BEN SIDRAN
''DYLAN DIFFERENT''
NOVEMBER 16 2009
46:01
1 - Everything Is Broken/3:22
2 - Highway 61 Revisited/3:14
3 - Tangled Up In Blue/3:42
4 - Gotta Serve Somebody/4:43
5 - Rainy Day Woman/3:42
6 - Ballad Of A Thin Man/2:54
7 - Maggie's Farm/4:55
8 - Knockin' On Heaven's Door/3:48
9 - Subterranean Homesick Blues/3:36
10 - On The Road Again/3:06
11 - All I Really Want To Do/3:16
12 - Blowin' In The Wind/5:06
Ben Sidran – Vocals, Piano, Wulitizer, Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes
Rodolph Burger – Guitar, Vocal on "Blowin' in the Wind"
Jorge Drexler – Vocals on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Georgie Fame – Vocals and Organ on "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35"
Marcello Giuliani – Acoustic, Electric Bass
Amy Helm – Background Vocals
Michael Leonhart – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Bob Malach – Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Bass Clarinet
Alberto Malo – Drums, Percussion
Leo Sidran – Horn Arrangements, Additional Guitar, Hammond B3, Piano, Koto
Leonor Watling & Luca – Background Vocals on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
REVIEW
By Thom Jurek
Upon hearing “Everything Is Broken,” the opening track of Ben Sidran's Dylan Different, a collection of Bob Dylan covers that uncovers a near symbiotic connection to his source's material, one wonders what took him so long to record this. Sidran chose a dozen tunes from Dylan’s songbook and recorded them over four days in France, applying his requisite musicality, unaffected jazzman's cool, and streetwise yet elegant poetic imagination. There is a decidedly old-school feel to the manner in which this material is recorded that recalls his late-'70s sides. Sidran plays Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and acoustic piano as well as a Hammond B-3, and is accompanied by a killer backing band that includes trumpeter Michael Leonhart, drummer Alberto Malo, bassist Marcello Giuliani, saxophonist Bob Malach, guitarist Rodolphe Burger, and vocalist Amy Helm. His son Leo did the horn arrangements and played additional piano, B-3, and koto, and there are guests on backing vocals, including Georgie Fame, who duets on “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” and Jorge Drexler on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." What it all adds up to is a truly new presentation of Dylan’s work that seamlessly fits Sidran’s aesthetic without removing the authority of these songs from their historical context. Check the nocturnal funky groove on “Gotta Serve Somebody” or the bluesy dual pianos on “Tangled Up in Blue,” on which Sidran does his talk-singing accompanied by female backing vocalists on the chorus and a restrained horn section. He turns the tune into a slippery, finger-popping club number. Dylan’s slide guitar anthem “Highway 61 Revisited” is given a lithe Latin treatment with Burger’s guitar referencing the original even as the piano and rhythm section make it a funky-butt slow-boiling rhumba. The minor-key swing in “Ballad of a Thin Man” accents the tune's poetry while extrapolating harmonies in the minor-key arrangement. Given Sidran’s treatment of the lyric, if you didn't know better, you might think he wrote it. (The bass clarinet solo by Malach is a sweet touch, too.) He took the greatest liberties with “Maggie’s Farm,” which is not frenetic guitar-based blues-rock here, but a late-night, shimmering piece of beat jazz with an eerie arrangement that extends the reach of the tune’s cultural and economic critique into the heart of the new century. Sidran even has the stones to redo “Blowin’ in the Wind.” He makes it as disturbingly inquisitive and world-weary as the song itself must feel by now, but without losing a measure of its poignancy. Dylan Different reveals Sidran as being in full possession of his jazz and creative gifts but also his ones for interpretive song; by turns, with this fine album, he adds even more weight to the argument that Dylan is a writer of folk songs that transcend their eras of origin in relevancy.
BIOGRAPHY
By Jim Newsom
Pianist Ben Sidran grew up in Racine, WI. In the early '60s, he played with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs in a band called the Ardells at the University of Wisconsin. After Miller moved to San Francisco and secured a recording contract, he called on old friend Sidran to join him in the Steve Miller Band following the departure of original keyboardist Jim Peterman. Sidran contributed on the keys and as songwriter on several Miller albums beginning with Brave New World in 1969, co-writing the classic "Space Cowboy" and three other tunes on that LP. He also authored "Steve Miller's Midnight Tango" on Number 5 and collaborated with Miller on several other tunes through the years. He produced his friend's under appreciated release, Recall the Beginning...A Journey From Eden in 1972. Sidran received a Ph.D. in philosophy/musicology, writing his doctoral thesis on African-American culture and music in the United States. The thesis was published to positive critical response in 1971 as Black Talk. Since 1972, he has released a number of solo albums in a cool, easy swinging style similar to Mose Allison. His early albums relied on acoustic instruments and lyrical references to his musical heroes. Later releases used electronic instruments and tasty synthesizers for an interesting sound best presented on albums like 1985's On the Cool Side and Cool Paradise from 1990. 
Through the years, Ben Sidran and Steve Miller have remained close friends, popping up from time to time on one another's recordings or live performances. In 1988, Sidran co-produced one of Miller's most interesting latter-day recordings, Born 2B Blue, a collection of jazz standards dressed up in the same cool, low-key arrangements Sidran employs on his own albums.
''DYLAN DIFFERENT''
NOVEMBER 16 2009
46:01
1 - Everything Is Broken/3:22
2 - Highway 61 Revisited/3:14
3 - Tangled Up In Blue/3:42
4 - Gotta Serve Somebody/4:43
5 - Rainy Day Woman/3:42
6 - Ballad Of A Thin Man/2:54
7 - Maggie's Farm/4:55
8 - Knockin' On Heaven's Door/3:48
9 - Subterranean Homesick Blues/3:36
10 - On The Road Again/3:06
11 - All I Really Want To Do/3:16
12 - Blowin' In The Wind/5:06
Ben Sidran – Vocals, Piano, Wulitizer, Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes
Rodolph Burger – Guitar, Vocal on "Blowin' in the Wind"
Jorge Drexler – Vocals on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Georgie Fame – Vocals and Organ on "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35"
Marcello Giuliani – Acoustic, Electric Bass
Amy Helm – Background Vocals
Michael Leonhart – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Bob Malach – Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Bass Clarinet
Alberto Malo – Drums, Percussion
Leo Sidran – Horn Arrangements, Additional Guitar, Hammond B3, Piano, Koto
Leonor Watling & Luca – Background Vocals on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
REVIEW
By Thom Jurek
Upon hearing “Everything Is Broken,” the opening track of Ben Sidran's Dylan Different, a collection of Bob Dylan covers that uncovers a near symbiotic connection to his source's material, one wonders what took him so long to record this. Sidran chose a dozen tunes from Dylan’s songbook and recorded them over four days in France, applying his requisite musicality, unaffected jazzman's cool, and streetwise yet elegant poetic imagination. There is a decidedly old-school feel to the manner in which this material is recorded that recalls his late-'70s sides. Sidran plays Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, and acoustic piano as well as a Hammond B-3, and is accompanied by a killer backing band that includes trumpeter Michael Leonhart, drummer Alberto Malo, bassist Marcello Giuliani, saxophonist Bob Malach, guitarist Rodolphe Burger, and vocalist Amy Helm. His son Leo did the horn arrangements and played additional piano, B-3, and koto, and there are guests on backing vocals, including Georgie Fame, who duets on “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” and Jorge Drexler on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." What it all adds up to is a truly new presentation of Dylan’s work that seamlessly fits Sidran’s aesthetic without removing the authority of these songs from their historical context. Check the nocturnal funky groove on “Gotta Serve Somebody” or the bluesy dual pianos on “Tangled Up in Blue,” on which Sidran does his talk-singing accompanied by female backing vocalists on the chorus and a restrained horn section. He turns the tune into a slippery, finger-popping club number. Dylan’s slide guitar anthem “Highway 61 Revisited” is given a lithe Latin treatment with Burger’s guitar referencing the original even as the piano and rhythm section make it a funky-butt slow-boiling rhumba. The minor-key swing in “Ballad of a Thin Man” accents the tune's poetry while extrapolating harmonies in the minor-key arrangement. Given Sidran’s treatment of the lyric, if you didn't know better, you might think he wrote it. (The bass clarinet solo by Malach is a sweet touch, too.) He took the greatest liberties with “Maggie’s Farm,” which is not frenetic guitar-based blues-rock here, but a late-night, shimmering piece of beat jazz with an eerie arrangement that extends the reach of the tune’s cultural and economic critique into the heart of the new century. Sidran even has the stones to redo “Blowin’ in the Wind.” He makes it as disturbingly inquisitive and world-weary as the song itself must feel by now, but without losing a measure of its poignancy. Dylan Different reveals Sidran as being in full possession of his jazz and creative gifts but also his ones for interpretive song; by turns, with this fine album, he adds even more weight to the argument that Dylan is a writer of folk songs that transcend their eras of origin in relevancy.
BIOGRAPHY
By Jim Newsom
Pianist Ben Sidran grew up in Racine, WI. In the early '60s, he played with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs in a band called the Ardells at the University of Wisconsin. After Miller moved to San Francisco and secured a recording contract, he called on old friend Sidran to join him in the Steve Miller Band following the departure of original keyboardist Jim Peterman. Sidran contributed on the keys and as songwriter on several Miller albums beginning with Brave New World in 1969, co-writing the classic "Space Cowboy" and three other tunes on that LP. He also authored "Steve Miller's Midnight Tango" on Number 5 and collaborated with Miller on several other tunes through the years. He produced his friend's under appreciated release, Recall the Beginning...A Journey From Eden in 1972. Sidran received a Ph.D. in philosophy/musicology, writing his doctoral thesis on African-American culture and music in the United States. The thesis was published to positive critical response in 1971 as Black Talk. Since 1972, he has released a number of solo albums in a cool, easy swinging style similar to Mose Allison. His early albums relied on acoustic instruments and lyrical references to his musical heroes. Later releases used electronic instruments and tasty synthesizers for an interesting sound best presented on albums like 1985's On the Cool Side and Cool Paradise from 1990.
Through the years, Ben Sidran and Steve Miller have remained close friends, popping up from time to time on one another's recordings or live performances. In 1988, Sidran co-produced one of Miller's most interesting latter-day recordings, Born 2B Blue, a collection of jazz standards dressed up in the same cool, low-key arrangements Sidran employs on his own albums.
Sidran has produced recordings for Mose Allison, Diana Ross, and others, and collaborated with Van Morrison and Georgie Fame on the tribute album The Songs of Mose Allison: Tell Me Something in 1996. In addition to making music himself, Sidran has hosted programs on VH1 and continues to write about the music he loves.