Van Morrison gets intimate with SFJAZZ crowd
Morrison, in his signature fedora hat and wraparound sunglasses, simply strolled onto the stage and joined his five-piece band in “Keep Me Singing,” the title track of his 36th studio album.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who also played Monday at Davies Symphony Hall, kept his poker face as he delivered a jazz-fueled set that hardly stayed rooted in a single genre; touching on everything from bebop to knotty blues, Celtic accented folk-pop to roaring rock and roll.
When singing, he stood motionless, except for when he would violently swing his arm to cue the band, or when he picked up his alto saxophone to bleet out a few quick solos.
Morrison peppered the set with a few familiar staples, including a lilting version of the wedding reception favorite "Have I Told You Lately" and the sweeping ballad “In the Midnight,” but mostly steered clear of the people pleasers like “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Into The Mystic” and “Moondance.”
Yet he was most engaged when Shana Morrison, his daughter, joined him for a cabaret style cover of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “That Old Black Magic;” and again when the boogie woogie pianist Mitch Woods came out to sit in on a pair of songs, including an ecstatic reading of Big Joe Turner’s take on “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”
Only when the band reached the encore rendition of “Gloria,” the song by Morrison’s former psychedelic rock band, Them, did the audience, who paid $250 per ticket, jump to its feet and start shaking its hips.