About

In 2005-06 Patricia Barber premieres a brilliant song cycle. Entitled Mythologies, both lyrics and music were written by Barber with the aid of a prestigious year-long Guggenheim grant for Composition. Each song is a character portrait drawn from the timeless stories of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and modernized, becoming commentaries on our own times. “Orpheus,” god of music, is a widower who laments his lost love in a sonnet set to music, his voice a guitar wailing over a funereal bass drum; “Hunger” a “thin-is-in” virago, served up as a postmodern reggae, whose craving to devour others turns into a feast of self-satisfaction.

“Morpheus,” god of dreams, is an intricate harmonic sculpture of long-breathed melody yearning for rest; “Pygmalion” is a sexy song about a lover whose will to possess is stronger than hers to resist. The other characters include the Moon, Oedipus, Icarus, Phaeton, the Hours, and Narcissus. Ten songs in all, Mythologies is arranged for Patricia with small jazz ensemble and runs for about 75 minutes.

The first song in the cycle, "Whiteworld" (Oedipus), recorded on Barber’s recent Live: A Fortnight in France has already garnered critical acclaim and a popular mandate as audiences shout for the song to be performed in encores.

Mythologies, an utterly original statement, promises to make a stunning intervention into the history of jazz, fusing the genre with classical new music and a range of pop and world idioms in Barber’s inimitably personal voice. This is jazz on the frontier, the music the critics are buzzing about. It is music people will be talking about for a long time to come. – Press Release

"(A) dark sense of humor mingling with a bright musicality." - Downbeat

"Barber, for my money the single most interesting female American jazz singer on the contemporary scene, has remained an uncompromisingly brilliant innovator." - Jazztimes

Features:

• Half-Speed Production and Mastering by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
• Specially Plated and Pressed on 180 grams of High Definition Vinyl
• Special Static Free - Dust Free Inner Sleeve
• Heavy Duty Protective Packaging
• Mastered from the Original Master Tapes

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