Van Morrison

The resurrection of Van Morrison's watershed 1968 album "Astral Weeks" in concert continues to expand with the Irish singer's announcement of plans to bring it back to California in May for several more performances. Morrison will present the work in its reconfigured entirety at Berkeley's Greek Theatre on May 2 and 3 and then will return to Los Angeles for three nights at the 2,000-seat Orpheum Theatre downtown May 7 to 9. The band and orchestra that will accompany him will include guitarist Jay Berliner, who played on the original recording sessions in New York four decades ago. The world premiere performances of the "Astral Weeks" music live Morrison took place at the Hollywood Bowl over two nights in November.

COMEDY Dirty Jokes for Clean Water Comedians Carlos Mencia, Maz Jobrani, Bobby Lee and Natasha Leggero band together to raise awareness of global clean water shortages with an evening of philanthropic ? though not necessarily P.C. ? stand-up. All proceeds will support Generosity Water's ongoing efforts to remedy the clean water crisis in developing nations. The Hollywood Improv , 8162 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. 10 p.m. $35. www.improv.com/hollywood . POP MUSIC Van Morrison Fifty years into his career, the legendary (and legendarily cantankerous)

A British court has ordered veteran rock star Van Morrison to pay $66,868 in damages to a hotel owner who said the singer had ruined him by canceling a concert. Gary Marlow had sued the 58-year-old singer and his production company, Exile, for as much as $668,680 for cancellation of the concert at the Crown Hotel in Everleigh in August. He cited lost profits from tickets, alcohol, food and tobacco.

BOOKS Greil Marcus In his new book, "When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison," formidable cultural critic Marcus waxes reverential on the Celtic bluesman's initially ignored, now-iconic "Astral Weeks," yet dismisses 16 albums' worth of Morrison's music from 1980 to 1996 as "characterless" and forgettable. Fighting words, to be sure, for Van Morrison's legion of devotees; but the author of "Lipstick Traces" and "The Old, Weird America" is nothing if not willfully idiosyncratic when it comes to writing about the legends of rock 'n' roll he adores.

If Lenny Kravitz can find a niche as a surrogate Jimi Hendrix/Sly Stone figure for people who came along too late for the originals, why not a band that offers the Van Morrison experience? That's the first impression created by the San Francisco-based Counting Crows. At the Whisky on Thursday, the five players' dramatic, folk-soul settings framed the taut, gravelly vocals of Adam Duritz, whose stabbing shouts, full wails and murmured passages had an improvisatory feel straight outta Belfast.

Van Morrison is one of the most commanding figures of the modern pop era, someone who was marvelous when he made his U.S. chart debut in 1965 with the band Them and will continue to enchant audiences as long as he steps up to a microphone.

You knew he could sing, but did you know he was such a soundtrack king as well? Van Morrison's music has been included in nearly 50 films over the years, most recently in "The Departed" (a version of "Comfortably Numb"), a career that will get the pre-Oscar treatment Feb. 22 during the "Oscar Wilde: Honoring Irish Writing in Film" event at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. The event is the second annual program to benefit the U.S.

It takes Morrison's most intense singing in years, and a return to his bedrock of vintage soul and R&B, to rescue many of the songs here. The record is full of spontaneous interjections and exhortations, and the long fade-outs have an immediacy and life that's rare on mainstream records these days. "Enlightenment's" intriguing subtext is its focus on roots.

Van Morrison's concert Sunday night at the Universal Amphitheatre was a compelling example of the difference between pop stardom and artistry. In his first local appearance in six years, the Irish singer-songwriter opened with a brief medley of his classic singles from two decades ago, including "Gloria" and "Brown-Eyed Girl." They remain among the most enduring hits of the '60s: deeply sensual expressions of the youthful exploration of sex and desire that is at the heart of so much rock.

In his new book, "When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison," formidable cultural critic Greil Marcus waxes reverential on the Celtic bluesman's initially ignored, now-iconic "Astral Weeks" yet dismisses 16 albums' worth of Morrison's music from 1980 to 1996 as "characterless" and forgettable. Fighting words, to be sure, for Van Morrison's legion of devotees; but the author of "Lipstick Traces" and "The Old, Weird America" is nothing if not willfully idiosyncratic when it comes to writing about legends of rock 'n' roll he adores.

Regarded as "the William Faulkner of jazz," pianist and songwriter Mose Allison counts Elvis Costello, Van Morrison and Ray Davies among his legion of fans. Possessed with a honeyed voice and a humorist's eye for detail, Allison is midway through a six-city tour previewing the spring release of his first album in 12 years, "The Way of the World," produced by Largo favorite Joe Henry. Largo at the Coronet, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. Sat.-Sun., 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. $35. (310) 855-0350.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has lined up many of its members for a blowout concert celebrating its 25th anniversary. Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, Metallica and Aretha Franklin are among the performers. The concert will take place over two nights next month at New York's Madison Square Garden, with highlights shown on HBO over Thanksgiving weekend. Other performers include Eric Clapton; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Paul Simon with and without Art Garfunkel; Jackson Browne; Chuck Berry; Van Morrison; Jerry Lee Lewis; Sting; and James Taylor.

Let's not mince words. It's Rock Week on "American Idol," so what better time to get down to the nitty-gritty and remember that music is a physical thing? "Rock" can mean many things -- an amplified noise, an excuse for wearing leather, a way that white guys got to play the blues -- but on the blank blue stage of "Idol," it was reduced to this: the gale force of breath that rushes through a singer's body and becomes a storm that startles the crowd screaming at his or her feet.

One of the conundrums facing anyone who makes music for a living is that live music frequently isn't. Truly alive, that is. The brutal reality of mounting a major concert tour is that it requires intensive rehearsals and meticulous planning of sound, lighting and staging effects, often leaving music itself as just another element of a tightly organized script that's repeated night in and night out with little room for deviation.

Van Morrison fans who waited 40 years to hear the first live performances of his 1968 album "Astral Weeks" last month at the Hollywood Bowl will have to hold out a few more weeks for the live recording from the recent concerts. Morrison originally announced plans to release a vinyl LP edition of the live set by Christmas, with a CD and DVD to follow after the first of the year. A spokesman for the Rock and Hall of Fame musician said this week that it might be February before the recording is ready, in part because Morrison is considering a follow-up "Astral Weeks" concert in New York in the new year.

Van the Man has committed a cardinal sin for an artist of his stature--he's become predictable. Little here distinguishes itself from the blues-jazz-rock hybrids of his last dozen or so albums. And where he used to transform the mundane into magic, these musings are merely, well, mundane. No epiphanies, no revelations, no point. New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).

For anyone who wasn't at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night, there'd be little chance of explaining how Van Morrison's repetition of one seemingly innocuous sentence -- "This is a train" -- could turn into a deeply spiritual incantation. But transcendence is what Morrison has been after with his music from the beginning, and it's what he achieved frequently on Friday, when he played his watershed 1968 album "Astral Weeks" live in its entirety for the first time.