Patricia Barber Premonition Years 1994-2002
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Fyttigrisen for en vanvittig god box! Ikke ett kjedelig sekund på 3 cder.
Dette er det beste plate kjøpet jeg har gjort på laaaaang tid.
Utrolig musikk og sinnssykt gode innspillinger. Lavmælt, melankolsk og vakkert.
Løp å kjøp og nyt i timevis!!
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7487741&cart=672261598Kopiert fra http://jazztimes.com.
CD Reviews from the January/February 2008 issue
PATRICIA BARBER
The Premonition Years: 1994-2002 (Premonition)
It was as if a skylark had swallowed a bassoon that first moment singer/pianist Patricia Barber opened her mouth: a blues-hooting, nervously flitting bird with smartly semantic wiseacre lyrics beating her own drum vocally and rhythmically. Forget that her poorly titled albums seemed to signal some ersatz beat revivalism. Hers was a thoroughly modern listen whether tackling the classics or crafting bold new tunes low and slowly. And, OK, there was a hint of the beatnik chick chic to herthe dark hair framing a sunglass-filled face, the smoky bar brand of small-band arrangements, the algebraic Aesop-sopped texts.
Barbers not dead. Mythologies came in 2006 and was a character-acted-out affair based on Ovids Metamorphoses, Guggenheim fellowship and all. But before that searing song cycle, Barber made five records for Premonition (1994s Cafe Blue, 98s Modern Cool, 99s Companion, 2000s Nightclub, 2002s Verse), celebrated in this box in three categories: pop song, standards and originals.
Premonition is where she learned to fly.
Languid and sensual without the dread of cornball sentimentality lingering through her stylistic variations, hers was and is a dry jazzy élan comparable to Joni Mitchell (the sultriest parts of Hejira) and David Sylvian (his holy Orpheus). Maybe Barbers a baroque cabaret answer to what would happen if Chris Connor and Nico had a baby. With all that, hers is a wholly unique vibe; a dusky musicality and odd métier that allows her deconstructionist takes on sexy pop songs a gray sensuality. Her organ-wheezing cover of Bill Withers slinky Use Me is creepier than Peter Lorre. Her threadbare, finger-snapping take on Tom Jones haughty Shes a Lady is distant and transient. In all cases, Barber removes these hits from their usual romanticism.
But that doesnt mean there isnt passion to be found. Her acoustic-guitar-strung-out version of A Taste of Honey is warmly inviting while remaining mysterious. That sense of invitation is made greater when Barbers standards present an octave-higher sense of play and premonition. I Fall in Love Too Easily and Bye Bye Blackbird give her clear cranky piano lines a chance to out themselves. Her voice follows in slightly giddier order, toying with each word as if to go beyond the lyrical chilliness she finds in her pop selections. In essence, jazz and Tin Pan Alley war her a bit.
But not so much as to thaw her holiday hauteur. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town aint a believable myth when she shushes and slushes her baritone through that snow job. This leaves her calculated unsteady originals like the unnervingly chatty Company and the stretched-out noir prose and sleazy cowbell click of Touch of Trash. On Trash theres one perfect lineamong dozens of quotables in her catalogthat announces all that Barber is: Orchestration and precision/The girl works harder than you.
-A.D. Amorosi