Van Morrison is feeling frisky.
The 72-year-old Northern Irishman's third album since September is also the best of the trio. The Celtic soul man surprises by recording this set with Philadelphia jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco and his sterling quartet.
While the 15 cuts have a breezy, improvisatory feel, it's anything but tossed off. The repertoire mixes a handful of tunes from Morrison's vast catalog with jazz and blues classics.
Morrison is fully engaged with the task at hand and feels right at home with veteran Hammond ace DeFrancesco, who shines new light on the ageing legend's Evening Shadows and digs down deep to nudge Morrison to downright jaunty yabba-dabba-do-ish flights of fancy on the penned-in-1930 title cut.
- Dan DeLuca/TCA
