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 PHOTOS
FROM ISRAEL AND FRANCE
June
16,
2010
"We just posted the photos from our last tour to Israel and France.
You'll meet our Parisian bass player Sylvain Romano, see me teaching
in Lyon, see the brilliant scenery of Israel and France - March
2010. What colorful and magnificent places we've been. I
am particularly enamored of the window series at the end-different
times of the day through the same window overlooking the Mediterranean."
- Patricia |
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 NEW HOME RECORDINGS:
PATRICIA BARBER & JIM GAILLORETO
February
12,
2010
Patricia
has recently been experimenting with recording at home. Today she
recorded with saxophonist Jim Gailloreto with Patricia on
vocals and toy organ and piano. Download free mp3s of Patricia's
song "Touch of Trash" as well as a rendition of the Thelonious
Monk classic "Well You Needn't."
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KENNEDY CENTER
December 11, 2009
NPR's Piano Jazz Christmas, John F Kennedy Center for the Performning Arts,
Terrance Theater
Featuring: Patricia Barber, Billy Taylor, Ramsey Lewis, Eldar,
Robert Glasper, & Joe Sample
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THE NEW YEAR'S EVE SONG
Read
a review of the "The New
Year's Eve Song" by Gary Hailey from the blog 2
or 3 lines (and so much more). |
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MARGARET S. ORTON
August 17, 1919 - November 17, 2009
 Margaret Orton, 90, of Onalaska and formerly of La Crosse, Monmouth, Illinois and South Sioux City, Nebraska, and Lisle, Illinois, died November 17, 2009 at Gundersen-Lutheran Hospital.
She was born August 17, 1919, in Sioux City, Iowa, to Guy and Nellie (Murphy) Caldwell. She married Floyd Barber on January 15, 1938 and he preceded her in death on September 12, 1965. She married Cecil Orton in 1966, and he preceded her in death in 1991.
Margaret graduated from Elmhurst High School in Elmhurst, Illinois and from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa where she earned a Master’s Degree. She taught school in South Sioux City, Nebraska and worked as an employment counselor for the state of Iowa.
Margaret was a lively woman who loved traveling, singing, music, and dancing. She took great pleasure in reading and learning. She enjoyed her family and many friends throughout her lifetime.
Margaret is survived by: two daughters, Cynthia (George) Waltershausen of rural De Soto, Wisconsin and Patricia (Martha Feldman) Barber of Chicago, Illinois; her son-in-law Bill Yasnoff of Alexandria, Virginia; four grandchildren, Margaret (Paul Tessene) Waltershausen, Cindy (Roger) Aggson, David Yasnoff, and Becky (Mark) Freeman; six great grandchildren; her sister-in-law, Patricia Caldwell of Palos Heights, Illinois and five nieces, Pam (Gerald Lenza) Caldwell, Kate (Don Bondi) Caldwell, Lisa (Tom)Beemsterboer, Stacey (John) Riggs, and Trish (Mike) O’Sullivan.
In addition to her husbands, Margaret was preceded in death by: her parents; a daughter Ann (Bill Yasnoff) Barber in 1997; two brothers, Jerome Caldwell in 1961 and Rollin Caldwell in 2008; a grandson, George Theodore Waltershausen, in 1996; and Bob Beyer, her special friend in La Crosse for fourteen years. Bob’s special commemorative tree is overlooking the Mississippi River at Riverside Park, their favorite place to sit and watch the river. Margaret will have a commemorative tree near his.
Memorial services will be held at the chapel at Eagle Crest, 351 Mason St. Onalaska, WI 54650 , Saturday, November 21st at 1pm. Interment will be a private affair at Graceland Cemetary, Sioux City, IA at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent
in Margaret’s name to the American Lung Association, her favorite lifelong cause.
Donations
can be made in the name of Margaret S. Orton by check to:
“American
Lung Association-National Headquarters”
Courtney
Tisch
Associate, Donor Stewardship
American Lung Association
1301 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 785-3355
or through the internet: www.lungusa.org/donate
Patricia
will be sent a list of donors and will thank every one personally. |
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KOREA
Oulim Theater, Goyang Oulim Nuri Arts Center
November 11, 2009
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 TORONTO
Hugh's Room
October 6, 2009
Michael and I played this wonderful supper-club in Toronto as a Duo. my goal is to go out (on the road, concerts and clinics) as a Duo as often as a Quartet. I'm even enjoying more Solo performances this year as well. from Solo to Duo to Quartet- these are very different experiences for the audience. people definitely have their preferences and i'm getting requests for a variety of different formats to present in concert. some like the extreme naked intimacy of Solo and Duo. some prefer the color and dynamic range of the quartet. Hugh's Room was packed and it was a pleasure to work for these wonderful people from beginning to end.
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NEW DOWNLOAD: MONDAY NIGHT:
Recorded Live
At The Green Mill - Chicago, IL 2/20/06
this
download, "Monday Night" was recorded at the
Green Mill with my quartet Feb 6, 2006: Michael Arnopol on
bass, Neal Alger on guitar, Eric Montzka on drums and my
friend and guest artist, Jim Gailloreto on saxophone--recorded
by Chris Grabowski and realized by my loyal and now famous
web guy, Dave Schwartz. Jim Gailloreto pushed us into something
slightly 'better' that night.
there
will be more downloads-- some from the Green Mill, some from
archives and some from who knows what is to come. i have an
office at home with one assistant, Ruth. please feel free to
contact us at
for any bookings, performances, residencies/masterclasses. for
inquiries or comments, contact me personally at:
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| JUNE 2009
it's summertime! finally. after a cold spring and a cold early summer, the gentle warm weather is here. the garden is drying out, the tomatoes are stretching up toward the sun. summer days are soft and easy. i practice and write music hours just after coffee but by late afternoon, its time to visit my Aunt Pat and swim. every day isn't like this, but every day should be.
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| A LETTER TO THE FANS - JUNE 17, 2009
independent
decisions have been my stock and trade. these decisions sometimes
left me broke; they have also been the key to a quirky success
which has allowed me artistic and career opportunities beyond
my imagination. i decided many years ago to leave the great
gig at the Gold Star Sardine Bar because i wasn't able to play
original material there. but i will always be grateful
to Bill Allen and Susan Anderson for letting me lose my small
town innocence in that elegant and glamorous nightclub which
also gave me a firm footing in the standard repertoire. still,
after 11 years, it was time to leave. living in the ghetto
on the West Side of Chicago, i had just about depleted my hard
earned $10,000 of life savings when a call came from Dave Jemilo,
the owner of the Green Mill. he asked me to start one night
a week , Sunday night...a late gig--from 11pm to 2am. i was
unsure of myself after so much time off. in addition
to my usual stage-fright, i had spent a year questioning the
practices of the music business and i was ambivalent about
stepping back onto a stage at all, ever again. Dave told me
that whatever i did or did not do, i would be paid . his
kindness gave me the confidence i needed to give it a try.
so Michael Arnopol and i went up onto the tiny space behind
the bar at the Green Mill with a guarantee from Dave and a
tip jar. that first night there were two drunks at the bar.
it was just as well. the gig turned into a success, i started
writing material and bringing it in. Sunday night was extended
to include Monday night on the main stage and i found myself
again playing trio or quartet as i had at the Gold Star--the
difference this time is that i was free to write and perform
original material. around this time i turned down recording
contracts at Polygram Records, Concord Records and Dreyfuss
Records where they wanted me to do recordings of standards.
stubbornly, i was intent on building a vocal jazz repertoire
that would ruthlessly define not only my independent musical
voice but a music that could speak for and to its own time.
Antilles
offered me a nice deal and we did a wonderful record called "A
Distortion of Love." then Mike Friedman and Premonition
Records offered me the deal i had been waiting for..self-produced,
i could record anything i wanted to record... all original
material or a mix--whatever i wanted. Mike Friedman had faith
and i was confident i had something with which to repay his
taking a risk. the albums "Cafe Blue" and "Modern
Cool" with Premonition Records were and are enormously
successful recordings. Blue Note started distributing the Premonition
recordings, and eventually Blue Note offered me a home--musically
and literally. i am still, at this moment anyway, at home at
Blue Note Records with people i consider family; happy there
as long as we can manage. and i am still at the Green Mill,
my Chicago musical home, just around the corner from my house
and my newly independent office on the North Side of Chicago. and
i am happy here.
thanks
for listening,
patricia barber |
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MAY 27th, 2009
 Michael
and i have been doing more duo gigs lately. our DUO format goes
back years especially through clubs in Chicago (the now legendary
Sunday night late sets at the Green Mill) and New York. we did
two sets recently at PianoForte in Chicago--the wonderful Salon
Series hosted by Thomas
Zoells. here is a photo he sent me of that concert.
our DUO has also done some wonderful music education
residencies over the years and again more frequently in the last months. i
am loving teaching this way-so much so i am going to put up a separate section
on the website for the MASTERCLASS/CONCERT--RESIDENCY.it is an intimate
and effective way to exchange musical ideas, often inspiring for both the musicians
and the students. Michael and i are a lean team as he does the sound as well
as play the bass. we fly or drive or train into a town, check into a
comfortable hotel near the University, get up the next day and do a masterclass
with the students. In the evening we often have dinner with faculty and students. the
next day we get up, relax, see the sights, practice and then do an evening
concert for the public from the University venue. on the site i'll list some
subjects we cover in the masterclasses, post some letters from the professors
and let you hear a bit of a us playing in this format. |
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MAY 21st, 2009
 since getting off the road Martha and i have been intent on
getting the garden in. we have a serious garden
in Michigan, outside of Chicago about an hour
and a half drive. this is not a small undertaking.
we grow enough organic vegetables to feed 18 
in a late August harvest meal and to
sustain us without buying produce all year long.
restaurants now want to buy our organic produce.
we'll see how much we have. we don't give or sell
this organic food to just anybody-first we feed ourselves
and our family and friends.
i find gardening a wonderful complement to music. music is a heady
thing and gardening just the opposite...earthy, grounding.
the photo of the garlic is evidence of a seasonal
sleight of hand. if you put straw over the young garlic in
the fall, the snow through the winter will protect the crop
as it grows underneath--a protective 'blanket of snow.'
pb
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POZNAN, POLAND, MARCH 30, 2009
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PHOTOS FROM EUROPE 2008
 Barcelona,
Budapest, Vienna and more...
New photos from Patricia Barber's
European travels!
CLICK
HERE to view them.
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 PATRICIA
BARBER - THE COLE PORTER MIX
"…her
gripping interpretations and propulsive piano
playing are among the great wonders of contemporary music."—LOS
ANGELES TIMES on "The
Cole Porter Mix"
- CLICK
HERE FOR SOUND CLIPS -
- CLICK
HERE TO ORDER -
September
2008 saw the release of The
Cole Porter Mix.
A 13-tune collection that exhibits
Barber's austere power of singing, The Cole Porter
Mix not only spotlights her artful
interpretations of Porter’s songs but also features
her modern-cool compositional prowess on three Porter-inspired
originals that seamlessly fit into the set list. “Cole
Porter has always been my songwriting idol,” says Barber. “I
love his music and I’ve been singing his songs for
so many years.” read more->
Back from the distant roots of her last album - "Mythologies" -
Barber dips
into some 20th century mythology via the inimitable songs of Cole Porter. And
keep that word "inimitable" in mind, because what makes this
program unique is the inclusion of three Barber originals - "Late
Afternoon and You," "Snow" and "The New Year's Eve Song" -
clearly inspired by Porter. Barber's interpretations of the
Porter originals are the soul of cool, understated yet intense,
blending words and music with a deceptively offhand manner
that instantly demands closer listening, more involvement with
songs such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?," "You're the
Top" and "Get Out of Town." Her own tunes are in some respects
even more fascinating. Barber has displayed great songwriting
versatility over the years, but this particular challenge has
brought out some of her finest work. Yes, inspired by Porter,
but a deep reflection of Barber's own, most intimate lyrical
personality. Listen, too, for the fine tenor saxophone fills
by Chris Potter, especially his wildly out of context, but
fascinating nonetheless, set of choruses on "In the Still of
the Night." Definitely not still. — DON
HECKMAN, LOS ANGELES TIMES
"What
Barber brings to the mix are her original songs. "I Wait
for Late Afternoon and You" is a harmonically complex tune
with brilliant words about a clandestine love affair, and
Alger's acoustic guitar solo perfectly compliments the longing
of the lyric. In "Snow", the narrator addresses a series
of questions to her lover: "Do you think of me like ink /
Skinny words you want to keep? / Do you think of me like
fat? / Irresistible as cream / On your lips, on your hips
/ Like chocolate, like a dream." It's a brilliant song, and
Barber's vocal quirks—a certain over-articulation,
and the occasional tonal weirdness—sound most happy
and at home on these original songs. The originals, frankly,
seduce you. And that they don't seem out-classed on an album
dedicated to Cole Porter tunes says it all."— POP
MATTERS
A press
trip will include stops in Paris and Cologne followed by
an opening with The Patricia Barber Quartet in New York at the
Jazz Standard, September 18th through September 21; a TV appearance
on WTTW Chicago, Wednesday, September 24th; and the Chicago
record release of The Cole Porter Mix at
the Green Mill Friday and Saturday September 26, 27th. October
and November will be spent on a European tour starting in
Paris. Dates
can be found in the gig section. |
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JAZZ
EDUCATION AND THE DUO OF PATRICIA AND MICHAEL
After finishing
up the Townsend Fellowship at U of California Berkeley, Patriciahas
started teaching private students from her home studio in Chicago
and also on the road. For more information about this,
click here.
 Also,
Patricia and Michael have become a lean duo that is giving
performances and masterclasses for private affairs and universities. Please
feel free to contact
Patricia about all educational opportunities
for Patricia or Patricia and Michael duo performances, and check
out the video cut of their duo performance.They
plan to expand the duo repertoire to include classical and
classical contemporary pieces as well as jazz.
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 JAY TEN HOVE -
February 2nd, 1960 - May 24, 2008
 Jay ten Hove died
over Memorial Day Weekend. Jay was tour manager and an extraordinary
soundman who worked for and traveled with Patricia and her quartet
since "Modern Cool" came out in 1998. He
also worked with many famous musicians including Brian Blade
and Cassandra Wilson. He was truly
an artist of sound and could handle any room, large or small. George
Wein made a point of complimenting Jay for having conquered the very
difficult sound space of Carnegie Hall in Patricia's performance
there.
Jay was a good friend of Patricia, Michael, Eric and Neal; he
will be greatly missed and never forgotten. |
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inside |
outside |
THE GREEN MILL - CHICAGO,
IL - January 14th, 2008
It is the dead
of winter in the Midwest. My Quartet has just finished
a recording called "The Cole Porter
Mix" for Blue Note.
It will be out in the spring. I was teaching in Berkeley.
We did some big concerts and so now is the time to regroup
and rest. Here we are tonight at the Green Mill in Chicago. |
NEW TEACHING
SECTION
Check
out Patricia's new teaching section. Patricia
is just back from a teaching fellowship at Berkeley and starting
her own studios in Chicago and Michigan. |
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PATRICIA BARBER DOES OVID
"Like Joni
Mitchell -- an obvious reference point for some of the
songs -- Barber has taken the genre that is her natural
form of expressiveness into dazzling new arenas of lyrical
creativity." Read
the complete article from
the L.A. Times.
PATRICIA RECEIVES
FELLOWSHIP FROM UC BERKELEY
Patricia Barber received the prestigious Townsend Resident
Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley. This
is a multi-disciplinary Fellowship and Ms. Barber was chosen
from a pool of international candidates. The
Townsend Resident Fellowships are intended to bring to campus
persons with whom faculty and students might not otherwise
have direct or sustained contact, including distinguished scholars
from other institutions, writers, journalists, or others who
can enrich academic programs but who may not necessarily be
academics. Patricia served her residency at Berkeley
in the Fall 2007. |
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ON "MYTHOLOGIES"
 LOS
ANGELES TIMES: Patricia
Barber, "Mythologies" (Blue Note). Love it
or hate it, Barber's extraordinary song cycle based
on the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid is a must-hear
outing - a remarkable example of an envelope-stretching
jazz imagination at work, finding contemporary musical
links with a centuries-old literary classic. - Don
Heckman, December 19, 2006
(Other picks includes Ornette Coleman,
Keith Jarrett, Michael Brecker, Stefon Harris)
BOSTON GLOBE: Patricia
Barber, "Mythologies" (Blue Note). Tales
from Ovid liberally reimagined by the Chicago pianist
and singer, who infuses both music and lyrics with
a contemporary edge that's at once witty and empathetic.
A work of deep intelligence and no small beauty. - Siddartha
Mitter, December 17, 2006
(Other picks includes Cassandra Wilson) |
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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 |
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 In
2003, the acclaimed singer-pianist-composer Patricia
Barber became the only songwriter ever
tobe awardeda Guggenheim Fellowship, and she took
the opportunity to create one of the most ambitious and affecting
works of her career. Mythologies is
a song cycle based on Greek mythology, which uses characters
from The Metamorphoses of Ovid as the basis for each
of the 11 songs, giving thesetimeless stories auniquely
contemporary and compelling musical setting.
Reviewing the work's debut performance at Chicago’s
Museum of Contemporary Art in January, Howard Reich of the Chicago
Tribune called Mythologies “potentially
revelatory,” adding that “Barber brilliantly has
found the means to re-imagine a piece of literature for a jazz
context…The expressive range of this music proves thrilling…These
songs stand on their own as immensely attractive jazz pieces,
apart from their source material.”
Barber will give a
full-scale performance of Mythologies in
her hometown of Chicago on September 16 at the Chicago Symphony
Center as part of the Day of Music Festival. She will also
take the road this Fall, performing the music from Mythologies with
her long-standing quartet featuring guitarist Neal Alger, bassist
Michael Arnopol and drummer Eric Montzka. |
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 NOW
AVAILABLE:
The first ever DVD
featuring live performances, interviews and rehearsal footage
of Patricia Barber. Patricia
Barber Quartet Private Tapes: Live in France 2004 features
video footage of the music from Live:
A Fortnight In France. The
DVD was produced by
Patricia and is only available here
at Patricia's official store
and at Patricia Barber concerts!
 Recorded
in March and April 2004 at clubs in three French cities,Live:
A Fortnight In France features
Barber delivering five originals and five covers. “This
recording is a concert,”
says Barber. “What you hear is what we play at the Green
Mill [in Chicago] on any given night. It’s a typical show:
fifty percent covers and fifty percent originals.” The
performance exhibits the superlative quartet she put together
for her last project, the acclaimed Verse.
"We've gotten better and better," Barber notes. "We
trust each other so much that the improvisation has become quite
adventurous. It's so valuable keeping a band intact, like Keith
Jarrett, Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny do."
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Head
over to the A/V section where you'll
find a free download of Patricia Barber along
with Joe Locke on vibraphone performing
"Autumn Leaves" recorded live in
May 2005 at Le Jazz Au Bar in
New York City.
Scheduled
to be released on vinyl only, we are making a remix of Patricia
Barber's "Dansons La Gigue" available in
mp3
and aac
format here now! From the minds
of Poi
Dog Pondering's Frank Orrall and Rick Gehrenbeck (who also
plays keys in Poi)
comes the Chicago production duo, Egg Fat. Combining
aesthetics from their respective side projects (8FatFat8
and Mr
Egg Germ), Frank and Rick create a melange of electronic dance
stylings equally at home in Chicago and South America. Hawaiian
native Orrall, who also plays percussion in Thievery Corporation,
hones world beats into original house productions that serve Mr
Egg Germ's organic funk technology quite well. Their latest release
is a remix of Blue Note artist Patricia
Barber's "Dansons La Gigue", a beautiful
"late-night French-Brazilian art-song", which will be
released on a Mr Egg Germ ep along with Rick's vocal house stormer,
"Bring Me Love", on Lady D's D'lectable
record label due out in spring of 2005. Check it out in the A/V
section!
 Also
just released is the Patricia
Barber Songbook containing lyrics and sheet music for 37 of
her original compositions spanning 6 albums. The songbook is available
for purchase as a book or an Adobe Acrobat document which you
can download and print out on your own computer! For a track listing,
a free download of sheet music for the song "Pieces"
and to order, please visit the Patricia
Barber Songbook page!
Patricia
plays most Monday evenings at the Green Mill in Chicago when
she is not on the road. The Green Mill is located at 4802 N.
Broadway in Chicago, Illinois. Please call the club to confirm
she will be playing at (773) 878-5552.
We've
added a live MP3 from Patricia's performance at the Chicago
Jazz Festival on August 29th. Download a live version of "You
Gotta Go Home," a song from her most recent album Verse.
 To
keep informed with what is going on with Patricia Barber, subscribe
to the Mailing List!!
There are some great MP3's in the A/V
section as well as Real Audio of an interview and performance
by Patricia from WFUV studios. Check it out in the A/V
section.
"All
these years, I've been thinking about one cause to champion and
see if I can make a difference for that cause," says Barber.
"Various family and friends have had their opinions, but
I've finally picked one. The
Nature Conservancy." For more information on the Nature
Conservancy, please visit www.nature.org.
For
more information on Patricia Barber, check out her record label's
website at Blue
Note Records & Premonition
Records. |
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