Van Morrison

Van Morrison is an outstanding musician and songwriter with the legacy of over 20 studio albums. He was born in Northern Ireland in 1945 and inherited nice jazz and blues education from his parents, also musicians. After touring with R&B band The Monarchs as a saxophonist, Morrison founded the band Them. They recorded the rock 'n' roll classic hit Gloria to be later covered by numerous performers. Dissatisfied with the music world sinking deeply in commerce, Morrison dissolved Them and came back to Northern Ireland. In a short while, however, his muse brought him to the studio again to record music with songwriter Bert Berns on his Bang label. This cooperation soon resulted in the song Brown-Eyed Girl, which became a Top 10 hit and prompted Bang to release a collection of Morrison's songs as the album Blowin' Your Mind! in 1967. Shortly after, Morrison left Bang for Warner Bros. Though the resulting Astral Weeks was a commercial flop, it was immediately hailed by critics as a masterpiece. It presented an unclassifiable genre with elements of jazz and folk to open a new page in the history of music.

Morrison’s 1970 release Moondance was made in the country-pop style accepted by the public much better and became a good seller. It contained the single Come Running reaching Top 40 in the USA. Its 1970 follow-up, His Band and the Street Choir, continued the theme of the successful predecessor and made the way to Top 10 with the single Domino. Recorded in the same vein, Tupelo Honey (1971) featured the popular country-flavored track Wild Night. Morrison kept quest for new and unique sounding with his move towards soul in Saint Dominic's Preview (1973). His subsequent studio work, Hard Nose the Highway, was left without much attention due to complexity of its folk and psychedelic music. Veedon Fleece followed the same direction and revealed a cryptic and enigmatic type of music with references to William Blake, an English romanticism poet and artist. The R&B stage in Morrison’s career began with A Period of Transition (1977), recorded after a break lasting three years. This theme was developed further on Wavelength, a critically acclaimed album, which had high sales and eventually ran gold.

The last album by Morrison, recorded in the seventies, was Into the Music. It became the first step into the massive research of faith and mysticism issues enduring through the eighties. This period was characterized by producing the most controversial and least comprehended albums by Van Morrison. The most notable studio works among them were A Sense of Wonder (1985), and Poetic Champions Compose (1987). The release of a greatest hits collection in 1990 gave Morrison a career boost and inspired him to produce the acclaimed double album, Hymns to the Silence, and A Night in San Francisco, a record of his splendid performance in the USA. In 1993, Van Morrison became an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Philosopher's Stone, a collection of previously unreleased material, became available in 1998. Morrison continued heavy touring and recording activities in the new millennium. In 2007, he delivered a huge collection of his best songs titled Still On Top: The Greatest Hits. It was meant to shorten the time of waiting for the new studio album, Keep It Simple, released late in 2008. Morrison continued heavy touring and recording activities in the new millennium. In 2007, he delivered a huge collection of his best songs titled Still On Top: The Greatest Hits. It was meant to shorten the time of waiting for the new studio album, Keep It Simple, released late in 2008. The next year Morrison released his fifth live album Astral Weeks: Live At The Hollywood Bowl (2009). It was recorded during two his concerts at the Hollywood Bowl amphitheatre in Los Angeles.