Patricia Barber – Companion
- Piano, Vocals, Organ [Hammond B-3] – Patricia Barber
- Bass – Michael Arnopol
- Drums, Percussion – Eric Montzka
- Percussion – Ruben P. Alvarez (Use Me)
- Guitar – John McLean
- Recorded live at The Green Mill, Uptown Chicago July 17-19, 1999.
- Mastered By [24-bit Resolution] – Allan Tucker
I've had this CD for years, and though I'm a Patricia Barber fan, this one never really moved me. That changed last night as I was listening to my pair of Sennheiser HD700 headphones with their new Black Dragon cables from Moon Audio through my Teac UD-503 DAC connected to my Rotel RCD-1072 CD player via digital cable. I was still checking out the Black Dragon cables, but that's a story for another time.
Anyway, what a great sounding CD. I've a few XRCD discs and they all sound great, but this one is really good with some great music. The standouts here for me are the renditions of Bill Withers
Use Me, and Santana's
Black Magic Woman. The other standout is
Like JT Inspired by Jacky Terrasson.
Use Me opens with Michael Arnopol's bass play for the first minute seconds of the 6:32 minute track before Patricia's smokey voices come in along with Ruben Alverez on percussion. The track is all Michael, Patricia, and Ruben.
Like JT opens with Patricia on piano before John McLean comes in on guitar, and then the 7+ minute set it morphs into a jam session with Ruben (percussions), Eric Montzka (drums) and Michael (Bass) Closing out the last 3 minutes, John McLean (guitar) throws down with Eric on drums, before the track closes with Eric, John, and Ruben. If you're not jamming to this, something it wrong with you. LOL.
Black Magic Woman opens with Particia providing sorrowing vocals as she plays the Hammond as Michael (bass) comes in on bass followed by John (guitar) and the song progresses into a near 10-minute (9:50) session. Here Patricia's Hammond B-3 is killer. And of course, John McLean really does the song justice with his guitar play as Ruben (Percussion) backs him up followed by the bass of Michael and closing with Eric on drums. This is another one of these if you aren't moving somethings wrong. The CD closes with the MC naming the musicians of the track.
Another standout is Patricia's live version of her song Let It Rain from her Modern Cool CD. On this version its just her vocals and John McLean on guitars. BTW, there are two tracks from here Modern Cool CD - Let it Rain, and Touch of Trash. Both of which I love from the Modern Cool CD.
This entire set is great; even better that it's an XRCD disc. These discs are sonic bliss.
Peace