Chicago Jazz Magazine presents the November 2018 feature interview with Blue Note recording artist Patricia Barber. Chicago Jazz Magazine founder, Mike Jeffers, talks with Patricia about her early years growing up in Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, studying phycology in college and then following her passion for music and moving back to Chicago to start her career.
The discussion leads to her years at the famed Gold Star Sardine Bar in Chicago where she performed 6 nights a week to a packed house while building her name and developing her musical concepts. They discuss her recording contract with Premonition Records and selling over 120,000 copies of her album Modern Cool which lead to the follow up recording Nightclub that attracted the attention of Blue Note Records where she signed in 1999 and has been ever since.
Throughout the conversation Barber elaborates on starting out in Chicago, sticking to her core beliefs of playing in her own voice, turning down opportunities that would have compromised her creativity, her concepts and process for writing her original music, thoughts for up and coming musicians, her new recording coming out in 2019 and much more.
We hope you enjoy the November 2018 feature interview with Patricia Barber.
Watch the Full Interview with Patricia Barber
Listen to the Full Interview on Podcast
Visit PatriciaBarber.com for tour dates, releases and more
Patricia Barber performs Monday Nights at 9pm at the Green Mill
FEATURED SECTIONS
2:25 - New Recording Project
4:51 - At 26 years old she started the habit of saving money
8:52 - Playing in the suburbs of Chicago and getting fired
10:09 - Growing up in Chicago, Iowa, Nebraska
12:35 - Deciding to be a jazz musician
15:41 - Creating your own gig
21:23 - Bill Allen and the Gold Star Sardine Bar
27:14 - Learning and experimenting with jazz standards
31:48 - The legendary fights with Bill Allen at the Gold Star Sardine Bar
33:06 - Getting fired for playing Gershwin
37:15 - Richard Seidel from Polygram called
38:47 - Mike Friedman from Premonition
45:40 - Starting to write lyrics and analyzing songwriters
54:35 - Talking to Dave Jemilo and starting the Green Mill Gig
1:05:00 - Performing with Renée Fleming
1:08:20 - The importance of having consistency in a band
