JOE BARBIERI
In Parole Povere
(Le Pop)
Italian singer/songwriter Joe Barbieri’s songs might pass by unnoticed in a fancy coffee shop. The tunes, the players, the after-hours mood -- it’s all very professional but not immediately impressive. Then Barbieri pours his whisper-to-a-croon voice on these songs and suddenly he’s on to something.
A piano/bass/guitar combo provide the major backing for In Parole Povere, with trumpet and strings ornamenting some tunes. Barbieri’s arrangements leave so much space that hardly a chord appears throughout the opener, “In Questo Preciso Momento.”
The French café number “Pura Ambra” defines Povere by letting an accordion, cello and acoustic guitar try to out-melancholy each other, only to be upstaged by Barbieri’s heavy-lidded delivery.
The Typing Monkey recently fired our Italian translator, so we’re unable to tell you exactly what Mr. Barbieri is singing about. But we’re not sure we want to know. Words a non-native speaker might understand could ruin the experience.
Instead, foreign ears can embrace the tragic romance tone of “Sono Una Grondaia” or the prayer-like “La Nuda Verità.” Near the end, Barbieri increases the tempo with “Microcosmo,” an almost-bossa nova that suggests the meter with brushed drums and flute.
“Leggera” and “Sia” commit the sin of sounding like the kind of ear pudding responsible for the jeers leveled at lite-jazz radio. But again, that’s where Barbieri’s exchange-student charm keeps him from trouble.
Reference materials: In an espresso and Gauloises-induced bout of cinematic ennui, perhaps you’ve wished that your M. Ward and João Gilberto albums could produce an Italian-singing hybrid? Joe Barbieri should do the trick.
