7.31.11
there are different types of commissions. some take a pound of flesh, some bring you money. some, neither, though i don't do many of those..what's the point? this latest, i have taken on the protagonist fully. 
the dogs and i went out to the middle of the acreage (forest?) and laid on top of a table.....humidity, stars, answers? no, just pain. but i have the song.

7.19.11
it is Tired Tuesday (after the sets at the GM..long, new material, new musicians, without dressing rooms, 2 full sets...actually harder than any gig i do on the road but oh so much easier to go home afterward) reading, swimming, some French today, yes, i'm back to studying it..love it so...i'm going to be optimistic...there IS time for everything...even the "double-bass/piano Etudes"
new favorite word: "darkling" from "Ode to a Nightingale"  J. Keats 
darkling -- adjective poetic/literary of or relating to growing darkness

nebraska sundown

7.15.11
my first memories of music:

my father teaching me piano. putting my hand inside the bell of his alto saxophone to feel the vibration of the music--that was very powerful...to 'feel' the music. my mother was always singing. she sounded like Mahalia Jackson..huge souful voice. my uncle and my mom dancing and singing...there was a lot of inappropriate musical behavior in my family ;-) i remember being horrified at church that my mother was singing a full octave below the other women and 10Xs as loud. i cried sometimes when i got a song stuck in my head. my mother would come in and we'd sing "Row, Row row your boat to 'wash it out of my head.' crazy....

7.12.11
last night was a blast! lovely to see you there Liz! what an intense week. a magical visit with Martha's Aunt, now my Aunt, Ann. and these new musical challenges. when you put your feet on the floor in the morning, you're starting over. maybe they should hand out the medals right then and there. ;-)

pb and Aunt Ann

7.7.11
a Facebook fan reminded me of a post i did on short forms when i was writing "The Swim", and that i had promised that i would ask John Kregor to play it with me.  so that would be this Monday then.  funny how you (plural) keep me honest.  instead of actually swimming, i'm sending John the chart now ;-)- love, pb

The Swim

so fleet
so like
goodbye 
with you
at once
too much
too fast
too good
to end
too soon
my love
next time
let's lie

let's lie
let's wait
here for
the moon
to light
the shore
to swim
to sleep
to love
too deep
too late
to stop
let's not

let's not
go back 
the night
is white
the sea
too black
too soft
to leave
too soon
to end
let's swim
let's stay
away

Music & Lyrics
by Patricia Barber
copyright@BMI Patsy Publishing 2010

how e-rehearsal works:
John,
one of my Facebook fans reminded me that i had promised you would play "The Swim" with me this Monday. (acoustic guitar) and so i believe you have the chart among the others, but here it is again. its a very slow, latin beat..very quiet...the long phrases after my voice stops almost sound as if they are dying out...very 'light' thing. important that you not alter the D7 chord going into the F#minor chord so the Cnatural can slip up to a C#.
thx
copying to Matt and Larry.
Patricia

7.6.11
so Martha told me tonight that it is documented somewhere that Sofia Gubaidulina is officially saying goodbye to her friends for the summer. she is going into seclusion to work. i have spent most of my summer so far writing a text which i love which may never be heard. that's been the bulk of my work.  the good things about this summer are many...swimming and i have a pile of books here that i've ordered, "The Greater Journey -- Americans in Paris" by David McCullough, "Blood, Bones, and Butter" by Gabrielle Hamilton (about a chef and food!), "The Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson, about Berlin 1933, "Home" the one i'm reading mostly now, by Marilynne Robinson (great!). many wonderful music projects pending, (one song i like very much), the double-bass, piano Etudes, family pending, car body work pending, dog transport pending, guest transport pending, bills pending, stalker pending, etc etc but this question of work....and Sofia's pure isolation is nagging at me.  i thought i was dedicated, but this is dedication on another level.  oy.  

What to do?

i've Kindle ordered Steve Stone's book on baseball, "Said in Stone", a book about

baseball and I’m finishing up an entire carton of STonyfield’s "Gotta Have Java." 

Yup. 

7.4.11
yesterday i went for my 3rd swim of the summer. ( it has been a cold spring and summer!)  my first two swims had been 'beginning-of-the-season' labored, not easy to get to the buoy at all. yesterday the tiny red striped sphere seemed as unattainable as a distant star. i started swimming.  the beach was crowded, but with head down, goggles on i saw nothing except rippled sand on the bottom of the lake -- deeper, only blue-green.  i looked up to check my direction once or twice and the buoy still seemed very far away.  has the the buoy been moved since last summer? still, i wasn't tired so i kept swimming.  my body corkscrewed through the water easily, my shoulders were supple. i was swimming less to get to the buoy than for the pure pleasure of swimming. and yes, finally from under the water i saw the rope tethering the buoy to the bottom of the lake. a few more strokes, i grabbed onto the rope and pulled myself up. voila!  there we were together....far, far away from the madding crowd.  a great swim! 

and yes, update on the creative process. done with the Mass (actually Xmas concert) text. anxious about whether or not the composer will use it. hard handing over a precious thing but moving on as i must! wonder if i should take double-bass lessons in order to write "double-bass and piano Etudes.." which i would like to do. yes, i see lots of $ in that, definitely.

starting song i like a lot. kind'a crazy thing-- and thinking about the instrumentation as more integral part of song for this one. another experiment.

next band up will be a wonderful adventure:
John Kregor on guitar, Matt Plaskota on drums, and Larry (newly married) Kohut on bass.

and now the rest of the day will have a lot to do with food. ;-)

7.2.11
re: Arthur's query on scatting. years ago, on tour in Austria, i was standing near the hotel desk and some fans came in. one of them said to the other, "did you go to Patricia Barber's concert? " "yes..she's amazing." "yes, but she can't scat and play piano lines simultaneously like Diana Krall can." 

you can imagine, after that, i did every tricky-for-tricky's-sake scat convolution i could think of. which i can easily do. finally i got over that period and now i do it for fun and a bit more judiciously. but yes, i'm doing it more often. it is fun.