Jazz songwriter and pianist Patricia Barber’s 2006 album Mythologies, a song cycle based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis, is a sprawling work of poetic and musical adventure. Upon its release, it garnered universal acclaim from critics and responsive concert audiences across the United States and Europe. After this rigorous undertaking, Barber…
Is it still art when you can fingerpop to it? Finally, it’s arrived. In 2003 jazz songwriter, pianist, and bandleader Patricia Barber received a Guggenheim fellowship to create a song cycle based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Barber is that rare kind of jazz artist — she appeals to non-jazz fans….
Chicago native and classically trained pianist Patricia Barber’s sixth album is a collection of downtempo standards, perfect for a rainy day. Taking on classics like “Autumn Leaves,” “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” or even “Alfie” is always a risk, but her confident vocals and interpretations…
Pianist/vocalist Patricia Barber is the Alanis Morissette of the jazz world. Her serpentine, poetic songs teeter between deftly witty and awkwardly Latinate. Each album is more ambitious than the last, taking her deeper into avant-garde territory both lyrically and instrumentally. Verse is no exception. Case in point: “I Could…
The popular vibist’s fourth solo outing is also his most ambitious, something appealing, yet often odd and maddening in an attempt to cast jazz as cinema. Simply listening to the multiple moods, colors, and atmospheres here can bring many possible interpretations to just what his theory is, but the…
With his second album Black Action Figure, Stefon Harris still is finding his footing as an innovator, yet he is well on his way to developing his own exciting sense of style. At its core, this is fairly traditionalist hard bop, but there is energy and unpredictability to Harris’…
A Cloud of Red Dust marks Stefon Harris’ solo recording debut. The classically trained Harris plays both the vibraphone and percussion on this release, and his classical influence is never far from the surface. He employs a large band, including horns, flute, and percussion, all of which add color…
Kindred is unusual in that it’s a co-led session, pairing two of the most creative young improvisers in jazz: vibraphonist Stefon Harris and pianist Jacky Terrasson. (Harris frequently switches over to the more percussive-sounding marimba.) On most tracks they’re joined by bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Terreon Gully, with…
01 THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHTS 02 NEVER LET ME GO 03 BRILLIANT CORNERS 04 RINGO OIWAKE 05 TEA FOR TWO
