Really the Blues

The last truly great album that Van made was Hymns To The Silence in which he reaches heights of dazzling brilliance that he hasn't achieved since and in this little essay i would like to have a quick look at two of the characters mentioned on the album,Mezz Mezzrow and Sidney Bechet and the connection between the two.On the track 'On Hyndford Street' Van says-

To Hyndford Street, feeling wondrous and lit up inside
With a sense of everlasting life
And reading Mr. Jelly Roll and Big Bill Broonzy
And "Really The Blues" by "Mezz" Mezzrow.



Who was Mezz Mezzrow?.Well he was an American Clarinettist and Saxophone player who was born in 1892 and died in 1972.He isn't remembered much for his musical abilities but for his autobiography called 'Really The Blues'published in 1946.The book takes it's title from a piece composed by his friend Sidney Bechet.Mezzrow financed and organised many of Sidney's recording sessions.Mezzrow was very well known in Jazz circles as a drug dealer and he kept so many musicians supplied with marijuana they gave it the slang term 'Mezz'..Although Mezz was white, when he was jailed for supplying marijuana he insisted to the prison governor that he was black and he was banged up with the segregated black inmates.Later on Mezz married a black woman and moved to Paris where he spent the last 20 years of his life.

On the same album Van mentions Sidney Bechet in the track See Me Through/A Closer Walk With Thee.

See me through days of wine and roses
By and by when the morning comes
Jazz and blues and folk, poetry and jazz
Voice and music, music and no music
Silence and then voice
Music and writing, words
Memories, memories way back
Take me way back, hyndford street and hank williams
Louis armstrong, sidney bechet on sunday afternoons in winter
Sidney bechet, sunday afternoons in winter.


Sidney like Mezz also played clarinet and sax but unlike Mezz he was one of the greats in the history of jazz.He was born in 1897 in New Orleans and died in Paris aged 62.He was the first of the great jazz soloists and was the master of the soprano sax.Like Mezz he also fell foul of the law,he accidentally shot a woman in Paris while fighting a duel and was jailed.He also wrote his own autobiography called 'Treat It Gentle'.
You can hear Sidney Bechet in this video playing 'Really The Blues' and Mezz Mezzrow is also in the band.I think you will understand why the young Van Morrison enjoyed listening to Sidney Bechet on those long ago Sunday afternoons in winter.

You Say France An' Me Whistlin'

An you say France
An you say France
An' me whistlin'

To me Van doesn't seem to be as popular in France as a lot of other European countries.I say that because in the five years or so i think Van has only played a couple of gigs in Paris but he has played loads of times in Germany, Holland, Spain ,Denmark,Sweden ,Norway,Finland etc.Also there doesn't seem to be that many French fans on the lists.It seems a bit sad to me because France has a great jazz tradition.I was watching the great gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt on the telly last night in the Hot Club Of France with Stephane Graphelli.You would think with their great music tradition that the French would like Vans music.Especially since France has provided the background to some of Van's greatest songs such as Angelou for instance.

And I heard the bells ringing, and I heard the bells ringing
In the month of May
In the city of Paris and I called out your name.

Also Van was influenced by French writers like Sartre and Camus and poets like Rimbaud who he named in the title of one of his best songs

Tore down a la Rimbaud
And I wish my message would come
Tore down a la Rimbaud, you know it's hard some time
you know it's hard some time.
In the title song of St Dominics Preview he pays homage to the little sparrow, Edith Piaf

Singing songs about Edith Piaf`s soul.
And I hear blue strains of `no regredior`
Across the street from Cathedral Notre Dame.

The romance of Paris also provides the imagery for the brilliant evocative When The Leaves Come Falling Down

Oh, the last time I saw Paris in the streets, in the rain
And as I walk along the boulevards with you, once again
And the leaves come falling down
In September, when the leaves come falling down.

Van also went to the trouble of going all the way to the south of France to record the Common One album which was recorded over a nine day period in Super Bear Studios located in a monestary although the end result was a very English album.Can you think of any other French influence on Van's music?.Also why do you think Van doesn't seem to be so popular in France?.