John Payne plays along with Slim Slow Slider at the Cambridge Public Library
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there has been no super-deluxe reissue of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. There has however been much other commemoration, particularly in written form.
One such item is local musician Ryan Walsh's book Astral Weeks: A secret history of 1968. Walsh led a presentation today at the Cambridge Public Library featuring most of the musicians from the band Morrison led in the Boston area in 1968 which first played the songs that ended up on the album, only to be replaced at the record company's insistence by studio cats for the recording.
The panel consisted of Walsh and three of the Boston musicians - John Payne (flute), Tom Kielbania (bass), Joey Bebo (drums). It was an enjoyable, but pretty standard panel discussion, but something amazing happened at the end.
In telling the story of the recording of the album's final song (of both the sessions and the album sequence), Payne got out his soprano sax and began playing along with Slim Slow Slider, duetting with his 50-year-younger self, blending perfectly with his own lines, and with Van and the deep sadness of the song, before guiding us through the splice that cuts out the buildup to the brief but fervent snippet of improvisation that ends the album, and the baroque improvisation by Van, Payne and bassist Richard Davis, segueing into a closing Te Deum improvised by Morrison that were also cut (but preserved above). The audience was rapt. I've never seen or heard anything like it. I saw a few people recording this on their phones, I'll have to rely on my memory.
In telling the story of the recording of the album's final song (of both the sessions and the album sequence), Payne got out his soprano sax and began playing along with Slim Slow Slider, duetting with his 50-year-younger self, blending perfectly with his own lines, and with Van and the deep sadness of the song, before guiding us through the splice that cuts out the buildup to the brief but fervent snippet of improvisation that ends the album, and the baroque improvisation by Van, Payne and bassist Richard Davis, segueing into a closing Te Deum improvised by Morrison that were also cut (but preserved above). The audience was rapt. I've never seen or heard anything like it. I saw a few people recording this on their phones, I'll have to rely on my memory.
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