adEIdJ – Associazione delle Etichette Indipendenti di Jazz

Press Release

This is Paolo Botti’s eighth album, released by Caligola Records. Seven years on from «Lomax Lives!», recorded at the helm of a nonet, Botti returns to his beloved solo performance, with which he treated us in 2010 to the wonderful «Angels & Ghosts», dedicated to the music of Albert Ayler. Having started out as a viola specialist, Paolo Botti has gradually expanded the range of instruments he plays, but in his latest work, «My Dylan Pages», he surpasses himself, using as many different instruments as there are tracks on the album. To those used on «Angels & Ghosts», he adds the violin, the cello and various guitars. As the title suggests, this latest work is dedicated to the songs of Bob Dylan, one of the heroes of his adolescence. Even without resorting to lyrics – which are certainly important for a singer–songwriter like Dylan – the atmospheres and varied moods the album offers still evoke his music. Of the ten tracks on the album, which should be listened to without interruption – Botti chose not to include any pauses between tracks – a full eight are medleys. The album’s single–theme focus is broken only once, but coherently so, as it features a track from Woody Guthrie’s repertoire; as is well known, Guthrie was one of Dylan’s main inspirations. In his liner notes Paolo Botti says: “… Bob Dylan’s music has been a constant presence in my life since childhood, starting with the Joan Baez cassette of her interpretations of Dylan songs…  Though I never stopped listening to his discography and my musical journey later led me to classical music and jazz, I always found myself returning to his albums… Now, at a more mature stage in my career, I felt a deep need to revisit that early foundation ...”

Track List

01) Blowin' in the Wind
02) Maggie's Farm / A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
03) It's All Over Now, Baby Blue / My Back Paged
04) Farwell, Agenlina / Tangled Up in Blue / Don't Think Twice, It's All right
05) Like a Rolling Stone / Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
06) Ballad of a Thin Man / The Times They Ara a-Changin'
07) Mr. Tambourine Man / Desolation Row
08) Tme Passes Slowly
09) Masters of War / It's All Right, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) / Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
10) Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatozs) / Knockin' on Heaven's Door

All songs by Bob Dylan except Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) by Martin Hoffman and Woody Guthrie 

 

Personnel

Paolo Botti plays:
bowed banjo on # 1, mandocello on # 2, viola on # 3. guitar on # 4, banjo on # 5, electric viola on # 6, tenor guitar on # 7, violin on # 8, dobro on # 9 and cello on # 10

 

Recording Data

Recorded at Botti's basement, Milan, Italy, in  April 2026, by Paolo Botti; mixed, edited and mastered at Greedy Little Sisters Studio, Verona, Italy, in June 2026, by Enrico Terragnoli