Patricia Barber - Higher

The Absolute Sound rated 5/5 Music, 5/5 Sonics in the May/June 2021 issue!

Stereophile Magazine Recording Of The Month!

180-gram 45 RPM double LP

Stereo and surround sound mixed at Skywalker Sound!

Mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk New York from engineer Jim Anderson's original DXD (32 bit/392.8 kHz) files

Cut at 45 RPM to bring out every incredible sonic detail!

Deluxe gatefold jacket and 16-page booklet with spot gloss coating, new session photos and essays and notes from Robert Baird and the creative team

"Listeners have come to expect surprises from singer-pianist-songwriter Barber, who's in residence Monday nights at the Green Mill when she's not on tour. But 'Higher' pushes against convention more boldly than even Barber's more ardent fans might have anticipated, particularly in the song cycle at the heart of this recording, 'Angels, Birds and I ...' The long-gestating work distills Barber's art to its essence, expressing hope, desire, grief and more in meticulously crafted melody and lyrics, and exquisitely ambiguous harmony. A tour de force in all regards." — Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

At High End Munich in 2019, the world's largest audio show, a special event was held. It was a preview of what Merging Technologies calls "a remarkable album" — singer, pianist, and composer Patricia Barber's latest music project Higher. Barber is a veteran of the Chicago Jazz scene and has received rave reviews of her albums in the audiophile world for many years. The preview at High End Munich provided the invited listeners with a rare opportunity to hear the album in its recorded DXD resolution in Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

This 180-gram 45 RPM LP edition contains the complete Higher song cycles plus three great standards and a special bonus track of "The Opera Song" with noted lylric soprano Katherine Werbiansky.

"Throughout my career as a singer, pianist, and songwriter, I've been pushing the boundaries of songwriting," Barber says. "I've recently been drawn to writing songs that combine lyrical poetry with a rich harmonic language, pulling from classical music as well as the circumscribed system of harmony in jazz and classic American song. Shulamit Ran, composer, friend, and mentor, has been instrumental in teaching me how to access a limitless harmonic vista. This album features 'Angels, Birds, and I...,' a new song cycle that portrays this musical adventure, pushing the frontiers of my songwriting all the way into art song. I'm happy to say that classical singers as well as jazz singers are performing these songs."

"I feel very much that this album is a manifestation of my hard-won harmonic evolution." Barber continues her blending of classical and modern idioms, both musical and lyrical, into a hybrid that plays to the best of both: classically-oriented with room to improvise and expand.

Musicians:
Patricia Barber, piano, voice
Patrick Mulcahy, bass
Jon Deitemyer, drums
Neal Alger, acoustic guitar
Jim Gailloreto, tenor saxophone
Katherine Werbiansky, lyric soprano

Side A

1. Muse (Barber)

2. Surrender (Barber)

3. Pallid Angel (Barber)

Side B

1. The Opera Song (Barber)

2. High Summer Season (Barber)

3. The Albatross Song (Barber)

Side C

1. Voyager (Barber)

2. Higher (Barber)

3. Early Autumn (Mercer, Burns, Herman)

Side D

1. In Your Own Sweet Way (Brubeck)

2. Secret Love (Francis, Frain)

3. The Opera Song (Barber)

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