- Born:
- November 8, 1955, Lisle, Illinois, U.S. (age 71)
Patricia Barber
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Who is Patricia Barber?
Patricia Barber, born November 8, 1955, is an American jazz musician celebrated internationally in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The daughter of two musicians, she began classical piano lessons at age six, later studying classical music and psychology at the University of Iowa. In 1979, she moved to Chicago and in 1984, she was booked at the Gold Star Sardine Bar, where she sang and played standards.
Barber started performing at the Green Mill in the early 1990s, adding unusual selections to her music. Her original songs, such as "Touch of Trash" and "Postmodern Blues," displayed irony, melancholy, and whimsy. In 1998, Blue Note purchased Premonition and began distributing Barber’s albums, increasing sales.
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What kind of music does Patricia Barber create?
Patricia Barber is an American jazz musician known for her intimate and dramatic style. Her music blends jazz with elements of blues, pop, and classical music. Barber began her career playing jazz standards in Chicago, gradually incorporating unusual selections ranging from Gregorian chants to songs by Santana and Joni Mitchell.
As Barber's career progressed, she began writing her own songs, setting poems to music and expressing her own visions of society through lyrics that often incorporate irony, melancholy, and whimsy. Later in her career, Barber received a Guggenheim fellowship to craft a song cycle based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which resulted in an album that incorporated rock and hip-hop elements.
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What instruments does Patricia Barber play?
Patricia Barber is an American jazz musician known for her skills as a vocalist and pianist. Barber began taking classical piano lessons at age six and majored in classical music and psychology at the University of Iowa. Her lyrical, Bill Evans-influenced piano playing became evident at the Gold Star Sardine Bar in Chicago.
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What is Patricia Barber known for in the jazz world?
Patricia Barber is an American jazz musician known for her unique and intimate style, which gained international recognition in the late 1990s. Starting with classical piano, she later shifted to jazz, performing at Chicago's Gold Star Sardine Bar in 1984, where she sang quietly over her lyrical, Bill Evans-influenced piano playing.
Barber is also known for her unusual repertoire, which includes selections ranging from Gregorian chants to songs by Santana and Joni Mitchell. Moreover, she is recognized for her songwriting, setting poems by E.E. Cummings and Maya Angelou to music, as well as writing her own lyrics that express her worried visions of society with irony, melancholy, and whimsy.
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What are some of Patricia Barber’s most famous albums or songs?
Patricia Barber is an American jazz musician who gained international recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some of her notable albums and songs include:
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Split (1989) was her first album.
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Café Blue (1994), Modern Cool (1998), and Companion (1999) increased her recognition beyond Chicago.
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Night Club (2000) featured Barber's interpretations of familiar standard songs and became a jazz best seller.
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"Touch of Trash" and "Postmodern Blues" are songs that display her ironic humor, melancholy, and whimsy.
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Mythologies (2006) incorporated rock and hip-hop elements.
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The Cole Porter Mix (2008) reached the top five on the Billboard jazz charts.
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How has Patricia Barber influenced modern jazz music?
Patricia Barber is an American jazz musician celebrated for her unique contributions to modern jazz. Her innovative approach includes incorporating unusual selections, such as Gregorian chants, and setting poems by E.E. Cummings and Maya Angelou to music. Barber's original songs, like "Touch of Trash" and "Postmodern Blues," blend ironic humor, melancholy, and whimsy, offering a distinctive and worried vision of society.
Her albums Café Blue, Modern Cool, and Companion broadened her audience, and Night Club achieved best-selling status. Barber's style is intimate yet dramatic, characterized by slow tempos and lyrical, Bill Evans-influenced piano playing. She received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2003 to create Mythologies, a song cycle based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, blending jazz, pop, rock, and hip-hop elements.
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Patricia Barber (born November 8, 1955, Lisle, Illinois, U.S.) is an American jazz musician who achieved international acclaim in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Barber, the daughter of two musicians, began taking classical piano lessons at age six. She grew up in Illinois and Iowa, majored in classical music and psychology at the University of Iowa, and initially resisted becoming a jazz musician. Jazz, however, proved an irresistible lure, and in 1979, a year after graduation, she moved to Chicago, where she scuffled for work for five years. Her break came with a 1984 booking at the Gold Star Sardine Bar on Chicago’s Gold Coast, where the club owner insisted that Barber sing and play only standards. The intimate quality of her music became evident, as she often chose slow tempos for the familiar songs that she sang quietly, over her lyrical, Bill Evans-influenced piano playing. She continually added new material to her repertoire, and in 1989 she released her first album, Split, which she sold from the bandstand.
In the early 1990s, Barber started performing at the Green Mill, a jazz club in a former Chicago speakeasy, and she began expanding her horizons, adding unusual selections, from 11th-century Gregorian chants to Santana and Joni Mitchell. Barber began writing songs, too, setting poems of E.E. Cummings and Maya Angelou to music and also writing her own lyrics. Songs of hers, including “Touch of Trash” and “Postmodern Blues,” revealed veins of ironic humour, melancholy, and whimsy; she began expressing her own worried visions of society in song. Dissatisfied with the way a major label handled her second album, A Distortion of Love, Barber began producing her own recordings, using her own loyal musicians, for Premonition, a small local label. Barber’s discs Café Blue (1994), Modern Cool (1998), and Companion (1999) spread her reputation beyond Chicago.
In 1998 Blue Note purchased Premonition, and, when the label began distributing Barber’s albums, sales quickly rose. For her sixth album, Night Club (2000), Barber returned to interpreting familiar standard songs in her intimate yet dramatic style. The compact disc became a jazz best seller, spending eight weeks among Billboard’s top five jazz albums in 2001. Barber expanded her fame with months of touring clubs, concerts, and jazz festivals in North America, Europe, and Israel. She followed the success of Night Club with Verse (2002) and the live album A Fortnight in France (2004). In 2003 she received a Guggenheim fellowship to craft a song cycle based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The result was Mythologies (2006), jazz and pop melodies that incorporated rock and hip-hop elements. Her next release, The Cole Porter Mix (2008), a collection of Cole Porter standards, reached the top five on the Billboard jazz charts. Later albums included Smash (2013), which features original material, and Higher (2019), a work of classically inspired original jazz.