Album Reviews

Imagine Van and organist Joey Francesco getting together for a late night jam session with some friends and running through a set of Van tunes plus an assortment of standards. You don't have to imagine it because that's what this album sounds like and it's close to how these sessions were produced. Van and Joey clearly had great fun making this record. Van hasn't sang this freely and playfully on record in some time.

You don't have to be told that these tracks were recorded live in the studio. That's obvious from the opening track "Miss Otis regrets". Van's backed throughout the album by DeFrancesco, guitarist Dan Wilson, drummer Michael Ode and tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts. DeFrancesco also contributes overdubbed trumpet on the opening track. The cover of the gatefold jacket shows Joey blowing trumpet at Van close range. Van's covering his ears. The inside gatefold picture is of the two sharing a laugh. When was the last time you saw Van laughing in an album picture?

The Van tunes include "The Way Young Lovers Do", "All Saints Day", "Close Enough For Jazz", "Goldfish Bowl", "Evening Shadows" and "Have I Told You Lately"—all done reminiscent of how Ray Charles might have approached them but of course performed Van-style .

The promo CD's exceptionally fine sonics had me going to the recording venue's website (Studio D in Sausalito, CA) where I found a picture of a Studer A-800 Mk II 24 track analog tape recorder that confirmed what I was hearing, except that in an email, assistant engineer Jason Victorine wrote: " We actually did not use the Studer on this project. We tracked it all to Pro Tools HDX at 24 bit 96k. We used a lot of vintage microphones and outboard gear to get the sound we wanted. It was all tracked and mixed on our analog SSL 9064J console along with some additional outboard preamps."

If I had an criticism of the sonics it was that maybe it was a bit too warm, giving the cymbals a smoother than hard/brassy quality but that's just being picky because otherwise the sonics are "sink your ears into the space" great. The recording has all of the qualities valued by audiophiles: tonal believability, full frequency response, depth, space and all the rest. On a few tracks the drums are splayed across the stage, but let's not get picky!

I don't care how great sound is achieved—analog or digital—and here a great room, vintage microphones an an analog mixing board produced digitally recorded sound you'll love.

While out in San Francisco speaking to the S.F. Audiophile Society, I visited Mill Valley Music (great store!) and picked up the double LP, which the liner notes credit San Francisco-based Paul Stubblebine for vinyl mastering (Paul masters for Reference Recordings, among others). The inner groove area tells a different story: "SST", which stands for "Schallplatten Schneid Technik" the German company that's been cutting lacquers since the late 1960's. Waiting to hear back from Paul to find out what happened here!

In any case comparing the LPs cut from 96/24 files to the CD played back on a dCS Rossini DAC was interesting! The CD was warmer and in my system somewhat muffled compared to the record played back using a van Den Hul Colibri. I'd love to hear the 96/24 file. But given the choice of CD vs. vinyl, give me the vinyl! It wasn't given, so I bought it!

I've previously written that the French pressing plant MPO has way upped its game and this double MPO pressed record is further proof. I'll conclude with one of those terrible "if" clichés": If you've laid off of buying Van Morrison albums for a while (this is his 39th so unless you are a Van fanatic, who can blame you?) I strongly recommend you consider getting this one. It's filled with great "live in the studio" music-making, superbly recorded and Van's not sung better or swung more freely on record in quite some time!