‘I’m not a finished product. I’m a work in progress’

A fertile new collaboration is the latest milestone on Van Morrison’s never-ending artistic quest

AT THE Europa Hotel in Belfast, Van Morrison fans from America, Spain and Scotland are debating the singer’s vocal prowess. In a quiet corner, the man himself sits draining a glass of tomato juice.

The fans have paid hundreds of pounds to enjoy a three-course meal then watch Morrison perform to an audience of 350, previewing songs from his latest album, The Prophet Speaks, on which he collaborates with the jazz multi-instrumentalist Joey DeFrancesco.

DeFrancesco cut his teeth opening for BB King in the mid 1950s and around the same time, in Belfast, Morrison was also becoming absorbed by blues and jazz in a local record shop.

“It was a dimly lit room with a lot of grown-up men smoking cigars,”