Dylan keeps drawing her back though. Her first full-length collection of his songs, , came out on Linn Records in 2002. She recorded more on subsequent albums, which Linn collected, along with four newly recorded arrangements on 2011's . She has returned to the same well for half of the songs on her latest album, , on Kristalyn Records.

Jungr had sung Leonard Cohen songs in concert for years, but not recorded them. She decided Cohen and Dylan could stand together in her new album. "They're all songs of philosophy and politics. [Dylan and Cohen] both have a certain core of political awareness, and they've written very truthfully and with a certain laser-like precision about who we are as people."

She wanted to sing their "tougher songs", Jungr says. "There was somehow a through thread to them - that the world they described, and the actions they rejected and celebrated were of as much importance today as the day those songs were penned."

Jungr has gone with simple instrumentation, with long-time collaborator and pianist Simon Wallace producing and handling the keyboards. Neville Malcolm and Steve Watts play bass, Richard Olatunde Baker and Gary Hammond contribute percussion, and Clive Bell plays shakuhachi.

The performances more than validate Jungr's reputation as one of Britain's finest interpretative singers, with particularly impressive versions of Cohen's and Dylan's . There are two remarkable achievements here: , which Dylan wrote in 1962 and which opens the album, sounds fresh; the album also offers the second, truly great reinterpretation of .

The first was the Byrds' version on the 1965 album, but while their harmonies brought Dylan's imagery vividly to life, it clocked in at less than four minutes and dispensed with several verses. Here, closes the album and is performed in its entirety in nine minutes.

Another artist known both as a chanson and jazz singer is Stacey Kent, who appears this Saturday at the Venetian Macao. Kent is an American-born multilingual vocalist who made her name performing in London, and whose most recent album, , explores Brazilian music. It's a good, lightly jazzy, bossa nova set which includes some standards - , - and some original compositions by her husband and musical director Jim Tomlinson.

"Searching for songs that work together and that, once united, roll out all their magic, that is one of my greatest pleasures," says Kent. "The joy gives me owes much to the balance we found between compositions and covers."
 

Three CDs featuring Jungr's interpretations of contemporary popular song.

• (2000, Linn Records): Jungr explores her European roots but this album is sung in English, including Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas and the Piaf anthem Je Ne Regrette Rien.
   
• (2008, Linn Records): Jungr pays tribute to Nina Simone, recording songs associated with Simone and the civil rights movement, including some written by Dylan.
   
• (2012, Naim Jazz): a mixture of Jungr's own compositions and interpretations of other writers including Sam Cooke, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and, again, Dylan.