JAZZTIMES: Leave
it to Patricia Barber, the most fearless, most intellectually
stimulating and by extension, most interesting singer-songwriter-pianist
on the American jazz scene..
ALLMUSIC.COM: Mythologies is
a sheer moment in jazz when the entire music moves forward
because it engages the culture as it is. Mythologies is
Barber's masterpiece--thus far.
ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER: A goddess in her own right,
with the epic Mythologies,
Barber has reaffirmed her greatness and leaves us mere
mortals breathlessly awaiting what comes next. -
Gregg Shapiro
TIME MAGAZINE: ...Her Pygmalion is
sweetly yearning, her Persephone sexy over
a Latin beat.
VENICE MAGAZINE: One
of the few jazz musicians ever to be awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship,
Barber took the opportunity to create one of the most
ambitious works of her career. The result is breathtaking,
pure artistry.
DOWNBEAT: Her poetry is often dazzling. Ever
the connoisseur of dark desire--Barber's noir, conspiratorially
whispered alto is by now legendary...
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: The
expressive range of this music proves thrilling,
even though all of it clearly derives from a single sensibility;
the spare, sometimes austere jazz idiom that long has
been
Barber's forte.
PASTE MAGAZINE: ...Patricia
Barber built an influential jazz audience with her intimate
poetry
and brilliant songwriting. Few artists can straddle
a line as fine as the soft, lyrical Pygmalion before
launching into the searing Whiteworld...
TIME OUT, NEW YORK: Patricia Barber is a demon
of an improvising pianist, especially live. But
the literary, even cerebral cast of her original material
has evident highbrow appeal, especially as sung in her
distinctively icy alto; Laurie Anderson with a
nightclub gig...
JAZZTIMES: The ultimate lesson to be learned is
that Barber's music isn't about Barber. Her songs
are eternal flames designed to ignite each listener's
imagination.
VILLAGE LIVE -
DAVIS, CALIFORNIA: ...the acclaimed
Chicago-based singer/songwriter and pianist whose innovative
take on the jazz vocal tradition has been hailed as a "cult
sensation in the making" (Penguin
Guide to Jazz).
BOSTON PHOENIX: ..Whatever Barber's after, she
has written some of her best songs. Lover's
laments like Morpheus and Pygmalion could
become ballad standards...
LONDON TIMES: Audacious is the only word for the
Chicago-based singer-pianist's latest leap into the unknown. She's
always pursued an unconventional course, and this, inspired
by Ovid's Metamorphoses, no less, is one of
the most unusual and memorable records to come my way
in a long, long time. - Clive Davis
LONDON TIMES: Barber is a singular talent with
an appeal to lovers of smart pop as much as jazz, and
to these ears Mythologies sounds
a lot like an album of the year. - JOHN BUNGEY |
