Van Morrison Reveals Jazz-Influenced New Album 'Versatile'

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Nov 6, 2017

Van Morrison only just released his Roll with the Punches earlier this year, but already the legendary songwriter has announced another new album. Titled Versatile, Morrison's 38th studio effort will arrive December 1 via Legacy Recordings.

While Roll with the Punches saw Morrison explore classic rhythm and blues, its newly announced follow-up will dive into what a press release calls "some of the 20th century's greatest vocal jazz standards."

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.

The press release explains, "Across Versatile's 16 tracks, Van Morrison interprets some of the very building blocks of modern music in his own utterly unique style.... 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."

You can see the very jazz-appropriate album art above, while the new record's tracklist is below.

Versatile:

1. Broken Record (Van Morrison)
2. A Foggy Day (George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin)
3. Let's Get Lost (Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh)
4. Bye Bye Blackbird (Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon)
5. Skye Boat Song (Traditional. Arranged by Van Morrison)
6. Take It Easy Baby (Van Morrison)
7. Makin' Whoopee (Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn)
8. I Get a Kick Out of You (Cole Porter)
9. I Forgot That Love Existed (Van Morrison)
10. Unchained Melody (Alex North and Hy Zaret)
11. Start All Over Again (Van Morrison)
12. Only A Dream (Van Morrison)
13. Affirmation' featuring Sir James Galway (Van Morrison)
14. The Party's Over (Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne)
15. I Left My Heart in San Francisco (George Cory and Douglass Cross)
16. They Can't Take That Away from Me (George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin)

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