It’s Family Night for Dylans

It was Father and Son Night for Bob and Jakob Dylan on Wednesday at the 40th annual Grammy Awards as the Dylan bandwagon carted off five statuettes, including the coveted album of the year honor for the legendary patriarch.

Bob Dylan, 56, won three awards during the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, including his victory for the “Time Out of Mind” collection, an acclaimed reflection on love and death that was widely hailed as the singer-songwriter’s best work in 20 years.

Son Jakob, 27, won two awards, including best rock song, during a nationally televised program that also saluted Shawn Colvin’s wistful “Sunny Came Home” as the year’s best single record and song. The Top 10 single, co-written by Colvin and John Leventhal, is a mysterious tale of a woman’s vengeance.

Dylan’s best album victory was long overdue. Though he was one of the performers on the 1972 best album winner, “The Concert for Bangla Desh,” he had never received a best album nomination for his own groundbreaking work before this year.

“Time Out of Mind,” his first collection of new songs in seven years, marked a comeback for Dylan, who was forced to cancel a European tour last summer after he was hospitalized for a week last May because of a fungal infection near the heart. (The album, completed before his illness, was released in September.)

In accepting his best album Grammy, Dylan unexpectedly gave thanks to Buddy Holly, saying he had seen the late rock pioneer perform about 40 years ago.

“He looked at me and I just have some kind of feeling that . . . he was with us all the time we were making this record,” Dylan said. “And in the words of the immortal Robert Johnson, ‘The stuff we got’ll bust your brains out.’ We tried to get that across.”

Dylan made no mention of his son, who apparently did not attend the awards, and the legendary songwriter did not appear before the backstage press. Both father and son have been reluctant to speak of their relationship since Jakob’s band’s made its splash last year.

Dylan wasn’t the only performer to walk off with three awards. R&B; singer-songwriter R. Kelly and bluegrass ace Alison Krauss and her band Union Station also won three, with Krauss running her career total to nine Grammys.

The national telecast was interrupted twice by uninvited guests on stage, including rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan, who took the microphone early in the show to argue that the New York collective should have won for best rap album. Later, a bare-chested man with “Soy Bomb” written on his torso gyrated wildly during Dylan’s performance before being escorted off stage.

There also was some off-screen tension in the air.

Vince Gill, picking up his 11th Grammy, for best male country vocal, alluded to it when he joked that he had brought his 15-year-old daughter to New York for the first time, “and, according to the mayor, maybe the last.”

It was a reference to a feud between New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and recording academy President C. Michael Greene, who was blasted by Giuliani for allegedly berating a deputy of the mayor last month.

Greene, appearing on the show to introduce a 40th-anniversary salute to the Grammys, made no reference to the feud or to the controversy surrounding his management of the academy and its charitable arms that was sparked by articles this week in The Times.

William C. Ivey, a prominent member of the NARAS board of trustees, has called for a review of the organization’s finances and a representative of a nonprofit group in New York demanded a fuller accounting of the academy’s finances this week before she turns over $600,000 the group raised to bring the Grammy ceremony to New York this year.

Other significant winners at the ceremony--which recognized records released between Oct. 1, 1996, and last Sept. 30--included James Taylor for pop album, John Fogerty for rock album, Erykah Badu for R&B; album and female R&B; vocal, Puff Daddy for rap album and nine-time Grammy winner Johnny Cash for country album.

Babyface and Paula Cole, who combined for 15 nominations, each won only one statuette, but they were for major awards. Babyface was named producer of the year for the third year in a row and the fourth time in six years. Cole--best known for the wry single “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”--was named best new artist.

The awards in 92 categories were determined by the 9,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, including musicians, composers, producers, arrangers and others who have contributed creatively or technically to recordings.

Among the other highlights from Wednesday’s ceremony:

* Elton John won for best male pop vocal for his charity recording of the Princess Diana tribute “Candle in the Wind 1997,” which has sold 30 million copies worldwide to make it the biggest-selling single in recording history.

* Puff Daddy’s two awards included best rap performance by a duo or group for his recording (with Faith Evans and 112) of “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to Evans’ husband, slain rapper the Notorious B.I.G.

* Bluesman John Lee Hooker, 80, was a surprise winner (with Van Morrison) for best pop collaboration with vocals on “Don’t Look Back,” beating out a field that included the Barbra Streisand-Celine Dion duet “Tell Him.”

Several Grammys were awarded posthumously:

* Sir Georg Solti, the Hungarian-born conductor who died last September shortly before his 85th birthday, won for best opera recording to push his career total to a record 31 Grammys.

* John Denver, who was killed in a plane crash last October, won his first Grammy for best musical album for children.

* Broadcast journalist Charles Kuralt, who died last July, won two awards--for best spoken word album and best spoken word album for children.

Luis Miguel won for best Latin pop performance, beating out a field that included Julio Iglesias and his son, Enrique Iglesias.

Two popular and versatile U.S. musicians, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer John Adams, were the big winners in the classical categories.

Ma was honored twice--for best classical album and best instrumental soloist performance with orchestra--for a disc of three American cello concertos written for him by Richard Danielpour, Christopher Rouse and Leon Kirchner. Adams’ dark tone poem, “El Dorado,” won best contemporary composition, and a recording of an earlier Adams work, “Harmonium,” conducted by Grammy favorite Robert Shaw, won for best choral performance.

Hilburn reported from New York City and Crowe reported from Los Angeles. Times music critic Mark Swed contributed to this story.

MORE COVERAGE

* THE TELECAST: Official scorer Howard Rosenberg awards no medals. A12

* ANALYSIS: The academy can never again be accused of overlooking the name Dylan. A12

* THE WINNERS: A complete list. A12