Not much.
Van the Man keeps doing his medium-intensity thing, now for the legendary Blue Note label, and Van IS essentially a pop-jazz and jump-blues singer these days anyway. With strings, reeds and horns providing a sweet but not saccharine, gently swinging bed, Van riffs off of standard blues progressions on his own compositions that could have easily appeared on a Bull Moose Jackson, Big Joe Turner, or Johnny Otis record from the '40s or '50s.
Van's voice is the stuff of primordial Hibernian peat dipped in '30s Kansas City, '40s Los Angeles, '50s Memphis, and '60s Marin County. This is a tangy, nocturnal reverie from a giant in semi-repose.
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
eric, these quick pick numbers are great. More of the same, is what The Duke would suggest.
i havent heard this record yet, tho do recall it getting something of a slaughtering in the UK music press.
Good stuff, man.
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Duker! It seems a reasonable way out of a dilemma that should be fun and will hopefully be helpful. It's good for me to work on brvity and essences.