PATRICIA BARBER

Vocal Jazz • United States
Jazz music community with review and forums
PATRICIA BARBER picture
American jazz and blues singer, pianist, songwriter, and bandleader, born November 8, 1955, Chicago, Illinois, USA

from discogs

Award-winning jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter Patricia Barber's unique style and unusual voice make her an easy artist to distinguish. Her playing and singing are almost iconoclastically inventive, inhabiting a terrain inside and outside a musical slipstream that exists between post-bop, pop, classical music, cabaret song, and avant-garde, while being performed -- in studio and on-stage -- with a smoky, dreamy, yet imposing, mercurial presence. Her insistence on writing her own material (and adapting songs from the pop world that suit her particular aesthetic) makes her difficult to categorize. Her unwillingness to play music business promotional games resulted in having her work evaluated by critics on its own terms. She is a tireless performer who has, in addition to touring the globe, played a standing residency at Chicago's famous jazz room, the Green Mill,
read more...
Thanks to silent way, snobb for the updates

PATRICIA BARBER Online Videos

See all PATRICIA BARBER videos

Buy PATRICIA BARBER music

More places to buy jazz & PATRICIA BARBER music

PATRICIA BARBER Discography

PATRICIA BARBER albums / top albums

PATRICIA BARBER Split album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
Split
Vocal Jazz 1989
PATRICIA BARBER A Distortion of Love album cover 3.50 | 2 ratings
A Distortion of Love
Vocal Jazz 1992
PATRICIA BARBER Café Blue album cover 3.50 | 2 ratings
Café Blue
Vocal Jazz 1994
PATRICIA BARBER Modern Cool album cover 3.00 | 1 ratings
Modern Cool
Vocal Jazz 1998
PATRICIA BARBER Nightclub album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
Nightclub
Vocal Jazz 2000
PATRICIA BARBER Verse album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
Verse
Vocal Jazz 2002
PATRICIA BARBER Mythologies album cover 4.41 | 2 ratings
Mythologies
Vocal Jazz 2006
PATRICIA BARBER The Cole Porter Mix album cover 3.50 | 1 ratings
The Cole Porter Mix
Vocal Jazz 2008
PATRICIA BARBER Remixed album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Remixed
Vocal Jazz 2008
PATRICIA BARBER Smash album cover 3.50 | 3 ratings
Smash
Vocal Jazz 2013
PATRICIA BARBER Higher album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Higher
Vocal Jazz 2019
PATRICIA BARBER Clique album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Clique
Vocal Jazz 2021

PATRICIA BARBER EPs & splits

PATRICIA BARBER live albums

PATRICIA BARBER Companion album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Companion
Vocal Jazz 1999
PATRICIA BARBER Live: A Fortnight in France album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Live: A Fortnight in France
Vocal Jazz 2004
PATRICIA BARBER Monday Night : Live At The Green Mill album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Monday Night : Live At The Green Mill
Vocal Jazz 2009
PATRICIA BARBER Monday Night Live at the Green Mill Vol. 2 album cover 3.50 | 2 ratings
Monday Night Live at the Green Mill Vol. 2
Vocal Jazz 2011
PATRICIA BARBER Monday Night Vol. 3 - Live At The Green Mill album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Monday Night Vol. 3 - Live At The Green Mill
Vocal Jazz 2016

PATRICIA BARBER demos, promos, fans club and other releases (no bootlegs)

PATRICIA BARBER re-issues & compilations

PATRICIA BARBER The Premonition Years: 1994-2002 album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
The Premonition Years: 1994-2002
Vocal Jazz 2007
PATRICIA BARBER Cafe Blue - Unmastered album cover 0.00 | 0 ratings
Cafe Blue - Unmastered
Vocal Jazz 2016

PATRICIA BARBER singles (0)

PATRICIA BARBER movies (DVD, Blu-Ray or VHS)

PATRICIA BARBER Reviews

PATRICIA BARBER Mythologies

Album · 2006 · Vocal Jazz
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Matti P
American vocalist, pianist and composer PATRICIA BARBER (b. November 8, 1955) is an individual artist difficult to categorize. According to All Music Guide, "her playing and singing are almost iconoclastically inventive, inhabiting a terrain inside and outside a musical slipstream that exists between post-bop, pop, classical music, cabaret song, and avant-garde, while being performed with a smoky, dreamy, yet imposing, mercurial presence". She literally grew up to be a musician, and she already was an educated and experienced performer when she started her discography in 1989.

For her very first JMA review I chose this album based on Ovid's Metamorphoses from the year 8 BCE. The Roman poet's epic work on metamorphic-themed mythologies is said to be one of the most influential works in Western culture. [Two quick examples: Genesis's 'The Fountain of Salmacis', and the Narcissus reference in 'Supper's Ready'. I bet anyone can think of several cultural things from the mere track titles here.] In 2003 Patricia Barber won a Guggenheim fellowship -- unusual for a songwriter in the popular field! -- to devote time for the Ovid project. The result is a strong album. The listener doesn't need to be strictly jazz oriented to be impressed by this 11-song cycle, and on the other hand friends of traditional Vocal Jazz may find it somewhat cold and detached. The fellow musicians in Barber's quartet are guitarist Neal Alger, bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Eric Montzka, and there are guest appearances on e.g. saxophone and vocals.

A word about Patricia Barber as a vocalist. Her voice is rather smoky and yet very clear, and her expression subtle, approaching talking in a low, meaningful voice. Two artist that come to my mind are LAURIE ANDERSON and k. d. lang, even though I cannot say Barber actually sounds like either of them.

'The Moon' progresses from a rather atonal intro, through the vocal oriented serene section, into a vivid instrumental half with a hectic drumming and a tenor sax solo. 'Morpheus' stays more in the nocturnal atmosphere, and the mellow, slow-tempo 'Pygmalion' probably pleases even the old-fashioned jazz listeners. 'Hunger' is less jazz than angular art-rock. 'Icarus' makes me think of JONI MITCHELL's Hejira period. A great song with an exciting guitar sound.

The art-rock guitar is central on the gloomy 'Orpheus/Sonnet'. Gorgeous 'Persephone' focuses on voice and piano until the rhythm section and guitar join them. Several guest vocalists add to the song's atmospheric charm, as they do on 'Phaeton' which -- against my taste -- even turns into rap. The final song 'The Hours' contains both the minimalistic calmness à la SIDSEL ENDRESEN and the bluesy rock edge highlighting guitar, and a choir on top of it all.

This is an ambitious, fascinating, many-sided and extremely deep album that doesn't reveal all its magic on first listenings. Recommended if you like artists mentioned above, and the likes of ROBERT WYATT, DAVID SYLVIAN, TIM BOWNESS...

PATRICIA BARBER Movies Reviews

No PATRICIA BARBER movie reviews posted yet.

PATRICIA BARBER Shouts

Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Natsuki Tamura-Satoko Fujii-Ramon Lopez : Yama Kawa Umi Avant-Garde Jazz
NATSUKI TAMURA / SATOKO FUJII
Buy this album from MMA partners
Horns Locked Hard Bop
NICK HEMPTON
Buy this album from MMA partners
Solstice Post-Fusion Contemporary
PAOLO RUSSO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Why Not? Eclectic Fusion
ZAKK JONES
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

All I Want For Christmas Is You
DAVID HAZELTINE
js· 1 day ago
Chicken
QUATUOR EBÈNE
js· 2 days ago
Det er en egen lomme
THE LEIF
js· 2 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us