An Interview With The “Queen of Cool” - Patricia
Barber
Jazz Review, May 2000
If we strip musicians’ life stories to their bare essentials,
there aren’t that many basic narratives in the history of jazz. Most include
elements of tragedy. “Brilliance recognized early, but life cut short.”
“Originality sacrificed for popularity.” “Toiled in obscurity,
appreciated only when gone.”
Patricia Barber’s story, in contrast, is one from which artists of all
kinds can take courage. Call it “Pursued unique vision until audience at
last ready.” She’s spent two decades honing her performing and composing
skills in Chicago, developing a strong following in long-term engagements at
several of the city’s jazz clubs (most recently the Green Mill). Her first
three albums- “Split” (1989), “A Distortion of Love” (1992)
and “Cafe Blue” (1994)- received growing critical acclaim and airplay,
but had limited distribution, and so Barber remained “independently poor.”
Repeatedly refusing offers from major labels whose visions of her work were
too narrow, she opted to stay with Premonition, a small Chicago label, and she
did relatively little touring. Her breakthrough to a mass audience came at last
in 1998 with “modern cool.” That album's critical accolades and runaway
sales led to the signing of a remarkable contract the next year: Blue Note took
over the distribution of Barber's CDs, while she retained her complete artistic
autonomy at Premonition. She toured extensively in and outside the U.S. in 1998
and 1999, often playing to sold-out houses. Her first recording for the Blue
Note/Premonition imprint, the live “Companion” EP (1999), reached
the top of the jazz airplay charts. Thus while Barber’s recent rise to
fame has certainly been meteoric, hers is far from being a story of “overnight
success.” (For biographical details and discographies, see www.premonitionandmusic.com
and www.patriciabarber.com.)
Barber’s artistic voice is radically original and personal. Her sensibility
is complex, deeply rooted in jazz while also embracing pop, classical, and “world”
musics. Her eclecticism attracts unusually diverse audiences, to whom she offers
a pleasurable musical education. A fan initially drawn by her moving transformations
of jazz standards may soon be admiring her sophisticated, clear-eyed originals
about desire, loss, and contemporary culture; and one familiar only with her
witty reinventions of unlikely pop tunes may learn to enjoy the challenges of
her adventurous jazz instrumentals.
As performer and as songwriter, Barber continually grapples with contradiction,
achieving complex balances between aloofness and intimacy, the intellect and
the heart, homage and iconoclasm, deep feeling and sheer fun. Her arrangements
are intricately layered but contain no superfluous notes. She is riveting as
a pianist, pushing herself and her band members to produce stunning improvisations.
Her singing can convey both cool detachment and frank vulnerability; one reviewer
described it as “frighteningly intimate, deep in the distance,” and
another as “steely-seductive.” Though engaging with so many genres
and expressing so many varieties of feeling, Barber's work is compellingly coherent.
She is never content to rest; and one looks forward to hearing much more of
her artistry, in all the forms it takes, in the years to come.
JANET SEIZ: My thanks to Patricia Barber for a wonderful conversation, and to
jazzreview.com for its sponsorship.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Over the years you've had to contend with a lot of people who
thought your music was too sophisticated or too eclectic to ever find a very
large audience. And several times you turned down financially attractive recording
deals because they would have confined your creativity. What's enabled you to
stay true to your own vision despite all the pressures that might have lured
you onto other paths? Has it been a struggle, or were you just born with extraordinary
strength of character?
PATRICIA BARBER: The struggle is the character. “They” say to be careful
what you choose because you may become that. Well, in my case, that has been
true, because this has not been an entirely noble nor linear voyage. First,
let me say that pursuing an art is a great reward in and of itself, so in the
scheme of things it's not a difficult choice to make every single day. In my
career, I’ve almost fallen off the wagon a few times, and strangely enough,
the universe wouldn't let me fall. When I wanted a teaching job, I couldn't
get one, even though I was academically and professionally more qualified than
many of the people holding positions. Just as I got a lucrative offer to write
music for second-rate films, I became ill with a serious asthma episode and
had to give up the job to lie on the couch and recuperate for three months.
After a nervous breakdown, I became so ambivalent and nervous about performing
that I told Dave Jemilo, the owner of the Green Mill in Chicago (where I still
perform weekly) that I wasn’t sure if I could start a set, finish a set,
or sing a single note without crying. He told me he would pay me either way,
so I went onstage with nothing to lose. And I needed the money.
The few times I did become discouraged and tried raising a white flag, nobody
would acknowledge my surrender. I then had no choice but to continue supporting
myself the only way I could, which was to develop myself in this music and perform
it. If it is true now that I have strength of character, it would be an interesting
exercise to try to pinpoint where I may have picked it up along the way.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: In the early 1980s, as you've described yourself, you were a
pretty good singer who still had a lot to learn about jazz piano. Now you're
very accomplished as a vocalist, pianist, composer, lyricist, and arranger.
How hard-won was all that growth?
PATRICIA BARBER: There isn’t a secret formula to artistic growth. I practiced,
practiced, and practiced. At one point, on my 30th birthday, I realized with
a tiny horror that since graduating from college, I hadn’t seen much of
the world other than Chicago. There was a growing realization that I had been
sacrificing knowledge and experience in other areas in order to focus so specifically
on jazz and the library of jazz -- although I do believe it was a necessary
sacrifice. Starting then at 30, I decided I needed to broaden my experiences,
take on a self-directed study plan of certain subjects, travel extensively every
year, and generally try to learn the art of living as separate but integral
to the art of music.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Are there moments in your development that you remember as particularly
gratifying?
PATRICIA BARBER: There are moments constantly that are gratifying. One goes
through longish periods of what feel like stultifying plateaus and then something
happens as the result of practice and it is gratifying. Music works that way.
Often this moment, the audible result of one's work, is a sum greater than its
parts . . . as if there is another party adding input and bringing the music
to a level even you as the musician couldn't have imagined.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: You’ve said the singers and songwriters you most admire
include Elis Regina, Leny Andrade, Sheila Jordan, Shirley Horn, Joni Mitchell,
and Cole Porter. Which instrumentalists have been especially important to you
as inspirations or influences?
PATRICIA BARBER: Bill Evans, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chick Corea.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Could you say a little about your affinity with Bill Evans?
Many people hear some “kinship” between your playing and his.
PATRICIA BARBER: It would be impossible not to hear some Bill Evans in any jazz
pianist’s playing. He was an enormous influence in jazz piano. The same
applies to Keith Jarrett these days. These major figures forge new pathways.
It then becomes impossible for any jazz pianist not to take those pathways while
then trying to find something new from that point on. This is the nature of
art. One must accept and ingest accepted forms before trying to individually
influence the art from the inside out.
What did Bill Evans bring to jazz piano? Lyricism. He gave the piano its own
voice within jazz. He used the strengths of the instrument, for instance, the
ability to play several notes at one time, to bring rich harmony and texture
to the jazz aesthetic. He softened the entire aesthetic within jazz by combining
a silky technique with bebop lines. Before Bill Evans, pianists were more or
less imitating the horn players. They played hard angular lines without using
lush chordal harmonies.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: I’m intrigued by your inclusion of Coltrane. What is it
in his work that you connect with so strongly?
PATRICIA BARBER: John Coltrane epitomizes musical commitment. He had it all.
He brought the music to new places intellectually and harmonically and he played
on the most extreme edge of emotional commitment.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: One way you’ve challenged yourself is by working in a variety
of formats. Can you talk a bit about the freedoms and constraints you experience
with different combos? Where can you go best, for example, in your duo-with-bass,
and for what kinds of expression do you prefer your quartet?
PATRICIA BARBER: Every member that you add to a group adds some weight to the
vehicle. Weight can be a wonderful thing if thought of in terms of substance,
and it can also be a cumbersome thing as it restricts some movement. The duo
is a very loose and expressive format. It is also more frightening for me because
I am more exposed; my emotions are exposed, I have no place to hide and rest
from scrutiny. It seems to create an intimacy with the audience because of that
sense of being so close to the heart or emotion of the music. With a drummer
and guitarist, the solos can be spectacular and so the show can be more exciting
in terms of rhythm and timbre and the thrill of great jazz instrumental soloists.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Charlie Haden said in a recent interview, “What it's really
about is achieving a level in the rest of your life that you reach when you're
playing.... You have to develop your character to the level that you achieve
when you're touching music.” What do you think of that?
PATRICIA BARBER: There is a level of engagement, physical, intellectual, and
emotional, that one achieves when playing music that is very satisfying. Also
the concentration is heightened and the right brain is functioning at its utmost,
which can allow one to think clearly and deliver one's best work. I differ,
however, with Charlie Haden in that I would not want to be this engaged for
most of my life. It's too intense. It is so intense that sometimes the difference
between this state and "normal life" can be a shock or a letdown,
which is why I believe so many musicians are alcoholics and drug addicts. This
is part of the reason I don't like to perform many nights in a row. My “life”
starts to fade and disappear because the rhythm and satisfactions of life are
more subtle and can be lost within the prolonged intensity of musical performance.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Your “to thine own self be true” philosophy has always
yielded great artistic rewards, and now it’s yielding commercial ones as
well. Blue Note has agreed to market and distribute your recordings while leaving
you with full artistic control at Premonition. How did that remarkable contract
come about?
PATRICIA BARBER: I’m not privy to or interested in all the inside information,
but when the billion-page contract was done, I had the legal right to look it
over and approve or disapprove it. I think the world of Bruce Lundvall, the
president of Blue Note Records. Besides the obvious distribution muscle that
Premonition now has for my CDs, associating with and learning from him has been
one of the best parts of this corporate liaison for me.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: You’ve also been touring like mad. What are your hopes,
as your career enters this new phase? And do you see dangers in “success”
from which you'll need to protect yourself?
PATRICIA BARBER: I send out a series of writings from the road to all my friends
and family. This is from the latest and might answer your question. Sorry, my
heart is just not in another answer because there isn’t one. Not from here.
“It’s hard to believe one musician can whine so much, but I broke
down again today. Don't be surprised if I become a bit of a reclusive internet
artist. . . . I’m not sure at all that the road is for me. I had no idea
there was such emptiness out in the world. It's one obstacle hurdled after another
while running nowhere. The music makes sense . . . and the audiences make sense.
But nothing else does, and I'm not sure this isn't too high a price to pay.”
JAZZREVIEW.COM: You've built a nice community of friends and fans at the Green
Mill and had a safe “home” for your musical experimentation. Will
you keep playing there regularly, now that there's so much demand for you from
larger and far-away venues?
PATRICIA BARBER: Yes.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: What are the processes of composing and lyric-writing like for
you? What sort of routine do you have, and what's the experience like emotionally?
PATRICIA BARBER: My lifestyle when taking time to write music is wonderful.
I get up, make coffee and sit around, listen to music, do a lot of daydreaming
and some tinkling on the piano. Then I walk my dog and come back and daydream
some more. Most days I go to the gym, perhaps do grocery shopping, then maybe
I schedule dinner with friends or stay at home with friends and sit around some
more. I go to as many great concerts and listen to as much music as I can. The
lifestyle is a charmed one, but I find the writing itself is a kind of emotional
torture. I think that’s all I’ll say on the subject.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: There's irony in a lot of the lyrics you write. Mose Allison
once told an interviewer, “I don't have to search for irony - irony follows
me everywhere.” Do you feel something like that?
PATRICIA BARBER: Irony is a form of distancing, a way to inject sophistication
into the landscape. Humor or irony can be used as a way to make a point without
being dully direct or a self-righteous bore. Cole Porter is the highest role
model in this respect. He made many culturally salient points, but always phrased
them with intelligence and wit. The great American songs that became the standard
repertoire of jazz and cabaret are constructed with a high level of sophistication.
Even if a songwriter is not looking to be particularly witty, the form as it
has been established demands a certain twist of lyric or perspective or poetry.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Several of your compositions work with classical and sacred
music forms, including “Love, Put on Your Faces,” for which you adapted
a poem by e. e. cummings. There’s real majesty and courage in that song’s
response to the inevitability of death. Will you continue to use others’
poetry in your music? And do you expect classical forms to continue to be important
to your composing?
PATRICIA BARBER: I do expect that classical music and its forms will continue
to play a role in my songwriting. They present a great challenge musically that
I look forward to from time to time. The only problem with using either musical
or lyrical forms penned by other artists is that it is very, very difficult,
time-consuming, and expensive to get permission from poets/composers and/or
their estates. One has to have a lot of time on hand to tackle the process,
although when permission finally arrives, it can be thrilling. I waited months
to get an answer back from Maya Angelou about whether or not I could record
“Mourning Grace.” When I received a “yes,” I was walking
on air.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Your “social commentary” originals on modern cool
(“A Touch of Trash,” “Company,” and “Postmodern Blues”)
are so hip and so wittily-crafted, the listener can’t help but smile--
but their critiques of (our) consumerism and conformism are actually quite devastating.
I don’t suppose you’d like to be “the Woody Guthrie” as
well as “the Cole Porter” of our postmodern moment-- but how would
you characterize your “politics” and their place in your work?
PATRICIA BARBER: Of course my ideal would be a songwriter like Cole Porter.
He spoke well to his time, but did it in the most artistic way. There are a
few obvious differences between me and Cole Porter; one of the most glaring
differences is that he was prolific and I still have only a small self-composed
repertoire. In order to be an artist of any lasting merit, one must not only
have the goods, but have plenty of goods, so I'm working on that part now. I
must be more prolific.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: I think your songs have a lot in common with Porter’s:
memorable melodies, very sophisticated lyrics, lots of psychological insight,
and a wonderful sense of humor. Are some of the differences you see due to the
fact that you're writing in/for different times?
PATRICIA BARBER: I am flattered by the comparison. Certainly the times are different
and so is the musical landscape. . . . Most artists are arrogant enough to shoot
for the stars. Cole Porter is the stars. I'm here on earth looking up.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: You’ve said you'd like to see yourself “as an integral
bridge that helps take jazz from the 20th century to the 21st century.”
That’s a strong statement, reflecting very high aspirations. Could you
elaborate? What kind of influence would you like your work to have?
PATRICIA BARBER: It’s hard sometimes to be called to task for such off-the-cuff
statements. They say “why bother with mediocre aspirations?” so I
guess that statement would reflect my lofty goals. An artist should ideally
absorb the history and form of his/her chosen art and then create true innovation
by forging a new and independent voice. I would love to be that innovator. .
. . I’m not sure one could identify how exactly one is hoping to make an
impact. Certainly as composer I would like to contribute to the jazz vocal repertoire;
I would be very proud and happy one day if singers were performing some of my
songs regularly. Also, I find inspiration in artists like Dave Douglas, the
trumpeter, who has ruthlessly defined himself as being firmly entrenched within
the traditional jazz repertoire but is also aggressively stretching the boundaries
to create innovation. As a singer/composer I am attempting to do the same kind
of thing. For the future of jazz, this artistic process of paying homage to
the past, but looking forward, may be important.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: I understand you have two more CDs planned. What can you say
about what they’ll be like and when you’ll record them?
PATRICIA BARBER: The first one I do will be standards-based. That is scheduled
for recording the third week of May. The second one will be another recording
based on mostly new original material. I don’t know exactly yet when that
will be recorded.
JAZZREVIEW.COM: Do you have ideas about where you’d like to be as an artist
five years from now? How about ten?
PATRICIA BARBER: Five years from now, I would like to have several respected
recordings under my belt. I have done 5 recordings to date, so another 3 to
5 would be good. I would love to basically continue to do what I'm doing now,
but travel less.
In ten years, I’d like to have a nice light-schedule teaching job, perform
less, compose more, grow organic vegetables, have lots of dogs, and be one of
the best cooks in the midwest. This last aspiration may be unattainable, however.