Patricia Barber - The Cole Porter Mix

Jul 1 2008 By Jack Daniels

(Blue Note)

DIANA Krall may steal all the headlines but Chicago jazz songbird Patricia Barber sends shivers down your spine.

Here, her seductive vocal and piano stretch solos are used to full effect in updating the Cole Porter songbook.

Easy To Love acquires a bossa nova beat, C’est Magnifique is gruffly Gallic (Barber sang it before she warmed up her vocal cords to get the tonsil twist), and What Is This Thing Called Love is a lower register lesson in jazz cool.

Best is the lonely Get Out Of Town, transformed by Neal Alger’s dark, almost ominous, mean city reverb guitar treatment.