Morrison still seems nonplussed and insecure about the album. He’d never fully return to the style of Astral Weeks. The results tanked commercially, and Morrison would find a way to split the difference between his experimental and commercial sides on future albums like 1970’s Moondance, 1974’s Veedon Fleece and 1986’s No Guru, No Method, No Teacher to much applause. In its loose swirl of imperfections, the music seems to lift a few inches off the ground.
The mostly unrehearsed musicians vamp together in strange, slippery timing. Like any Verve or Blue Note classic, Weeks was recorded almost completely live it was tracked in only three days. Drummer Connie Kay hailed from the East Coast bop legends Modern Jazz Quartet upright bassist Richard Davis had made waves on Eric Dolphy’s 1964 free-jazz classic Out to Lunch!. When the singer headed to New York’s Century Sound Studios that fall, he wasn’t set up with pop or R&B session cats, but with jazz veterans.
