway Carriage Charm, the eternal youth that returns, that stays, that beats, that burns. Old scores are settled in this musical movement with Fame advising Van "You are learning to play, go,” something no one in his right mind would do. The Way Young Lovers Do (Carlos Boyero's favorite, most likely the audience’s too) kept the energy high which accelerated with Automobile Blues, when, at last, it is possible to see Van throwing blues chords. It was, as Henry Miller might say, an orgasm with six strings. Broken Record leads to Days Like This and Have I Told You Lately, enthusiastically welcomed by the Brotherhood (Paul Moore, bass; Teena Lyle, vibraphone; Paul Moran, male orchestra; Dave Keary, guitar; Clough, to the drumsticks, and Dana Masters, vocals). But the mystic moment of truth, when the voice that rips the veil that leads to Caledonia appeared, was In the Afternoon. The best of Van Morrison, the avid reader of Kerouac, the soul that turns music into healing, then opens the way to the wonders of the cosmos that builds inside his fucking genius. Flow of consciousness, improvisation, torrent of poetry that springs from the night and gets into the liberating loop: "If you believe, if you believe, if you believe.". Yes. If you believe, if you really believe, if you believe, anything is possible. Van is free and liberates. Van is not versatile. Van is liquid and soaks the edges, recesses and folds of the ungraspable animal complexity within each of us. This musician shows that he knows the rhythm of the Stars and rides on their light. It is the Irish cowboy who cools dreams with rain, with whiskey, with water...The Party’s Over, worth the redundancy. Then Brown Eyed Girl, of course, and back to heaven with In The Garden. To feel the Glory does not need to sound the same. "The streets are always wet with rain After a summer shower when I saw you standing...”
-Maryann
Solo-Rock (Source)
We were lucky enough to enjoy two musicians who add more than one hundred years of experience on stage and more than sixty albums released between the two plus a couple of dozen songs that will surely be in the subconscious of many without even knowing that they are the authors.
Two luxury concerts, the first Georgie Fame , as not accompanied by a Hammond keyboard, with that peculiar sound that many of us love. Forming trio his two sons, Tristan on guitar and James on drums. Forty-five minutes of Blues and Rythm and Blues with own and other subjects. After starting with Green Onions , they gave way to two themes of Tristan two blues, one slower and one electric, to make way I've got a woman of Ray Charles and Funny How Time Slips Away by Willie Nelson , and continue with one of his great successes Yeah Yeah , which gave so much performance to Matt Bianco.
A tribute to Jimmy Hendrix with Red House and another Ray theme in a seen and not seen give forty-five minutes of concert that knew little, without many paraphernalia of lights or movements on stage, clean sound, very good and throwing I miss many topics that have made Georgie great.
Then, also with British punctuality, Van Morrison and you have to say And his band , because the truth is that they deserve a mention apart, they got a perfect sound, yes, in the Palace of Sports of a lifetime, they have shown that it is It is possible that seven musicians (six plus Georgie) play at the same time and each and every one of them is heard in perfect conditions.
The repertoire lasted an hour and a half, during the concert everything works like a clock of perfect machinery, releasing the songs without rest, hardly gives time to applaud. After an entrance to warm fingers and voice came Symphony Sid and How far from God and then one of the big ones, Moondance . Then they linked Baby please do not go with Go my mojo working, two blues classics and it's that blues was the night.
We were able to see a very bluesy concert, that blues adapted to the Morrison style that has made him triumph, accompanying him with that plaintive voice, full of character and that like a whining goes undermining little by little and taking you to a state of nostalgia that breaks beat of saxophone or harmonica.
As expected, two stage mates so many years had to leave their mark together and there appeared Georgie Fame to play Going to Chicago and Vanlose Stairway , the latter with Van at the piano and Georgie at Hammond, back to back.
Broken Record, Days Like This , Sometimes We Cry , In the Afternoon, Brown Eyed Girl or In the Garden were other ones that sounded, so each one makes his list of the missing favorites, enough to give another whole concert.
Sober, elegant, giving play on some issues and well synchronized with music, lights accompanied at all times the cast of musicians who could prove themselves, without being overshadowed on stage by Van Morrison, in the latter, In the garden you it served so that they would expand a little, and demonstrate collectively and individually that although they played with Perico the one of the Palotes they were going to give a concert.
So to the question of How was Van Morrison? The answer is very good, ten, a concert full of blues, soul, soul, professionalism, feeling and technically perfect. Like the one on his head, Chapeau.
-Chema Perez
Setlist (Thanks Jose)
Wait A Minute Baby
Symphony Sid
Moondance
How Far From God
Magic Time
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm/Don't Start Crying Now/
Got My Mojo Working
Ride On Josephine
Going To Chicago w/Georgie Fame
Vanlose stairway w/Georgie Fame
The Way Young Lovers Do
Automobile Blues
Broken Record
Days Like This
Have I told You Lately
Sometimes We Cry
In The Afternoon
The Party's Over
Brown Eyed Girl
In The Garden
Big Hand For The Band!
Dave Keary (Guitar)
Paul Moore (Bass)
Paul Moran (Keyboards/Trumpet)
Mez Clough (Drums)
Teena Lyle (Percussion, Vocals)
Dana Masters (Vocals)
