Versatile
| Van Morrison
Versatile
Versatile is the 38th studio album by Van Morrison.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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2017. While Punches featured covers of classic blues and R&B cuts by artists like Little Walter, Sam Cooke, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Versatile—Morrison’s 38th studio LP pays homage to another school of influence: the jazz standards that originally inspired him to sing.
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The Guardian
2017. Versatile is a curious little joy of a record – largely standards from the pre-rock golden age of American songwriting, supplemented with a handful of Van originals . . . .
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Spill Magazine
Whereas Roll With The Punches had more of a rhythm and blues feel, Versatile is basically songs from ‘The Great American Songbook’, along with six songs written by Morrison performed and arranged in that style.
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All Music
2017. Versatile has its flaws and will likely appeal most to longtime fans, but Morrison fully invests himself in each tune, singing them as if he wrote them. This is head and shoulders above similar efforts by his peers and a solid addition to his shelf.
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American Songwriter
2017. This album is another example of Morrison’s inimitable flair as an interpreter and arranger.
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Slant Magazine
2017. The album is a rote and low-energy jaunt by Van Morrison through the Great American Songbook.
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RTE
2018. Versatile, Van Morrison's 38th studio album, mixes a bunch of vintage standards like Bye Bye Blackbird with a handful of new songs, but on the whole the album is slight, while buoyant and blithe at the same time.
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All About Jazz
2017. Recorded with a much more compact lineup of accompanists than its counterpart . . . , this title has a decidedly more jazzy feel than the blues-oriented likes of the preceding album. And Van Morrison conveys a decidedly less casual attitude here too, suggesting perhaps this project is of more recent vintage than the last.
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Relix
2017. Versatile, the Irish bard’s 38th studio album in all, is a good one for that, continuing where its predecessor, Roll With the Punches, left off, by mining the Great American Songbook instead of vintage R&B and adding in six new Morrison compositions just to reassure those returnees that he can still write a song.
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Rolling Stone
2017. Singer’s 38th studio LP mixes jazz standards with new originals.
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Herald - Standard
2018. “Versatile” comes only three short months after Morrison’s marvelous collection of R&B and blues tracks delivered on “Roll with the Punches” and finds Morrison in a relaxed state of mind by performing an intimate set of jazz standards that originally inspired Morrison to become a singer.
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Glide Magazine
2017. . . . Van pays tribute to his other favorite American art form, jazz, and jazz vocals in particular. However, while his previous release is a real keeper and worthy addition to his fabled catalog, this, his 38th studio album, falls a bit short. Although it far exceeds others who have tried to cover this material, like Rod Stewart for example, it doesn’t measure up to Van’s classics or to his string of recent albums over the past few years.
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Cryptic Rock
2017. A beefy sixteen track collection, Versatile is a homage to the music that has stuck to the ribs of this great musician throughout the years. The best part of all is Morrison still finds a way to create his own signature sound.
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Toronto Sun
2017. On “Versatile” Morrison veers toward the swinging vibe that has enthralled him at times, applying his signature vocal fearlessness to his own songs, some new and some not, and assorted well-travelled classics.
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Udiscovermusic
2018. A timely reminder that no one does diverse like Van Morrison, ‘Versatile’ dove deep into the jazz music that fired him as a young man growing up in Belfast.
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Cuckoo Writers Album Review
2018. Van Morrison’s 38th album was released a mere three months after his 37th, Roll with the Punches, hit the shelves. It is surprising, therefore, just how well constructed Versatile is, with Morrison masterfully weaving together the old and the new, offering fresh reinterpretations of jazz standards alongside a number of original tracks.
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Exclaim!
2017. With this jazz theme in mind, the new album finds Morrison delivering a set of new originals, as well as interpreting a series of classics from the likes of Chet Baker, Sinatra, the Righteous Brothers, Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole.
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Off The Tracks
2018. There’s nothing super special about Versatile – other than to prove that Van Morrison continue to be that; I guess so long as said versatility is him bouncing between versions of not-quite-blues and close-enough-to-jazz, some originals, mostly covers.
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Nieuweplaat.nl
2017. Versatile is a visit to music that inspired the musician years ago, which he has now put in his own jacket. It is especially nice lounge music, especially now that the month of December is approaching
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Independent
2017. For the most part, it’s a masterclass in jazz phrasing: standards like “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “I Get A Kick Out Of You” are teased gently into new shapes, with no sharp changes, Van’s delivery dancing lightly around the melodies over well-drilled, simpatico arrangements.
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Quiet Days
2017. Van is indulging himself here and sharing his love of jazz.
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Blues Magazine
2017. . . . 'Versatile' focuses more on jazz and the great American songbook. Beautiful title by the way, because the thirty-eighth Morrison sheet metal is indeed versatile.
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Shepherd Express
2018. Recent years have found him trying to be a jazz singer and he’s at it again on Versatile. . . . However, he attacks the material with enthusiasm and has recruited a sterling band. Morrison also proves to be a snappy alto saxophonist, letting loose short solos with aplomb.
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The Morton Report
2017. Versatile . . . finds him joining artists like Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart in mining the Great American Songbook. Such stellar performances prove once again that Morrison is what the album title proclaims—and also that he’s one of the most distinctive vocalists of our time.
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Uncut
2017. As well as songs originally made famous by the likes of Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, the Righteous Brothers, Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole, Versatile features three new Van compositions. Van says of Versatile: “Recording songs like these – especially the standards – gave me the chance to stretch out vocally and get back to the music that originally inspired me to sing – jazz!”
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Evening Standard
2017. It’s a collection of deftly arranged, impeccably phrased jazz standards (Let’s Get Lost, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, Unchained Melody) with a few jazzy originals lobbed in too. If that sounds like the sort of thing that might get Jools Holland’s foot tapping and you making a cup of tea, stick around.
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Stack
2017. . . . Van Morrison has released another collection that combines material from the Great American Songbook with half a dozen of his own songs, three previously recorded.
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Sounds and Books
2017. Full of rhythm & blues and soul, Van Morrison now interprets old jazz standards, which he always had in his long-term career and which, according to his own words, made him sing and inspired as a singer.
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NZ Herald
2017. Where Roll with the Punches is a straight-up Van Morrison rock record, Versatile is a very different animal. Van turns to the Gershwins for A Foggy Day, and They Can't take that away from me, to Cole Porter for I Get a Kick out of You, and adds other standards like Bye Bye Blackbird, Makin' Whoopee, Unchained Melody and I Left My Heart in San Francisco. Given Van Morrison's approach you can rest assured that his delivery and that of his band-mates is compelling.
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Classic Rock Magazine
2017. Delightful jazz from the great Northern Irish bard.
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Reading Eagle
2017. On "Versatile" Morrison veers toward the swinging vibe that has enthralled him at times, applying his signature vocal fearlessness to his own songs.
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The Press
Hot on the rhythm and blues-tapping heels of Roll With The Punches, he whisks out this collection of jazz standards, plus a few of his own. Sixteen tracks and no short-changing.
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Off Beat Magazine
2018. Van Morrison’s 38th album finds the Irish soul man fit as a fiddle. Singing standards by George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Jule Styne and more, Morrison and his well-cast musicians play fresh renditions of this familiar material.
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The Scotsman
2017. His previous album, Roll with the Punches, . . . is barely two months old and now he repeats the model with his equally beloved jazz, taking on Gershwin and Porter with barely a pause to loosen his collar and tipping the trilby to Sinatra in his louche delivery of The Party’s Over.
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Wrongmog
2017. The arrangements are all of a piece – a jazz setup of brass, standup bass, piano, drums and guitar – and it’s very much a mood album, gently swinging.
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Original Rock.Net
2017. “Versatile” finds Van returning to his jazz roots as he applies his own inimitable stamp to a selection of standards culled from the Great American Songbook, . . . .
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Rock Cellar Magazine
2017. . . . Morrison’s latest is a collection of a handful of original songs and spirited cover versions of jazz standards. It’s a project he holds very close to his heart . . . .
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Vintage Rock
Versatile, Van Morrison’s 38th album, sees the Celtic soul singer interpreting some of the 20th century’s greatest standards. This record is rich and wild jazz band stuff, mainly horn-led, with Van Morrison’s still-expressive voice playing round, in-between and jumpin’ over the masterful players.
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Life Music Media
2017. A joy from start to finish, Versatile is a completely different record to Roll With the Punches yet it’s incontrovertibly Van and proof, if ever it were needed, that at 72 years of age, he’s not going to slow down any time soon.
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NARC Magazine
2017. his 38th(!) record, as ever, his singing is folkish, laddish, but absolutely refined. Like someone somehow playing a symphony on a homemade tambourine. Instrumentally, Versatile is luscious, sashaying, tight.
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