Photo By Jammi York

Customer Reviews

20 Feb 2013
By Maureen Published on Amazon.com
An album of exquisite beauty from the finest jazz female singer/songwriter. Sublime patterns of words and music that transcends the fragmented perspectives of love and emotion. 

31 Jan 2013
By David Alexander - Published on Amazon.com
I think that I own everything that Patricia Barber has ever recorded. In my opinion this is her finest effort yet. If you only buy one Patricia Barber album in your life, this is the one that you should get. Wonderful lyrics, beautifully sung, and the music really soars. For those who care about such things, the sound quality is absolutely flawless. If you are already a fan, don’t hesitate, you will love it.

8 Feb 2013
By gwaynez - Published on Amazon.com
Patricia Barber is one of my two favorite musicians, the other being Leonard Cohen. She’s that good. Smash is an outstanding piece of work. Like most of her albums, I didn’t fall in love with it on first listen, but it has grown on me considerably with each subsequent spin. Although Patricia Barber is usually categorized as a jazz musician and Concord is certainly thought of as a jazz label, the music on Smash defies any simplistic classification. The majority of the album is not what I think of as jazz in any traditional sense of the word. Smash has many moments that blend jazz with rock, hard rock, pop, and even dance. And rest assured there are many exceptionally nice piano, guitar, bass, and drum passages sprinkled throughout. Smash is also an amalgam of tempos with about 50% being slow, 25% fast, and the remainder somewhere in between. The quality of the sound is about as good as it gets on redbook CDs. Of the 12 tracks, there is really only one that didn’t float my boat, which is Romanesque, the shortest track. But the rest of the album I really like, and at least two tracks are flat out superb: Devil’s Food and Bashful (the latter being the only 100% instrumental track on the album).

26 Feb 2013
By ROGER L. FOREMAN - Published on Amazon.com
Patricia Barber is my favorite female vocalist (don’t tell Cassandra Wilson…). I jumped on the bandwagon with Modern Cool, worked my way back through her earlier CDs and have been on board for everything subsequent. I judge this work only as it stacks up to her other albums, since it just isn’t fair to judge her by her “peers,” such as they are. While I love her songwriting (”Touch of Trash,” “Winter,” “What a Shame”) it is partly because those songs don’t have to stand by themselves in a larger setting. I miss her alternative takes on established melodies, lyrics, moods and styles (”The Beat Goes On,” “Light My Fire,” “Norwegian Wood”), because they work so well with her originals. I don’t particularly want just one or the other. If I had to choose one format over the other, I’d take The Cole Porter Mix over Verse, but I’d really miss Mythologies. So why not throw “Too Rich For My Blood” right after “Ode to Billy Joe” (Cafe Blue)? Or “Black Magic Woman” after “If This Isn’t Jazz” (Companion)? Or “She’s a Lady” following “Let It Rain” (Modern Cool)? While I like “Code Cool,” “The Wind Song,” “Scream,” and “Bashful,” I also want a shot of “The Beat Goes On,” “You & the Night & the Music,” “The Thrill Is Gone,” or even “My Funny Valentine” or “Autumn Leaves.”

Don’t make me choose….

Press Reviews

“The album, a brilliant collection of original songs, all dispatched with Barber’s famously voluptuous voice and steeped in her atmospheric instrumental settings, marks a major step forward for one of the most significant jazz artists to come out of Chicago in the past two decades or more. These songs, often ambiguous in meaning but extremely seductive in tone, crystallize the high craft of Barber’s writing while inspiring unorthodox arrangements and often wizardly solo pianism.” - Chicago Tribune

“Barber’s clear, relaxed singing and understated but expressive piano playing continue to offer a winning mix of warmth and cool…their dreamy nuances reward your attention.” * * * (out of four) - USA Today

“Conspicuously literate and restlessly inventive” - The New Yorker

“Both musically and lyrically, the 12 original tracks on the new disc showcase an artist in fine form. In addition to being a compellingly eclectic tunesmith, Barber remains, as ever, a poetic, exacting lyricist…among the best albums released in recent months.” - Jazziz.com

“Barber has an arresting vocal instrument that she controls beautifully. She can sing softly or powerfully - whatever is needed for the material - and her compositions are more like paintings than songs…Smash is an interesting offering from a talented artist managing to create her own musical genre.” - The New York City Jazz Record

“Smash is an extraordinary achievement. Here, jazz is popular music without being anything other than itself. Its depth, creativity, searing poetry, and artisan musicianship make it a peerless accomplishment.” 4 Stars - All Music

“Smash is resoundingly adult, intelligent and best of all, musically absorbing.” ****1/2 - ICON Monthly

“Hot? Yes. Filled with many surprises both lyrically and musically? Yes. These are songs about love, loss, anger and pain. There’s a tune about gay marriage with a solid disco vamp in the middle and the title track is particularly visceral, closing with a searing rock guitar solo. The musical proficiency is high here but the levels of emotional intensity and inventiveness are even higher.” ***** - Daily News (McKeesport, PA)

“Patricia Barber’s fans get a kick out of hearing the dusky-voiced singer-pianist wade neck-deep in arch romanticism, and she’s found a way to make cocktail music that’s as fetching as it is strange.” - Time Out Chicago

“…be it love, loss or satire, no one among active jazz performers melds notes and words with the powerful fragility, the delicate incision, the brazen honesty of Patricia Barber. As a pianist and vocalist, she is a force to be reckoned with. As a songwriter, she is pure devastation…Smash is not an album to take you down, but a cycle of songs that remind you that there’s life within pain, stubborn hope within loss, beauty in darkness. And a bright future for the art of jazz singing and songwriting. Patricia Barber has plenty more to say.” - Jazz Police

“When I listen to Patricia Barber sing, I think of her not so much as a jazz singer than as a poet reciting her work, with the depth and feeling that only the originator of that work can deliver. A poet who happens to be a technically polished pianist, a clever arranger and bandleader. OK, so it’s perhaps more accurate to state that she’s a great poet who is also a legitimate musician. Kind of astonishing when you consider there are scant few these days who are so good at both anywhere near the field of jazz.”
- Something Else!

“Once again, Barber has taken the road not just less traveled, but far less traveled.” - WNCT-TV

“Musical ideas that defy categorization.” - Audiophile Audition

“Smash is a delight for any jazz fan. Patricia Barber is one of the best jazz singers to come along in the last twenty years, and her latest release shows why. Fans of Patricia Barber will not be disappointed with this release. While anybody outside the jazz world will probably not be able to appreciate this album, individuals who enjoy jazz music will indeed enjoy Patricia Barber, and will want to own this album. With Smash, Patricia Barber smashes this one out of the park.” - MuzikReview.com

“This is a modern jazz masterpiece and already a potential album of the year” - Shakenstir

“One of the best vocal recordings for 2013…Barber’s Smash accomplishes what every artist should set out to accomplish and does so with cutting edge honesty and raw emotion.” - @CriticalJazz