October
’ve been a serious jazz fan all my adult life.
KMHD provides my daily soundtrack, and
in my 20s I was even a groupie of sorts, fol
lowing a jazz quintet from gig to gig.
So 1 am astonished that until a few months
ago, Patricia Barber managed to elude my
radar. And my gaydar.
W hile lesbian folk singers with guitars seem
to proliferate like bamboo fed by an under
ground spring, a lesbian jazz singer who plays
piano is as rare as a zinnia in December. And
so is Barber’s fourfold talent. She is equal parts
amazing composer, lyricist, pianist and singer.
W hich is why her talents seem somewhat
wasted on her latest album, Nightclub, a compi
lation of jazz standards. She says she did it, in
part, to appease her faithful fans who wanted a
recording of the rest of the music she plays
during her regular gig at Chicago’s Green Mill.
There’s nothing wrong with the CD ; I just pre
fer her original material.
1 have since made up for lost time by lis
tening to every one of her five CDs several
times over and have come to realize Barber
was in my life all along. Now that I’m attuned
to the smoky, sultry timbre of her voice that is
at once both hot and cool, I catch her on
KMHD several times a day.
I had the great fortune to experience Barber
live last August at the Mount Hood Jazz Festi
val. Perhaps no one told her she’d be playing
her set in the scorching 90-degree sun— or per
haps she traded comfort to look jazz club-hip
dressed all in black. No matter; her music was
ccxil enough to ice off the whole throng that
gradually crowded the lawn in front of her stage.
In person, she plays like a dancer— when
she finishes a phrase she retracts her hands to
her body in exotic, dramatic gestures that man
age to lixak spontaneous and natural. Her vocal
range seems even wider, and her deep, throaty
register is both poignant and evocative.
“Post-Modern Blues” from her hit album
M odem C ool went over especially well with
the crowd. The catchy lyrics were appreciated,
despite the distractions of restless children
somersaulting across the grass. Pro that she is,
Barber held the fans in her thrall and cooked
up a big sound from her quartet to finish with
Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.”
We met up after the gig but decided to do
our interview via e-mail. W hile Barber is no
closet case, she doesn’t think of herself as a les
bian musician and declined to answer ques
tions about the impact of her orientation or
the challenges she’s faced as a woman fronting
a jazz group. And although she seems to be
having fun playing with gender identity in
songs such as “Black Magic Woman” and
“She’s a Lady,” she didn’t respond to questions
about that, either.
sr>
w* '%
s' *
' v
* *
Where has she been
all my life?
Jazz phenom Patricia Barber was
in my head and I didn’t know it
bv
O
r ia n a
G
r een
acceptance is way over
due? Do you wonder
what took people so long
to discover you? I,
myself, am pissed I
missed your concert
here last November!
A : Jazz is a sophisti
cated art. I think I only
started to gain an indi
vidual voice with C afe
Blue and then especially
with Modem C ool. It
took me some time and
some paying of dues to
gain any mastery at all
over this music, so every
thing worked out exactly
as it was supposed to
work out.
Q: Why did you de
cide to return to grad
school six years ago?
Are you planning to
teach? Can jazz perform
ance be taught, or do
you have to be bom a
jazz musician?
A : Six years ago, I
felt that I needed some
inspiration, and at the
same time I was offered a
good scholarship to
Northwestern Universi
ty. Northwestern is a rich
school with fine facilities
and studios and musi
cians, so it was the per
fect time for me to take
advantage of the oppor
tunity to learn. I would
love to repeat this kind
of pattern for the rest of
my life if I could— back
to school every siJc
years— in music, history,
whatever.
Jazz can be taught to those with natural tal
ent for it. It is only moderately successful to
teach music at all to those without a natural
musical talent. And often, jazz doesn’t need to
be academically taught at all; it can be best to
leam it “on the streets.”
¿
■ m
r
z
" -¿¿¿cSki: >:
<
Question: Are you where you thought
you’d be in your career after 20 years in the
business?
Answer: Yes, I’m probably exactly where I
thought I’d be after 20 years. I thought I’d be a
kind of cult success, and I think I’ve achieved
at least that and even a little more than I
expected in other ways.
Q: Your CDs have displayed solid musi
cianship and stellar turns from the beginning.
With all the glowing reviews you’ve received
in recent years, do you ever feel like your
_
r
Q: In the song “If This Isn’t Jazz,” you
write about the occupational hazard of smoke
in your lungs and ask, “ Is this a lifestyle mis
take?” Is the jazz club scene starting to lose
its appeal— or perhaps you were never in love
with those venues to begin with? Would you
?
rather just compose, record and tour to larg
er, smokeless venues?
A : I love the nightclub scene and always
have. My new CD, Nightclub, is dedicated to
the late-night fans I’ve played for in nightclubs
for years. Yes, as I gain more control and as I
get older, I ask for no smoking, and that’s
important to me now. Eventually, I’d like to
perform less and compose more— cook and do
a lot of nothing. But performance will always
be an important part of the music. It’s hard to
imagine a life without it now.
Q: W hat started your lyrics flowing,
since they don’t appear until Cafe Blue?
Since your first recorded compositions were
instrumental, did you intend all along to also
write lyrics, or did they just start flowing
one day? Is that part of songwriting pleasure
or agony? Are you able to resist making
your songs autobiographical, or is that a
great way to vent? I’m thinking of “W inter”
and “Let It Rain.”
A : As a jazz singer, I became frustrated with
the jazz vocal repertoire and thought I would
give composing lyrics a go. It is both pleasure
and agony, and some of my songs are autobio
graphical, but not all of them could be. At
some point a writer has to take on the persona
of a fictional character because either the
material would be too paltry or the life would
be too chaotic.
N
i-. ■
. >
.• :¿
•
‘ ¡ft ' v
6,2000
Q : So many of the songs you write seem
to be melancholy. Does that reflect your basic
personality, or is it just cooler to be blue?
A : For some reason, it’s hard to capture
happiness because it comes in the form of a
quiet, contented and relatively undramatic
shape. It’s as elusive to portray as it is to find.
Q : Do you still dream of opening your
own nightclub? Any other big dreams you
want to share?
A: I would no longer like to own a nightclub.
I’m having a very noisy, fun-filled, exciting life.
My dreams for my future would be simple and
quiet and full of family and friends and music.
f you have even the tiniest bit of inclina
tion to appreciate jazz or just a great musi
cian, you should run, not walk, to your
nearest C D vendor and buy any Patricia Bar
ber album you can find. My faves are C afe
Blue and M odem C ool. C heck them all out at
patriciabarber.com.
in
O riana G reen will never miss another Port-
land appearance o f Patricia Barber. She is also the
Entertainment Editor o f Just Out and can be
reached at oriana@ justout.com .
Ijp
f O
o
^
w
Sk
Chez What? Cafe
¿ p r T u rn s 6!!!
\ Help Us Celebrate 6 Years
N e w La te Night Hours
Tues-Sat until la m
Beer/Wine/Cocktails
on Alberta St. with:
Food. Drink & Karaoke
Until 1 A .M .
C h ez W h at?
Heapin' Helpings of Hearty Americana
2203 NE Alberta. Portland (503) 281- 1717
Hours Sun 9-3 mon '8-3 Tucs-Sat 8 1am
JU)I0I\
Restaurant ▼ Retail
4100 S.E. Division ▼ (503)233-6950
Join the Blend I
eclectic food, wine,
& furnishings
l
|
a