Morrison, Van (1945– )

Northern Irish singer, songwriter, and saxophonist. His jazz-inflected Celtic soul style was already in evidence on Astral Weeks (1968) and has been highly influential. Among other albums are Tupelo Honey (1971), Veedon Fleece (1974), and Avalon Sunset (1989). He continued to release albums throughout the 1990s, with a consistently retrospective tone, one of the finest being Hymns to the Silence (1991). In 1994 he was awarded a Brit Award for his outstanding contribution to music.

Morrison started out in the beat-music era and formed the group Them (1964–66), which had two hits, ‘Here Comes the Night’ and ‘Gloria’; the latter became a standard. His first hit solo single, ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (1967), and the album Moondance (1970), exemplified a shift to a popular rhythm and blues sound.