Bob Dylan has singular interpreter in Bettye LaVette, who performs Saturday at JCC

There are at least two excellent reasons why Keith Richards and Trombone Shorty jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with Bettye LaVette on her splendid new album, “Things Have Changed.” It gave them the opportunity to team up with LaVette, an intensely soulful singer who made her recording debut with 1962’s infectious “My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man.” Just as enticing, it gave them the opportunity to do so on an album that mixes some of Bob Dylan’s finest and least known songs with consistent aplomb. Blessed with a voice that is equal parts grit and grace, LaVette dives deep to find new musical riches. She shines whether putting a vibrant blues and funk spin on such classics as “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” or ingeniously breathing new life into such overlooked Dylan gems as “Political World” (on which Richards guests) and the album-closing “Going, Going, Gone.” If her concert here Saturday rises to a similar level, it will be an evening to remember.

Bettye LaVette Reinvents the Bob Dylan Songbook: 8 p.m. Saturday. David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre, San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. $33 (members), $38-52 (non-members). (858) 362-1348. lfjcc.org.

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

Twitter @georgevarga