PATRICIA BARBER — Mythologies (review)

PATRICIA BARBER — Mythologies album cover

Album · 2006 · Vocal Jazz

4.5/5 · 2024-07-30
Matti P

American vocalist, pianist and composer PATRICIA BARBER (b. November 8, 1955) is an individual artist difficult to categorize. According to All Music Guide, "her playing and singing are almost iconoclastically inventive, inhabiting a terrain inside and outside a musical slipstream that exists between post-bop, pop, classical music, cabaret song, and avant-garde, while being performed with a smoky, dreamy, yet imposing, mercurial presence". She literally grew up to be a musician, and she already was an educated and experienced performer when she started her discography in 1989.

For her very first JMA review I chose this album based on Ovid's Metamorphoses from the year 8 BCE. The Roman poet's epic work on metamorphic-themed mythologies is said to be one of the most influential works in Western culture. [Two quick examples: Genesis's 'The Fountain of Salmacis', and the Narcissus reference in 'Supper's Ready'. I bet anyone can think of several cultural things from the mere track titles here.] In 2003 Patricia Barber won a Guggenheim fellowship -- unusual for a songwriter in the popular field! -- to devote time for the Ovid project. The result is a strong album. The listener doesn't need to be strictly jazz oriented to be impressed by this 11-song cycle, and on the other hand friends of traditional Vocal Jazz may find it somewhat cold and detached. The fellow musicians in Barber's quartet are guitarist Neal Alger, bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Eric Montzka, and there are guest appearances on e.g. saxophone and vocals.

A word about Patricia Barber as a vocalist. Her voice is rather smoky and yet very clear, and her expression subtle, approaching talking in a low, meaningful voice. Two artist that come to my mind are LAURIE ANDERSON and k. d. lang, even though I cannot say Barber actually sounds like either of them.

'The Moon' progresses from a rather atonal intro, through the vocal oriented serene section, into a vivid instrumental half with a hectic drumming and a tenor sax solo. 'Morpheus' stays more in the nocturnal atmosphere, and the mellow, slow-tempo 'Pygmalion' probably pleases even the old-fashioned jazz listeners. 'Hunger' is less jazz than angular art-rock. 'Icarus' makes me think of JONI MITCHELL's Hejira period. A great song with an exciting guitar sound.

The art-rock guitar is central on the gloomy 'Orpheus/Sonnet'. Gorgeous 'Persephone' focuses on voice and piano until the rhythm section and guitar join them. Several guest vocalists add to the song's atmospheric charm, as they do on 'Phaeton' which -- against my taste -- even turns into rap. The final song 'The Hours' contains both the minimalistic calmness à la SIDSEL ENDRESEN and the bluesy rock edge highlighting guitar, and a choir on top of it all.

This is an ambitious, fascinating, many-sided and extremely deep album that doesn't reveal all its magic on first listenings. Recommended if you like artists mentioned above, and the likes of ROBERT WYATT, DAVID SYLVIAN, TIM BOWNESS...