"Though Barber may never attain the mass adoration lavished upon lesser talents, she towers over them because she consistently chooses art over entertainment, music over marketing, substance over style." -Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

Photos by Andrea Canter

No matter how sublime the music, no matter how crowded the room, it seems there is always that one annoying table of chatter competing with the performers at even the most dignified jazz club. (Well, of course with the exception of the Village Vanguard where you wouldn't dare....) But only spellbound silence surrounded Patricia Barber and her quartet on opening night at Minneapolis' Dakota last week. And it's not her physical presence or vocal dynamics that command such respectful attention, but the sheer genius of her lyrics, her compositions, her reconstructions of what was once familiar, as well as that darkly seductive voice and daring spontaneity at the keyboard.

Barber has been steadily garnering accolades since her first gigs at Chicago's Gold Star Sardine Bar in the late 1980s and later (and still) as a regular at the Windy City's Green Mill; similarly, her recordings have attracted a growing audience, with her recently released eighth effort, Live: A Fortnight in France (Blue Note), hailed for its "ominous, tricky and sardonic originals... reinvented standards... and boomer-era pop tunes turned inside out...performed with a bracing combination of rehearsed precision and freewheeling improvisation" (Derek Richardson, San Jose Mercury). Noted Tim O'Neill (PopMatters), "musically, her writing is well within traditional generic boundaries, but there are also unspoken boundaries which her sly, brazenly intellectual lyrics routinely cross..."

Joining Barber at the Dakota was her Chicago-based, touring quartet featuring the multi-talented guitarist Neal Alger, long-time associate Michael Arnopol on bass, and drum kit wizard Eric Montzka. Like the best small ensembles associated with Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau, these musicians have telepathic communication and creative artistry that not only pushes original compositions into orbit but also turns standards into modern masterpieces of invention.

The two sets on opening night in Minneapolis included a number of the pieces from the new recording as well as other originals and standard fare, and unlike most of the vocalists who have been to town lately, Barber did not repeat anything from the first set during the nightcap. And "standard fare" is hardly descriptive: Her "If Should Leave You" (in duet with Arnopol) was a romance tinged with regret; on "Laura" (in a mildly Brazil-flavored duet with Alger), she let slightly bent notes float just long enough to conjure a wistful breeze. A stand-out track on the CD, Lennon and McCartney's "Norwegian Wood" was a tour de force for the ensemble on stage, starting with Barber's solo piano masquerading as harp and chimes, the sustain pedal allowing notes to flow into each other, then moving into dynamic twists, rich chordal textures, and rapid, two-handed filigree figures; Alger sent the guitar on a long melodic journey over Montzka's bongo clips and pops, with Arnopol adding strummed chords leading into a high spirited cadenza of percussion. Had this been solely an instrumental number, it would have been a magnificent effort, but Barber's vocals added an eerie layer of dark passion.

"Call Me" was played as a samba, the vocals lyrically assertive, with Montzka providing a bit of clave; "Shall We Dance," as close to a mainstream arrangement as one could find this evening, featured a melodic keyboard with playfully rolled chords; Gordon Jenkins' "Blue Prelude" featured Arnopol, who moved the bassline from somber mood to melodic cry, while Barber created vocal glissando and a last, chilling "goodbye." Singing Jobim's "The Wave" in Portuguese, Barber, along with her cohorts, beautifully blended the instrumental, the pianist rolling off combinations of triplets echoed by Alger's acoustic guitar. And "Alone Together," opening the second set, was a master class in deconstruction, given a bluesy feel and quirky rhythm created by superimposing left and right hand patterns slightly out of register; with the exception of a few familiar snatches early on, the melodic theme was completely disguised until the last few bars.

If her takes on standard tunes are marvelous examples of turning the familiar inside out, Patricia Barber's original compositions are even more awe-inspiring examples of making the unfamiliar territory of personal genius accessible, if not disquieting. Her unidentified opening instrumental improvisation was a suitable preface to the rest of the night---from the futuristic Bach-like piano prelude morphing into a stride-like groove, to Alger's guitar simmering like bubbling lava, to Arnopol's bass with its sudden starts and stops, and Montzka's magical brushes, dancing with shifting dynamics and rhythms. On her "Dansons La Gigue," with Paul Verlain's text sung in French over Alger's hints of medieval Spain, Barber added intrigue with a Gothic-like scat and dissonant bends.

"Touch of Trash" was a sardonic commentary on modern life and relationships, with instrumentation that covered a wide range of sonic explorations. Barber's clanging on the piano's strings and otherwise percussive attack gave the tune some funk/rock overtones, often sounding like a second guitar. Montzka turned the drum kit inside out, creating tabla-like effects with his hands-on snares. Before launching into the instrumental "Crash," Barber warned Dakota patrons to "hang on to your meat." With a furious opening that sounded more like Fender Rhodes than acoustic keyboard, this piece indeed congers images of a traffic-jammed expressway, all headed for collision. Following a call-and-response between piano and bass over popping percussion, Barber accelerated through a series of low register chords and runs up and down the keys, Arnopol providing a pulsating ostinato, and Alger mirroring the image before developing a more melodic line. With the pianist sitting out for a significant interval, the rhythm section produced some glowing pyrotechnics before the foursome reached closure.

"Whiteworld" is one component of the nine-song cycle based on Ovid's "Metamorphisis," Barber's current Guggenheim-funded project. As the first set encore, Barber's crafty, harrowingly political lyrics were sung with crystalline clarity; Alger delivered an articulate if frenzied solo, and Montzka broke out with wild abandon. "Gotcha" was both a witty and devastating poke at personal angst, featuring Barber's ethereal piano and almost ghostly vocals, Montzka's hand-popping bongos, and Alger's whining electric guitar, his ripples adding to the serio-comic tone. "Pieces" was a clever, impassioned lament of lost relationships, introduced by some weirdly echoing electronic wizardry from Alger, who later demonstrated some deliciously fleet fingered slides while Barber's cool vocals evolved into an eerie chant.

Although not easy to single out one piece, my favorite of the evening was Barber's instrumental tribute to French-American pianist Jacky Terrasson, "My J.T." Barber propelled the piano through a Monkish line, quirky rhythms, and rolled chords over Montzka's ostinato beat. With full quartet, the tune took off with polyrhythmic combinations of lyrical and dissonant harmonies, Barber interlacing heavy-handed chords and melodic phrases. After Montzka erupted with a sonic earthquake of rimshots, cowbell, rattling snare and spewing hi-hats, the ensemble settled into what is best described as a party of wild restraint, continually evolving up to the final note.

Over the years, Barber's piano has evolved at least as impressively as has her songwriting and vocal chops. Incredibly and simultaneously aggressive and impressionistic, her play was at full throttle on the nonvocal presentations, yet often she yielded the floor to her bandmates, sometimes even sitting back and overtly cheering them on. As Jon Bream wrote in the Star Tribune, "with Barber, it's about making art, not about casting her as a star."

And this comment well describes Barber and her pathway to recognition as one of the true original voices in modern jazz. Art has always transcended commercial success; she has repeatedly produced recordings at the highest level of originality and musicianship, yet only recently has her audience grown beyond small club dates. And while dubbed many years ago as a "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" (multiple Downbeat critics' polls), only recently has the music mainstream paid her much attention. With arguably a far deeper artistic well than more well-known singing instrumentalists, Barber has slowly chipped away at popular conceptions of jazz singers and songwriters, and at 48 is finally receiving that "wider recognition" of a major label contract, gigs at the Blue Note, spotlights in Jazz Times, and reviews in papers that seldom cover jazz.

Patricia Barber defies classification, casts aside artistic boundaries, and delivers original music burning with rhythms and harmonies that are as provocative as her lyrics. As she says herself, "This task is, after all, the task of any artist: to create a ruthlessly individual vision of the art from the inside out..." It is the ruthless individuality of artists such as Patricia Barber that ensures a bright future for jazz.

For schedule, discography, and other news, visit Patricia Barber's website at www.patriciabarber.com