# CD review: Patricia Barber – Higher 2019: Video Interview, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/04/09/cd-review-patricia-barber-higher-2019-video-interview-cd-cover/
- Published: 2019-04-09T18:58:52+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Higher is the new studio album by composer, singer and pianist Patricia Barber.
Inspired by classical works and the challenge of making jazz music more expansive,
the latest project came to life. And again Barber knows how to create a more artistic
side of modern jazz, without denying the traditional roots of American jazz music.**

It has been six years since Patricia Barber’s latest studio album was released. 
Smash continued on the path Barber took with Mythologies (2006), by weaving influences
of classical music with literature or poetry into an eclectic jazzy work with depth.
Barber once promised herself to delve into classical works when she reached the 
age of 50 and did so. In recent years, the expressionist-minded artist has increasingly
immersed herself in the many forms of classical music and, thanks to a friend’s 
remark, felt challenged to prove that jazz, like classical music, could contain 
short songs. Just like works by Schumann or Schubert.

The challenge that Patricia Barber had set for herself was a big one. Not because
it proves the above view, but simply because Barber is rather purist, and perfectionism
suits her whole being. That resulted in years of composing, testing and looking 
for inspiration to give shape to her project. It was probably the acquired knowledge
of her work together with Kenny Werner in combination with her collaborations with
the celebrated opera singer Renée Fleming and her own investigations that led to
the song cycle that plays the leading role on Higher.

Patricia Barber christened the song cycle “Angels, Birds and I…,” written to be 
performed by classically oriented artists and suitable for improvisation by jazz
musicians, with the song “Higher,” written for her mother, as a central piece in
the classically oriented jazz.album, the album delivers a sea of serenity and crystallized
works, sometimes full of emotion and then full of hope or even humor. Yes, from 
a textual and musical point of view, Higher is a poetic gem that far surpasses Barber’s
previous works. And that is remarkable for an artist who has set the bar extremely
high for herself for three decades.

The harmonic evolution, as Barber calls the path chosen, is a song cycle of eight
tracks, which are “just for pure fun” supplemented with three variations on tunes
from the Great American Songbook. The cycle is described contextually by a single
protagonist, who, speaking from the role of the artist, empathizes with the inability
to deliver works of the highest quality on stage (“Muse”) or receives the means 
for doing so (“Voyager”), aspires to a future in opera (“The Opera Song”) or ponders
the pure love of music (“Surrender”).

The distance between human (artists) and the realm of the gods is often reflected
in the songs, which combine musical harmony with contemporary jazz in a unique way.
Really beautiful is the addition of the saxophone (as usual on her albums fabulously
played by Jim Gailloreto) to the winter song “Pallid Angel.” Accompanied by her 
regular collaborators, Patrick Mulcahy on bass, John Deitemyer on drums, and Neal
Alger on acoustic guitar, Barber explores and mixes colors and seasons with objects
and emotion. A special mention is needed for the track “The Albatross Song,” where
Barber and her band members tell a bluesy story, led by the bass in 5/4 time, of
a woman who leaves her boorish capitalist husband for a new, distant relationship
with the almost mythical bird–surreal and beautifully interpreted at the same time.

 1.  Muse
 2.  Surrender
 3.  Pallid Angel
 4.  The Opera Song
 5.  High Summer Season
 6.  The Albatross
 7.  Voyager
 8.  Higher
 9.  Early Autumn
 10. In Your Own Sweet Way
 11. Secret Love
 12. The Opera Song with Katherine Werbiansky

**Patricia Barber, piano, voice**
 **Patrick Mulcahy, bass** **Jon Deitemyer, drums****
Neal Alger, acoustic guitar** **Jim Gailloreto, tenor saxophone** **Katherine Werbiansky,
lyric soprano**

![Image result for Patricia Barber - Higher](https://i0.wp.com/image-ticketfly.imgix.
net/00/03/15/24/64-og.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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