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Pat La Barbera
After travelling 1967-74 as a featured soloist (tenor saxophone) with the Buddy Rich Big Band, he made his home in 1974 in Toronto, where he has worked in local jazz clubs, big bands, and studio orchestras. In 1975 he joined the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, maintaining the association (with intermittent breaks) through the 1980s. He has toured Europe and Japan with both Rich and Jones, and South America with Jones.
LaBarbera began teaching at Humber College in 1976, at York University in 1985, and at the University of Toronto in 1986. He has also taught privately, at the Banff SFA Jazz Workshop 1977-80 and 1987-8, and at McMaster University 1986-8. In 1977 he became an instructor at the Jamey Abersold summer jazz camps held on US university campuses and in the late 1980s taught at similar camps in Canada. He has also served widely as a clinician and adjudicator - eg, for MusicFest Canada.
LaBarbera has played a major role in the development of a generation of Canadian saxophonists. His pupils have included Ron Allen, Rob Bonisolo, Ralph Bowen, Alex Dean, Vern Dorge, Ken Fornetran, Jeff Johnson, Kirk MacDonald, Mike Murley, Mike Sim, Roy Styffe, and Perry White. He wrote a monthly woodwind instruction column 1980-4 for Canadian Musician.
His own playing is in the style of John Coltrane, extended by an encyclopaedic knowledge of improvisational theory and personalized by a certain lyrical sensibility. LaBarbera's quartet (with the pianist George McFetridge and others) has appeared frequently in Toronto clubs, where he has also been heard with the trumpeter Sam Noto and alongside such visiting US musicians as Red Rodney and Chet Baker. In 1989 he toured in Ireland at the head of the Irish quartet Four in One. Several of his compositions (eg, Necessary Evil, October's Child, Minor Blues, Familiar Ground) have been recorded by Elvin Jones.
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John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard
by Jack Bowers
Composer/arranger John La Barbera has been at the top of his game for more than half a century, and Grooveyard is simply another example of his undiminished artistry. Besides arranging everything--superbly, as always--La Barbera wrote six of the session's ten charming songs, escorting other treasures by Carl Perkins, Dave Brubeck, Curtis Fuller and Elvin Jones. As he writes his handsome and colorful big-band charts, La Barbera is always careful to observe Rule No. 1: they have to ...
read moreThe John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The geometry, if you will, of a terrific big band recording is such that the three major elements--the players, the arrangements, and the performance--balance in every regard. Grooveyard from the John La Barbera Big Band is such an offering. The album features ten masterfully selected, arranged, and performed selections, each containing outstanding section, solo, and ensemble playing. Wes Montgomery's Grooveyard" launches a hip, swinging first course in which tenor man Pat La Barbera and guitarist Brandon Coleman ...
read moreShannon Gunn: On A Mountain
by Pierre Giroux
Leave it to Canadian record producer and tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds to discover a hidden gem of an album. Vocalist Shannon Gunn recorded On A Mountain in May 2001 but it languished unreleased until now. Backed by a stellar group of both Canadian and US musicians such as pianist Renee Rosnes, drummer Billy Drummond, bassist Neil Swainson, trumpeter Brad Turner, tenor saxophonist Pat Labarbera and percussionist Rick Lazar, it is an eclectic mix of Gunn originals, and other numbers that ...
read moreShannon Gunn: On A Mountain
by Dan Bilawsky
Across the years, vocalist Shannon Gunn's raison d'être was the stage. A mainstay of the Canadian jazz scene for several decades, both as an influential educator and performer, she staked her claim in front of countless audiences and acquired plenty of admirers in the process. But when this respected musician passed away in July of 2020, there was little left behind to document the kind of beauty she delivered on a regular basis. Gunn never released an album under her ...
read moreRichard Whiteman: Very Well & Good
by Edward Blanco
One of the finest jazz musicians on the Canadian jazz scene, Toronto-based pianist / bassist Richard Whiteman lays down what he considers, perhaps, his best recording to date on the audacious Very Well & Good. A long established pianist for decades, Whiteman picked up the double bass in 2004 and has not put it down since. On this sparkling album the pianist performs on the double bass, leaving the keys to Amanda Tosoff, and presents nine of his best compositions ...
read morePat LaBarbera Kirk MacDonald Quintet: Trane of Thought, Live at the Rex
by Jack Bowers
Sometimes the name of an album can be a dead giveaway. Clearly, tenors Pat La Barbera and Kirk MacDonald, the co-leaders of this admirable quintet from north of the border, are enthusiastic admirers and champions of the late great saxophonist John Coltrane. Disciples, yes, but leagues away from slavish imitators. LaBarbera and MacDonald have strong and vibrant voices of their own, which come through loud and clear on Trane of Thought, an exemplary and well-received concert date recorded at the ...
read morePat LaBarbera Kirk MacDonald Quartet with Adam Nussbaum & Kieran Overs: Silent Voices
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The oxymoronic title of Silent Voices belies and simultaneously validates interesting things about this recording. Far from silent in its artistic message, it is an intelligent, evocative, and brilliantly communicative effort. Its voices" dominate, ring loud, and are intensely passionate. Most stentorian, they emanate from deep within the respective creative wellsprings of these four superior performers. Pat LaBarbera and Kirk MacDonald, both esteemed woodwind men (and colleague professors at Toronto's Humber College), show that their respective jazz ...
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Grooveyard
From: GrooveyardBy Pat La Barbera