Patricia Barber Clique Hybrid 5.1 Multi-Channel & Stereo SACD

Selections:

1. This Town
2. Trouble Is a Man
3. Mashup
4. One Note Samb
5. I Could Have Danced All Night
6. The In Crowd
7. Shall We Dance
8. Straight, No Chaser
9. All is Fair in Love

Produced by PATRICIA BARBER and JIM ANDERSON

Recorded and mixed by JIM ANDERSON

2022 Grammy Award Nominee:
Best Immersive Audio Album

Rated 5/5 Music, 5/5 Sonics in the December 2021 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

The Absolute Sound Editor’s Choice Album Pick 2021!

NATIVE DSD Album of the Year 2021 – Vocals!

HI-FI- NEWS Album Choice, January 2022!

“…Very transparent. There’s a lot of fine detail and the space is very real…There is a sense of physicality and the sound quality sounds very good…Brilliant.”

“Clique! is an exceptional recording; one of those rare events where all elements of the creative process amalgamate to yield a record of perfect performances and technical brilliance.”
-Tom Gibbs, Positive Feedback

The harmonic language of jazz, as well as that of the Great American Songbook, is certainly rich – look how much has come out of it – but it’s circumscribed. I started wanting to hear something else.
-Patricia Barber

Flying by at 45 minutes, Patricia Barber’s new album is everything I want when a great vocalist rethinks songs that have been covered over and over. Daring, rhythmic, warming, exciting, and immediately accessible… This luscious album is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
-Tony Frankel, stageandcinema.com

These time-honored songs, lovingly curated, arranged, and performed by pianist/vocalist Patricia Barber and her band, are at last seeing the light of day when the world needs them more than ever. Pristinely recorded, Clique! assembles what began as encores to live performances into an experience all its own.
-JazzBluesNews

While [Clique!] still has everything that makes a Patricia Barber album all her own, her singing style, piano playing, phrasing, and arranging, it has an undeniable sense of coolness and a consistent infectious groove that just grabs you and doesn’t let go. Yes, the songs are all recognizable standards, but Patricia Barber handily takes them and makes each her own while still keeping it all sounding appealing and approachable for an admitted jazz neophyte like myself… The sound quality is superb with an excellent sense of body and detail that has been captured in her vocals along with the ringing and decay of her piano notes that sounds just right. Throughout the album, the acoustic bass sounds fantastic with a visceral impact to the notes and plenty of string detail in the plucks. But putting all the sound-geekery aside for a moment, just listening to Clique! on any good-sounding system or pair of headphones is a really joyous experience. The music itself is absolutely top-shelf and I highly recommend checking it out.
-Carlo Lo Raso, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

This is Barber’s first collection of standards since 2000 with Nightclub, to my ears a ‘concept’ album in the classic Sinatra mold, the songs untied by shared themes and moods. In Clique!, however, as the liner notes suggest, ‘The sources are all over the map,’ from the mean streets of ‘This Town’ to the exuberant romanticism of ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ to the laidback cool of ‘One Note Samba’ (sung in Portuguese), to two kinds of heartbreak in ‘Trouble Is A Man’ and ‘All in Love Is Fair’ (sung with a depth of feeling that eludes even the song’s creator). Two sensational numbers are instrumental only, with Barber’s pianism never more assured and imaginative, her colleagues matching her every step of the way, and Jim Anderson’s sonics state of the art. Recommended with highest enthusiasm.
-Paul Seydor, The Absolute Sound, December 2021, Music 5/5, Sonics 5/5

“Anderson’s recordings render every inflection of Barber’s voice with such presence and clarity, perfectly complementing her art which is so defined by nuance and shading.”
-Positive Feedback

A must listen [full of] engineering prowess, amazing vocals, and excellent musicians.”
-Part-Time Audiophile

“Barber is one of the most important forces in the evolving idiom of jazz.”
-Jazz.fm

“Patricia Barber’s Clique is without a doubt the finest-sounding digital music file in my library of over 3,000 albums.”
-Tom Gibbs, Copper Magazine (PS Audio)

“Perceptive, intellectually hones, and, at times, compellingly dark…undeniably and unpretentiously cool.”
-WRTI, Jazz Album of the Week 

“From its Sensurround production to its sympathetic, intuitive musicianship, Clique! is as deliciously offbeat as any of Barber’s magnetic all-original displays.”
-JazzTimes

“Enthralling, vulnerable, and ethereal [with a] classic feel.”
-Salon

“[Barber’s] tender approach to the lyrics comes juxtaposed with the fiery edge of her piano playing, in signature Barber fashion.”
-WBGO

“Timeless.”
-WNYC (Sunday New Standards)

“Legendary.”
–WGN

“Excellent.”
-Stereophile

I started [testing the B&O Beolab speaker system -ED] with Patricia Barber’s “Trouble Is a Man,” from Clique (24-bit/352kHz FLAC, Impex Records/Qobuz; downsampled by Roon to 24/44.1 for Chromecast streaming). This track from her superbly recorded album of jazz standards sounded wonderful through the Beolabs. On the right side of the soundstage, Patrick Mulcahy’s double-bass plucks were crisp and well defined, without being exaggerated, and were followed by extended woody decays. However, the lowest notes sounded a little thuddy and indistinct. Through the Beolabs, every piece of Jon Deitemyer’s drum kit sounded ideal. His floor tom had great palpability; taps on the wood block were fast and crisp, and you could really hear its woodiness; and the cymbals had wonderful metallic shimmer, with no splashiness whatsoever.
-Gordon Brockhouse, SoundStage!