Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBEis a Northern Irish singer, songwriter and musician. He has received six Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth31 August 1945
CityBelfast, Northern Ireland
[Jazz musicians ] couldn't cut rock. I had to be more limited and specific about what I was doing.
We're [with Robbie Robertson ] jazz musicians. The context may be rock 'n' roll but it's still jazz. It's jazz and that means improvization...you play a tune the way it feels and you play it differently every time. It can never be the same.
Then it evolved into more of a ballad style singer/songwriter thing. And there was a conflict in trying to merge the two styles with the same band behind me. 'Cause the musicians that I would need to do ballad-oriented tunes would require musicians who were more into jazz.
My responsibility is to fulfil what that natural thing is. The thing that I dislike about pop rock Top 40 music is that it's not natural.
Jackie Wilson said it was Reet-Petite, kind of love you got knock me off my feet.
Skiffle was blues featuring a washboard and acoustic instruments. It encompassed blues, with elements of folk, jazz, and, at times, American country-and-western music.
I just wanted to have a look at my whole musical career, get right back to when I started and why I started doing it in the first place.
You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.
As a developing musician, skiffle became a platform for me to start playing music.
The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on.
I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.
That's what it is-it's jazz. It's just jazz. That's what the whole thing is about to me. It's about what's happening right now in this context. This conversation is jazz to a certain extent. It's improvisation. What appeals to me about music is the improvization. That's what I don't like about the media-they're not living it.
Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
My records do not require a lot of thought of 'What is this?' and 'What is that?' That would be too contrived for me.