Dylan Transforms The Mann Into Jazz Club: Review

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Picture walking into a nightclub. The air is filled with smoke and the lights are dim. A four-piece band plays music tinged in jazz.

And at center stage, behind a keyboard tickling the ivories, is 85-year-old Bob Dylan.

The legend — arguably the greatest songwriter of all time — transformed the TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia into that atmosphere on Tuesday night.

Dylan's "Long Hot Summer Tour" came through Philadelphia with two opening acts, including Texas blues maestro guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.

For anyone expecting to hear Dylan's classic songbook, that's not going to happen. For anyone who thinks that Dylan is going to address the audience, that won't happen either.

And not only are taking pictures and recording songs prohibited, Dylan plays the whole time behind an electric keyboard.

He also wears a beige hoodie, hiding his face from the audience — in temperatures that were over 90 degrees!

Dylan has a songbook that dates back to before The Beatles. (Just think about that for a minute!)

But you're not going to hear "Blowin' in the Wind," "Like A Rolling Stone," "Lay Lady Lay," "Tangled Up In Blue," "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," "Just Like A Woman," and other classics.

Even if he did, you probably wouldn't know them as Dylan has changed the arrangements to nowhere near their original releases.

Dylan has been playing a healthy dose of songs from his 2020 album, "Rough and Rowdy Ways," which included five songs on Tuesday night.

Three songs in Dylan's 16-song setlist were covers of Bo Diddley ("I Can Tell"), Bobby "Blue" Bland ("Share Your Love With Me"), and Jerry Lee Lewis ("I'll Make It All Up To You").

That left eight original Dylan songs that were spread throughout his career that started in 1962.

It's actually pretty cool to hear Dylan open with the 1969 song "To Be Alone With You" and follow that up with the "Man in the Long Black Coat."

Dylan was in fine vocal form too, singing every lyric with no background singers.

The band featured new jazz guitarists Joel Paterson and Julian Lage performing only their third show on tour together with this Dylan show being over his 50th performed this year.

They replaced longtime guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio, and were solid with Paterson showing off some nice smooth licks while Lage took some great solos on "Crossing the Rubicon."

Dylan pulled out obscure album cuts "Tryin' To Get To Heaven," "Soon After Midnight," and "Under the Red Sky."

And then there were the three songs most people may have heard before: A changed-up "It Ain't Me, Babe" — featured in the Dylan movie "A Complete Unknown," and "When I Paint My Masterpiece," played by The Band and also featured on Dylan's Greatest Hits II album.

What people remember from the movie and Dylan's earlier years is the artist performing with just an acoustic guitar and a harmonica before going electric at the Newport Folk Festival.

While it's rare for him to play guitar these days, Dylan did do two harmonica solos to the delight of the cheering crowd.

Dylan has closed his sets usually with "Every Grain of Sand" on this tour, but lately has played the classic song he wrote with The Band and played with them during the iconic "The Last Waltz" concert.

That was "I Shall Be Released." It was a great way to end the show.

Dylan then stood for a few minutes to take in the applause. And then he was gone. But the legend lives on.