Roos Van Montfort Luscious Time

Magic Time is one of those rare, intermittent Van Morrison records that consciously offers a bird's eye view of everywhere he's been musically and weaves it all together into a heady brew. The last one was The Healing Game in 1997. He's made fine records since (Down the Road, Back on Top), but they've been focused on whatever Muse was pulling his coattails at the time. Magic Time is restless and freewheeling. Lyrically, it's alternately bittersweet, celebratory, and ornery. Like all of his records, notions of the past haunt these songs like familiar specters making sure they are not forgotten. Here, Celtic soul, gritty blues, fingerpopping swing, R&B, and classic pop all jockey for dominance over ten originals and three covers…

Van Morrison's late career tear continues with You're Driving Me Crazy, his third album in seven months. Following the formula of 2017's Roll with the Punches and Versatile - each offered jazz, blues and R&B standards and redone originals - this set offers eight tracks from Morrison's catalog and seven standards. it stands on its own, however, as a collaborative encounter with jazz organist and trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco's hip quartet. They all holed up in a Sausalito studio and completed the recording in only two days, capturing everything in a take or two.
The loose feel is deceptive as the playing is anchored deep in the pocket; it crackles with live-wire intensity. Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets" is framed by a gentle swing, with DeFrancesco's organ and Troy Roberts' smoky tenor saxophone introducing Morrison…

Although Van Morrison's first solo album is remembered for containing the immortal pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl," Blowin' Your Mind! is actually a dry run for his masterpiece, Astral Weeks. Songs like "Who Drove the Red Sports Car" look to that song cycle, even as "Midnight Special" nods to Morrison's R&B past. But it's the agonizing "T.B. Sheets" - all nine-plus minutes of it - that dominates this record and belies its trendy title and pop association. "T.B. Sheets" takes the blues and reinvents it as noble tragedy and humiliating mortality. It's where Van Morrison emerges as an artist.