Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Jef Lee Johnson's The Zimmerman Shadow
added to Dylan Cover Albums

Philadelphia jazz/session guitarist Jef Lee Johnson has released The Zimmerman Shadow, an album of Dylan songs on the French label Hope Street. The album is a mix of vocals and instrumentals (see tracklist below.)
The album has now been added to Dylan Cover Albums HERE.

Most sources categorize the album as "jazz," but much of the music here is not what you'd expect.
Don't judge the album by on-line samples, as many tracks change into something entirely different. Most notably on the 11-minute As I Went Out One Morning. The track starts as a mellow guitar instrumental - instantly recognizable as the Dylan tune - for the first few minutes, then morphs through a spacey, feedback-drenched bridge and into an extended rockish power-trio jam with little semblance to Dylan's original. In general, think jazz-influenced Hendrix-style rock. Or Hendrix-influenced jazz! The album is certainly an interesting experiment and a challenging listen. If you like your Dylan covers "outside the box" this is one for you.
Guitar & vocal: Jef Lee Johnson, bass: Yohannes Tona, drums: Charlie Patierno

The physical CD is packaged in a 5¾" x 5¼" (14.5cm x 13cm) hard-bound book with 56 pages of illustrations, many with Dylan themes.
More info (in French) at the Nato/Hope Street website or MySpace
CD available direct from the label or amazon.fr

Digital version is available world-wide from amazon.com, iTunes, and other digital services.
Thanks to Jean Fernandez for the tip.
Thanks to Nato Music.

The tracklist (*-instrumental):
I Am A Lonesome Hobo / Highway 61 Revisited
/ *As I Went Out One Morning / *Knockin' On Heaven's Door / *Idiot Wind / Ballad Of A Thin Man / *Blind Willie McTell / One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below) / *Knockin' On Heaven's Door / From a Buick 6 / Not Out of the Book [Jef Lee Johnson - 0:20] / *Knockin' On Heaven's Door

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