Patricia Barber Roadnews

Monday, August 13th, 2001
New York City
    
MARIAN McPARTLAND

Yesterday I was in New York playing with Marian McPartland on Piano Jazz. There are no words to describe what a thrill it was. We had a great time together. I played and sang, she accompanied me, we played together, I sang AND we played together and she and I both played a solo piece. I will never forget this day. She's even more wonderful and gracious and soulful as she seems to be on the air.

 

Thursday, August 2nd, 2001
Crest, FRANCE
     
CREST MARCHING BAND

We as a band tonight, before the concert, had seen better communal days. We were all a little sick and tired of the road and a little sick and a tired of each other. Then we stepped onto the stage in Crest. Looking from the piano side of the stage, behind Ernie, the moon was enormous and golden, and looking from the drum side of the stage, Michael and Ernie told me to look behind me and there was the medieval tower of Crest, beautifully lit on the hilltop. Inspiraton was easier to come by than we would have thought because the setting was so beautiful, the townspeople so sincere in their desire for good music, and this trio wanted one more chance to play together in what had become our finest musical form to date. Music is magic and can heal and transform even the very weary. Now we have a 3:30am train, another train, and then the airport and then home.

This is the town band in Crest. They had started the evenings' festivities with their marching band and carnival costumes. What heart, community spirit, innocence and joie de vivre.

 
Thursday, August 2nd, 2001
Crest, FRANCE
     
HOTEL CREST
The last day of the summer’s European tour, how lucky am I to be sitting in a garden restaurant in the south of France. The wind is softly hot, the restaurant and the food, the finest in this part of France. Nobody is out here now, I’m alone in the late afternoon. These cracks between other people’s daily rituals seem to have a deeper quiet, a rich quiet. As though the ghosts of those who will soon inhabit the space understand the need for a moment of rest and so are in complicity with me in keeping the chairs and tables empty for this short time between lunch and dinner. There is a visible animation in the emptiness. The napkins flap in the wind, the wine glasses clink occasionally, the tables are elegantly dressed and swaying in anticipation of the evening’s event. These are precious stolen moments on a busy tour.

This artistic-endeavor-as-career is a tricky balancing of parallel lives- one the artist, one the human being. There is some self mutilation involved; there is some sacrifice on the part of one for the other. As a tactical strategy there is strength in numbers and protection in separation. There is also loneliness and disorientation in separation. Sometimes on a tour, the artist and the human being only meet at the downbeat.

There is one show left tonight. And one side of me is so glad to be going home now.