Podcast 183: Happy 69th Birthday, Bob Dylan

What can I say about Bob Dylan that hasn't already been said a million times over. Perhaps I'll leave it be that as a singer, songwriter, musician and often as a human being, he is in many ways my all-time favorite. Podcast 183 is a jazz celebration of The Man from Hibbing, Minnesota, including: Cassandra Wilson - Lay Lady Lay" from Glamoured. This percussive version is a far cry from Dylan's country crooning on Nashville Skyline. As always, Ms. Wilson is a master at reinterpreting "modern standards" and this one, with help from Guitar player Brandon Ross, is no exception. Keith Jarrett - "My Back Pages" from The Dylan Concert [bootleg] - This is a rare recording I found on the website BigOZine. It's a trio date with Jarrett on piano, Gus Nemeth on bass and Bob Ventrello on drums, live at Tagskægget, Aarhus, Denmark, Sept 15, 1969. Michael Moore/Lindsey Horner/Michael Vatcher - "With God On Our Side" from Jewels and Binoculars: The Music of Bob Dylan. An import only CD that features Moore on clarinet, Horner on bass and Vatcher on percussion, with Bill Frisell guesting on guitar. Seriously weird and wonderful - and the album title comes from a lyric in Dylan's "Visions of Johanna" ("Oh Jewels and Binoculars hang from the head of the mule/But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel"). Stanley Turrentine - "Blowin in the Wind" from Common Touch. Sax man Turrentine and his then-wife organist Shirley Scott put out a winner in 1968, recording this Dylan tune joined by Jimmy Ponder on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass and Idris Muhammad on drums. Another Rudy Van Gelder Blue Note classic. Nina Simone - "I Shall Be Released" from The Essential Nina Simone. My favorite Dylan song was recorded by the High Priestess of Soul and included on an anthology of songs she recorded for RCA Records between 1967 and 1972. Ms. Simone as an unparalleled interpreter of others material, as her versions here of songs by Dylan, Randy Newman and George Harrison shows.