I was pretty much a studio musician, and I got called to do a recording with a group of other established jazz musicians, like Connie Kay, and Richard Davis was the bass player, and Jay Berliner was the guitar player. How did you get involved in the Van Morrison session? Ware - reflected on Astral Weeks’ improv-driven sound and what it’s like to have a routine day’s work held up as an enduring masterpiece a half-century later. Davis’ bass lines drive the ensemble, but Smith’s vibes add crucial color on songs like “Beside You” and “Ballerina.”Įarlier in November, the percussionist - whose vast six-decade discography includes work with everyone from Aretha Franklin to free-jazz saxophone master David S. This ad hoc ensemble achieved an intuitive, stream-of-consciousness free-folk flow that Morrison, then best known for his 1967 Top 10 hit “Brown Eyed Girl” and gritty Them singles like “Gloria” and “Here Comes the Night,” would never again capture on record with such aching purity. He didn’t make any suggestions about what to play, how to play, how to stylize what we were doing.”īut as it turns out, no suggestions were needed. …’ To tell you the truth, I don’t remember any conversations with him. “People say, ‘He must have talked to you about the record and created the magic feeling that had to be there. “Some people are real disillusioned when I tell them about making the record,” Davis told Rolling Stone in 1987. “He hadn’t worked in that world with pure jazz players,” Merenstein told me in 2008.Įven in the studio, the singer remained aloof. The same went for Morrison and his new backing band. Walsh’s beautifully elaborate 2018 book on the album’s creation and historical context, the musicians were totally unfamiliar with Van Morrison prior to the first of three recording sessions, held in late September of 1968. Naming Morrison’s proper solo debut as 19th greatest album of all time, Rolling Stone called out the supporting cast as the “crowning touch.”Īs described in Astral Weeks, Ryan H. The 84-year-old percussionist, who played vibraphone on the 1968 album, is referring to the crack team of jazz A-listers that producer Lewis Merenstein recruited to accompany the Irish singer-songwriter, including Smith, bassist Richard Davis, Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay and guitarist Jay Berliner. When asked about the secret behind Van Morrison’s classic Astral Weeks LP 50 years later, Warren Smith has a simple answer: “He got the right people.” Percussionist Warren Smith, who played vibes on the singer-songwriter’s jazz-steeped 1968 LP, reflects on how a routine day in the studio yielded a timeless classic Van Morrison’s ‘Astral Weeks’ Sideman Looks Back: ‘I Was Lucky to Be There’
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