Patricia Barber - Companion (2003) [SACD]

In 1998, after releasing several critically lauded but commercially underperforming CDs, Chicago vocalist Patricia Barber struck a resonating chord with Modern Cool. Barber alternated a throaty vocal delivery and a more refined, stately approach to singing as she traipsed through genres with a strong, unconventional band that played to her strengths. More than anything, Modern Cool delivered an eloquent snapshot of what Barber would be like on stage, and now its follow-up, Companion, comes along to show off her chops in a live setting. Barber elected an old-time jazz approach to the live album, picking Chicago's Green Mill, a favorite haunt and home base for her, and let the tapes roll for a few shows in July of 1998. What you get is very much like Modern Cool: touches of pop turned to artsy poetry--in a most convincing way--on Sonny Bono's "The Beat Goes On" and a delightedly curve-ball reading of "Black Magic Woman," the Peter Green tune made famous by Santana. And then there are Barber originals, which she sends off expertly with piano and splashes of rough guitar paint and a whole-group clatter that's indicative of both the leader and her band's intimacy with these tunes. Like Cassandra Wilson and myriad others stretching the jazz singer's palette, Barber has made a deep cut in the tradition, without turning off any lovers of the traditional jazz lyric. -- Andrew Bartlett