Patricia Barber (born November 8, 1955) is an American songwriter, composer, singer, and pianist.

Biography

Barber's father Floyd was a jazz saxophonist who played with Bud Freeman and Glenn Miller. She played saxophone and piano from a young age, sang in musicals in high school, and studied piano at the University of Iowa in the early 1970s. The Guggenheim allowed her to devote time to a song cycle based on Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Awards and honors

  • She was given a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 in the field of Creative Arts – Music Composition.
  • She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

{|class="wikitable sortable"

!Year recorded

!Title

!Label

!Personnel/Notes

|-

|1989*

|Split

|Floyd

|Trio, with Michael Arnopol (bass), Mark Walker (drums)

|-

|1991

|A Distortion of Love

|Antilles

|With Wolfgang Muthspiel (guitar), Marc Johnson (bass), Adam Nussbaum (drums, percussion, finger snaps), Carla White and Big Kahuna (finger snaps)

|-

|1994

|Café Blue

|Premonition

|With John McLean (guitar), Michael Arnopol (bass), Mark Walker (drums, percussion)

|-

|1998

|Modern Cool

|Premonition

|With John McLean (guitar), Michael Arnopol (bass), Mark Walker (drums, percussion), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Jeff Stitely (udu), Choral Thunder Vocal Choir

|-

|1999

|Companion

|Premonition

|With John McLean (guitar), Michael Arnopol (bass), Eric Montzka (drums, percussion), Ruben P. Alvarez (percussion); Jason Narducy (vocals) added on one track

|-

|2000*

|Nightclub

|Premonition/Blue Note

|With Marc Johnson and Michael Arnopol (bass; separately), Adam Nussbaum and Adam Cruz (drums; separately), Charlie Hunter (guitar)

|-

|2002*

|Verse

|Premonition/Blue Note

|Most tracks quartet, with Dave Douglas (trumpet), Neal Alger (guitar), Michael Arnopol (bass), Joey Baron (drums); one track quartet with Eric Montzka (drums) replacing Baron; one track with Cliff Colnot String Ensemble added

|-

|2004*

|Live: A Fortnight in France

|Blue Note

|Quartet, with Neal Alger (guitar), Michael Arnapol (bass), Eric Montzka (drums)

|-

|2006*

|Mythologies

|Blue Note

|Most tracks quartet, with Neal Alger (guitar), Michael Arnapol (bass), Eric Montzka (drums); some tracks with Jim Gailloreto (sax) added; some tracks with various vocalists added

|-

|2008*

|The Cole Porter Mix

|Blue Note

|Most tracks quartet, with Neal Alger (guitar), Michael Arnopol (bass), Eric Montzka (drums, percussion); some tracks quintet, with Chris Potter (tenor sax) added; some tracks quartet with Alger (guitar), Arnopol (bass), Nate Smith (drums, percussion)

|-

|2010

|Live in Concert

|Floyd

|Duo, with Kenny Werner (piano); in concert

|-

|2013*

|Smash

|Concord Jazz

|-

|2019

|Higher

|ArtistShare

|Recording of song cycle "Angels, Birds and I…"

|-

|2021

|Clique

|Impex Records

|A product of the same recording sessions as her 2019 album Higher.

|}

Source:

References

  • Official website
  • 2005 concert recorded at the SFJazz Jazz Festival
  • Review of Mythologies by JazzChicago.net