Van Morrison tribute at Calvin College to showcase Grand Rapids singer’s passion for the artist, the blues and cultural solidarity

Mark VandenBerge’s lush ‘Ken Burns meets Trans-Siberian Orchestra’ production on Saturday boasts an all-star band, orchestra, choir and multi-media show. And check out a Top 5 playlist of Morrison songs below.

 

Grand Rapids singer Mark VandenBerge’s passion for Van Morrison – and the American blues and soul music that inspired the celebrated Irish singer – permeates his conversations, his performances, his aspirations.

So it’s no surprise that he happily describes his upcoming “When the Blues Left America: A Van Morrison Symphonic Tribute” as a history-laden, multi-media-enhanced “Ken Burns’ ‘Civil War’ meets Trans-Siberian Orchestra” spectacle.

“It’s a very vivid portrait of modern music with historical roots and the DNA out of the blues and how it really formed everything,” VandenBerge says. “It shows how the language of a broken people became a common thread of music for the whole world. … The blues masters became the inspiration for Van Morrison’s career.”

Saturday night’s elaborate production at Calvin College’s Covenant Fine Arts Center aims to tell that story through 18 songs covering Morrison’s illustrious 50-year catalog, performed with help from the Soul Mambo rock band, the Calvin College Student Orchestra and a Calvin gospel choir, with VandenBerge playing the role of Morrison.

To augment the experience, VandenBerge has added a multi-media show featuring video, photo stills and voiceovers to depict the social, historical and cultural influences that shaped these legendary songs.

CELEBRATING RACIAL HARMONY AND CULTURAL SOLIDARITY

“When the audience goes beneath the surface with us into this fantastic story, they will come away with a new sense for a reason to celebrate racial harmony and reflect on what it means to be human in a cosmic way,” he insists.

“They will see that the blues served to actually create a solidarity between cultures that is only recently being fully understood.”

Of course, with Morrison as the evening’s “narrator,” it’s also a tribute to the iconic 69-year-old singer who himself has influenced succeeding generations of musical artists with songs ranging from “Domino” to “Moondance.”

VandenBerge, a classically trained singer who bears a resemblance to Morrison, first unfurled a tribute to his hero at St. Cecilia Music Center back in 2011, but has substantially upped the ante and taken “a giant leap” forward with this production, so much so that he calls it a “premier” of this show which he hopes to continue with other orchestras in the future.

“I hope what people get is a larger story of themselves, a product of a much more complex tapestry,” the 1984 Calvin College graduate says, with hopes a “vivid” live music event can challenge and alter audiences’ mindset.

AN ALL-STAR BAND SERVING UP ENDURING SONGS

“We’ve got to use music to start breaking down walls and have more things in common with each other. … Blues has become a world music. It unites cultures and that’s a good thing.”

He’ll do that Saturday with a healthy assist from a 20-piece student orchestra organized by the Grand Rapids Symphony’s John Varineau, a student gospel choir and a top-drawer, all-star band. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $20. Get tickets and more details online at calvin.edu.

Soul Mambo, he says, represents “a band of the best session players in West Michigan” – Pete Bardolph, Michael Van Houten, Scott Bell, Ed Clifford, Johnny Gist, Brad Fritcher, Michael Lutley, Greg Miller and Tom Lockwood, with Lindsey Norton and Immanuel Phillips on backing vocals.

VandenBerge also believes that because “this music is so universal,” it appeals to all ages, cultures and ethnic groups, serving as “a meeting point” for young and old.

And the prolific Morrison – whose music once was described by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band as “a religion for us” – is the perfect conduit.

“Van was there at the beginning,” VandenBerge says, “and he’s still there.”

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MARK VANDENBERGE’S VAN MORRISON PLAYLIST

1. “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?” – I had an epiphany with this song driving on the Chicago Loop on a bright sunny day, when hearing it for the first-time, I felt like a thunder bolt had hit me out of the clear blue. While I knew the singer was Van Morrison immediately, on the other hand, about halfway through, I was thinking to myself, “This can’t be him.” It was as if I had known the song my whole life and it was the first step on a journey and wanting to take a much deeper dive into his entire catalog knowing he could channel the entire range of emotions like that through song.

2. “Jackie Wilson Said” – A song showing Van as a child of his time, with his dedication to the “jump blues” with a heavy instrumental feel. l love great orchestration and this really made me believe in Van’s chops as a musician.

3. “In the Garden” – A song almost too mystical to play in a concert setting. Van, a renowned spiritual seeker over the course of his career, has said that in the words of this song were contained the last word of where he stood.

4. “Moondance/Young Lovers” — His jazz and experimental side….I fancied myself as a jazz lover earlier in my life, and then I went on to intensive post-graduate voice study. I knew the song as a teenager, but it was like I gained a whole new appreciation for the “singing” of jazz with these songs that are becoming standards in every jazz session player’s book.

5. “Take Me Back” – If there ever was any doubt of Van’s poetic sense of the sacred behind the mundane (or a troubadouur of the spiritual/blues), this song shows us his ability to arrest us in our tracks and transport us to a different dimension. If you take off your “pop music hat” long enough to get quiet with a cup of coffee, this song will bring you to tears with its longing for a simpler time, when everything in your life was less chaotic and you felt that you were more at home in the world.

Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC