Word: uptempo
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JESSICA" represents the other end of the Allman spectrum. Dickie Betts writes mostly uptempo, good-natured, primarily instrumental tunes. This one will remind anyone of "Revival," just as "Ramblin Man" echoes "Blue Sky." It's likely that Dickie plays better uptempo than any other way. His lines tend towards the lyrical anyway, and "Jessica's" structure allows him those spiralling notes, and quick runs. Leavell's piano solo is similar, with an emphasis on runs and single notes. The structure is simple, with the theme stated in unison at the beginning and end of the piece. The song is directly...
...Anselmo" is cemented in a real experience, but almost unreal in its rarity. It is a picture, a series of strung together images, missions, and massage parlors, pancake houses, and waitresses, barren and dull. The rhythm section plods its way through a descending progression, only to break into an uptempo jazz styled passage: walking bass, spiralling saxophone solo blended into the overall mix, piano chords cementing the whole, the Oakland Symphony Orchestra Chorus offering incongruous styles throughout. The vocal is subdued, though not without subtleties of phrasing, and intention...
Side two is pretty ethereal. "Green" may be a song sung by a leaf, who's sure? but it's definitely about nature. Morrison's first non-original since the old Bert Berns days over at Bang Records, the song's basically whimsical nature is belied by a funky, uptempo arrangement right out of Sinatra doing "That's Life." It's the good old uptempo blues: sax solos, blues guitar phrases abound. Morrison torch sings it, bending notes, phrases, whole lines, and finishing with a properly respectful...
...cool jazz, of nightclub music, that the smoke-filled cavernness of the Orpheum couldn't destroy. But for my six bucks, the best song of the night was a perfectly rendered fifties version of Erroll Garner's "Misty." Slightly electrified, the song was a magnificent example of transplanted, uptempo, fifties nightclub jazz. The bass line walked brilliantly and the piano fills and the piano solo could've come from the late show at Birdland. And Van's gourd, subtle vocal would have made King Cote proud...
...Orpheum Theatre, with the bassman dancing frantically by himself just offstage, and you have a picture of Morrison's new music. "Wild Night" has more meaning, but is just as joyous and just as much fun to listen to. These two songs summarize the new Van Morrison: uptempo and very much alive...