Here a Barber there a Barber Everywhere a Barber

Claire, Joan, Luke and I went to the Jazz Fest on July 10th to see Patricia Barber. It was an early concert so I picked another concert for 9:00 p.m. and, it turned out to be a young lady at the Club L'Astral, (where we saw The Bad Plus), by the name of Jill Barber.

This is about the fourth time I've seen Patricia Barber. And for once, she left me a bit cold. I love her voice. Moreover, she is one of the best jazz pianists around. But she has developed a bit of a coldness about her. She has over-developed the Keith Jarrett-like grunting while she plays. Her mouth now contorts into a circle when she is playing. But there is still the voice and the playing that comes through all the time. Sadly, throughout the concert, Patricia seemed more intent on playing the piano than on singing. But when she did sing, all sins were forgiven. After an hour and twenty minutes she said something like, "Well this went faster than I thought", excused herself and then came on for two more encores. One was of her own composition, "Snow" which is on her "Mythologies" disc. Don't get me wrong, it was a very, very good concert, but was one devoted to "Cole Porter Mix" her most recent album and I've never really been a Cole Porter fan. Now, having said that, one of the best concerts of my life was seeing Patricia Barber at the Spectrum in Montreal with Joan, Maureen and Claire when she did a version of Modern Cool and then sang the Beatles' Norwegian Blue. I guess everyone can have an off night. But, maybe you can see what I mean about what I saw when you see this video:

It is always nice to discover someone that you have never heard of before. Every year we seem to stumble into someone we had never heard of, but who is so fun that you become an instant fan. This year, it was Jill Barber.

She comes from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a jazz singer, western swing singer, composes her own songs and just blew us away. We were fortunate enough to have all had to go to the bathroom after the show, which delayed us. As we exited, Claire bumped into Jill Barber and as a result we hung in there and got her to sign three copies of her new album, Chances.

You should get the album, listen to it, and go see it.