Sublimely intimate but hugely expressive investigation of the brilliant songs of Cole Porter by the wonderfully artful singer/pianist and composer Patrica Barber. She breathes fresh life into his music as well as contributing three typically intelligent originals. Like her label mate Wilson, Barber is a genuine one off and Cole Porter Mix is un-missable. "One of the most accomplished female jazz singer-pianists on the planet. Chicago-based Barber has a voice that caresses and challenges and cajoles and taunts and teases every nuance of meaning from each ambiguous syllable". The Guardian "Even a casual listener would soon be won over by her seductive voice, her forceful soloing and, not least, her immaculate quartet arrangements". The Times "The most fearless, most intellectually stimulating and, by extension, most interesting singer-songwriterpianist on the American jazz scene." JazzTimes For more than two decades, Barber, based in Chicago, has led her own band and released a series of highly acclaimed, strikingly singular albums, that have seen her recognised as one of the greatest songs tylists on the planet. For her latest album, singer/pianist Barber applies her austere but beautiful heartfelt expressiveness to breath new life into the music of one of the Great American Songbook composers. The Cole Porter Mix not only spotlights her artful interpretations of Porter's songs but also features three Porter-inspired originals. "Cole Porter has always been my songwriting idol," says Barber. "I love his music and I've been singing his songs for so many years." Barber's band includes guitarist Neal Alger, who has been performing with her the past six years, and bassist Michael Arnopol, who has worked with her since 1980. "We're like brother and sister," she says. "We learned jazz together and played all those gigs in Chicago together when I was coming up." Drum duties are shared by Eric Montzka and Nate Smith, while tenor saxophonist Chris Potter guests on five tracks. Barber plays piano throughout as well as contributes melodica colours to some tunes, including her gem, "The New Year's Eve Song," that closes the album. Another original on The Cole Porter Mix is the
Leave it to the intrepid Patricia Barber to take on so well-worn a songbook as Cole Porter’s with such smoldering originality. Of course, for 15 years now, Barber has been something of an Ella Fitzgerald meets the madwoman-in-the-attic, a sheen of peerless respectability masking an uncompromising taste for the respectfully subversive. With 2006’s seminal Mythologies, Barber took the Guggenheim and ran with it, planting one foot in Ovid and the other in Harlem. Here, her unflappable taste for danger takes her deep into the Porter oeuvre. But in Barber’s hands, every old familiar lyric takes on new and usually devious entendre. Delivered in her heavily honeyed timbre, shopworn standards like "I Get a Kick Out of You" (with its new chord structure) and "You’re the Top" (with its new lyrics) suggest the fecund extra layers that their titles--generously interpreted--imply. As usual, Barber’s top-notch band delivers a flawless performance. If the arrangements lean a bit heavily on the sax, it’s because one doesn’t record with Chris Potter and not give the guy some breathing room. "I asked Chris if he ever plays schmaltzy," Barber explains. "He said no, but he could if I wanted him to." And so he does, not least on "The New Year’s Eve Song," the album’s closer and one of three Barber originals included here. Despite the self-admitted "hubris" involved in including her own material amidst this most canonical set list, the gamble pays off (check out the incomparable "Snow"). Since Patricia Barber has never been interested in mere nostalgia anyway, the result is an album that--although it looks at first glance like a relaxing sinecure--packs all the daring, velvet punch that Barber fans have to come to expect. And (more importantly) to trust. --Jason Kirk

Customer Rating:
Summary: One of America's Finest Artists
Comment: I thought 2006's "Mythologies" was one of the most creative "jazz" recordings ever, and one of the best c.d.'s of that year. When I heard that Ms. Barber was going from that Guggenheim-funded project to a c.d. of Cole Porter covers, I thought, "Huh?"

But in a weird sort of way, it makes sense. Say what you will about Patricia Barber: this is an artist who pushes the envelope. And discovering how to make new and fresh an idea that has been done a thousand times before is, in its own way, a creative challenge.

And Patricia Barber succeeds. Here's why:

In previous recordings, I've noted that Patricia Barber is like a singing Mrs. Robinson - one who sings with a detached cool that masks a profound amount of emotion. Here, she lets the emotion out.

Check out the broad romance of "Late Afternoon and You." Consider the breathless wonder of "C'est Magnifique." Or listen to the intense forboding of "Get Out of Town." Or the bitter, clenched-teeth delivery of "Miss Otis Regrets." Throughout, Ms. Barber consistently finds the right tone for each of these songs, and performs them artistically.

An admiring word, as well, regarding her main and long-time instrumentalist, guitarist Michael Arnopol. As he demonstrated on "White World" on both the "Mythologies" and the "Fortnight in France" recordings, this man can be the fastest guitarist since John McLaughlin. But here, throughout he sublimates the ego and plays to the musical settings which Ms. Barber has created. It's not that he can't play dazzlingly: check out what he does on "What Is This Thing Called Love?" It's that first and foremost, he plays musically.

Is Patricia Barber one of the finest singers around? I have others I prefer. Is she one of the finest pianists around? I have others I prefer (though she does some of her best work ever on "In the Still of the Night").

But is she one of the finest artists around? Indubitably, and that's what it's all about. "Mythologies" was one of my favorite recordings of 2006; and likewise, this one for 2008. RC

(p.s. - my bad. The wonderful guitarist here and in the other recordings is actually Neal Alger. Michael Arnopol is Ms. Barber's wonderful and long-time bassist. RC)

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Patricia Barber Scores Again
Comment: Another wonderful jazz r5ecording by the very t5alented Patricia Barber. I have enjoyed many of her previous releases and this is added to my top jazz recordings. Her arrangements are creative and capture the soul of the music.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not impressed.
Comment: With all the critical hype I thought this CD would be better. I listened a couple of times but didn't like the songs or the arrangements so I don't play it anymore.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Intriguing and fascinating.
Comment: If any more proof were needed of the timelessness of Cole Porter's sublime melodies and sophisticated lyrics, then this atmospheric new release by Patricia Barber is it.
Cole Porter was famously touchy about singers embellishing his melodies or altering his lyrics in any way, so there is a slight frisson of the forbidden about the various "liberties" the singer/pianist Patricia Barber takes with some of his songs on this, an album mixing three of her own songs into a programme that contains ten of Porter's.
She doesn't have the most appealing voice, but there's a seductiveness about her sultry stylings of such classics as 'C'est Magnifique', with a suitably French treatment complete with melodica, "I Concentrate on You" with its languorous beat.
On "You're the Top", for instance, she gives updated lyrics mentioning the late Princess of Wales, and "I Get a Kick Out of You" is reharmonised, seriously changing its tone.
It is thus paying a serious compliment to Barber to acknowledge that such changes work well in the context of an album which, while it might not please those who consider Ella Fitgerald's versions of Porter definitive, is nonetheless intriguing and absorbing for that.
Her long-time associate guitarist Neal Alger makes telling contributions throughout (his playing on "Get Out of Town" in particular bringing what Barber calls dark, 'lonely-town sounds' to what is, after all, a desperate plea) and saxophonist Chris Potter is scrabblingly urgent when he's involved.
But it is Barber herself, whether as composer of the three intense originals judiciously interspersed with the Porter material, or as lucid and imaginative pianist, or as intelligent and emotive vocal interpreter of songs that are perhaps often approached over-reverently because of the (understandable and deserved) respect listeners have for the Fitzgerald Songbook versions, who richly deserves the plaudits for this classy, thoughtful, fascinating album.
As said before, the album also included is a trio of original songs (by Barber), which could easily be mistaken for Porter numbers.
My highlights: "Easy To Love", "C'est Magnifique" and "You're The Top".
Have a pleasant, intelligent listening experience.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, Vol. 2
Sings Cole Porter
Mythologies

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Overrated and Self-Indulgent
Comment: Despite the inclusion of accomplished musicians, the approach to the singing is affected and disconnected. To my ears, it's all self-conscious performance and fake emotion. Why take on Porter if you're not going to deliver the lyric with real, distilled feeling? This music speaks for itself. It doesn't need any attempt at drama, no matter how laid back. Kind of a Jane Monheit-type delivery. All hype, no gut.

---