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Paul Bley, Yazz Ahmed, Gianluigi Trovesi, Matthieu Michel and tons of great new releases

By Ludovico Granvassu

Accordion players, saxophonists, clarinet and trombone players as well as compelling singers are at the heart of this week's focus on new releases. Give a listen and then make sure to support the musicians and the labels that put out this amazing music so that the prolific jazz phase we live in can go on, and possibly keep getting better... Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Massimiliano Milesi “Redshift" Oofth (Auand) ...

Patricia Barber: Higher

By Tyran Grillo

Patricia Barber is more than the sum of her talents. As a composer, she peels back the craft of song to expose its barest textures, cultivating each like a tree that, while holding its own shape above ground, makes apparent the roots below it. As a singer, she understands not only that we perform our voices but also that our voices perform us. Whether crooning through the Great American Songbook, as on Nightclub (Blue Note, 2000), or rowing through intensely ...

A Conversation with Pianist and Singer Patricia Barber

By Lorens Chuno

Patricia Barber's new album, Higher, is a storybook of songs complete with captivating—and sometimes outré—lyrics and a masterful story teller. Join Patricia and me, as she talks about art songs, European audience vs American audience, Shirley Horn, and other subtly related subjects. Higher features Patricia Barber on piano and voice, Patrick Mulcahy on bass, Jon Deitemyer on drums, Neal Alger on acoustic guitar, Jim Gailloreto on tenor saxophone, and Katherine Werbiansky on voice. Playlist ...

Patricia Barber: Smash

By C. Michael Bailey

Vocalist/pianist Patricia Barber's 25-year career has been brilliantly marked by a complete unwillingness to compromise her approach to music. She exists in that uncharted creative realm where she successfully defies classification as a purveyor of any particular musical movement or genre. These characteristics spotlight Barber's role as an innovator and catalyst for musical evolution, a musician performing from the front edge rather than the middle of the creative muse. Barber readily shows her chops with standard and original material on ...

Patricia Barber: The Cole Porter Mix

By George Kanzler

The mix here is a Cole Porter cocktail, a dry martini but with a touch of jalapeno instead of olive. And while there are strains of melancholy, as Barber says in the notes: “Cole Porter never wrote a song that said 'I'm miserable.'" That jalapeno heat comes from the evocative jazz arrangements and solos, especially those of guest tenor saxophonist Chris Potter (on five of the 13 tracks) and acoustic and electric guitarist Neal Alger, as well as the singer's ...

Patricia Barber: The Cole Porter Mix

By Dr. Judith Schlesinger

Patricia Barber is absolutely one of a kind. There are any number of jazz vocalists who have good voices, pitch, time, and piano chops; there are others who also sing as if they were looking straight into your eyes. But there is no one who is so consistently iconoclastic, and so deliberately intellectual. Ever since her first CD in 1989, abstract headiness has defined Barber's compositions and delivery; it was the core of her Mythologies release (Blue Note, 2003), a ...

Patricia Barber: Mythologies

By Hrayr Attarian

Poetry and music are two peas in a pod. For the past two millennia the Roman poet Ovid has inspired artists of all kinds, from poets and playwrights to filmmakers and musicians. Most recently, his timeless tales served as an inspiration to Patricia Barber, who is an accomplished musician and a poet in her own right.

Listeners who are familiar with Barber's work tend to expect thought-provoking lyrics, complex composition, innovative improvisation and sensual vocals, and this CD is no ...