Patricia Barber Quotes

I have a good life. I have nothing to complain about, and the music is just too interesting.

All music now, I think, is fair game for jazz musicians to interpret, and they have been. I would consider those songs standards now. "Norwegian Wood" is a standard; "Call Me" is a standard.

I am a fan of the compositions of The Beatles, but I don't care for their interpretation of them. But as compositions, I just think that some of them are brilliant and have become standards.

I must say, I don't think there's any more challenging music out there in jazz than what we're doing.

Something special can happen late at night in a jazz club. As the crowd thins, the musicians intuitively sense that those few who have stayed, have stayed for a reason. A reciprocity of need and desire inspires the musicians to dig as deeply into their talent and souls as they are able. This mysterious and transformative confluence of events rarely happens in concert. It is the province of the nightclub.

I think I started to come into my own when I started doing more original material, and that, I think, culminated in 1998's Modern Cool. I insisted on going my own way. I think until you're more prolific, people don't trust that. So at first I think it was harder. They didn't know what to think, but as I continued along that path, they generally came my way.

I would like to have people hear dissonance, but I don't want it to be so off-putting that they never get there to begin with. That's actually how I hear it; that's what's pleasant to me. I don't like dense, chaotic dissonance. My brain gets lost. I need something to hang onto.

Jon Deitemyer is the drummer everyone wants right now.

Music chooses her musicians.

As soon as I sat down to write music, really, with Café Blue. I just can't think about that when I sit down to write. I don't let myself. I actually don't allow myself to look at sales figures. Ever. I get the general impression that I'm not selling like Norah Jones, but I don't really pay too much attention, because I think it would corrupt me.