Tune In Saturday Online for Patricia Barber

Idiosyncratic jazz singer, pianist, and hometown gal Patricia Barber, a mainstay at the Green Mill jazz club in Uptown, takes advantage of online technology by performing and streaming a show this Saturday night from Northwestern University's Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Not only is it Barber, whose silky, smokey tone, offbeat phrasing, and heady approach to jazz standards, pop covers, and her own compositions have made her a darling of critics and generated a rabid following, but she's playing at Pick-Staiger, one of the most acoustically sound venues in the Chicago area.

Barber is a patient singer and pianist, telling the story the song tells her. She takes her time and, as the live recording of "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) shows, it's a different tale than Lennon and McCartney had in mind. And check out the great piano playing on "Witchcraft," making it seem like she's happy to be under the spell. Her studio recordings are crisp, moody, sultry, quiet, fun, and energetic yet they hint at a pent-up energy she's trying to contain. It's her live recordings and concerts where she lets loose. And if that's not enough to get you there, consider this: Barber is performing with pianist Kenny Werner, unveiling a new collaboration.

Tickets are still available (and for only $18 from http://www.pick-staiger.org/) so get to Evanston if you can for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime event. And if you can't make it tune in to www.pick-staiger.org/webcasts which will start streaming live at 7:20 p.m.