Patricia Barber
Went to see Patricia Barber and her band at a fundraiser for the Oak Park Arts Council, and in particular its scholarships program. I had seen Barber before at her usual venue, the Green Mill. I am still somewhat divided about her music: some material is really good and innovative. I particularly like how she transforms standards, and how she can rock rather hard. Some of her stuff, on the other hand, leaves me unimpressed. But she's definitely worth watching given the opportunity.

The surprise revelation of the evening, though, was Ars Nova, a standard quintet (tenor, alto, piano, bass, drums) composed of a mix of current students of the local high school OPRF as well as former students now spread across area music programs as well as Berklee. They played a set of modern classics and were really impressive. No web site to link to, unfortunately.

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Dee Dee Bridgewater
A few weeks ago we went to see Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Jazz Showcase downtown. She performed material from her recent Grammy-nominated album J'ai deux amours covering, well, French material. The show was ok, but somewhat uninspired.

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