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Ohio-based jazz vocalist Patricia Berg has spent the last decade performing in some of Dayton's most popular upscale restaurants and jazz venues.
In February 2008, Patricia released Sweet Sorrow, her debut CD, on the local Hipgnosis record label, and will spend 2008 promoting it across the area. Sweet Sorrow assembled a host of the region's top jazz musicians, including Fenton Sparks, Brian Cashwell, Jim Leslie, Jeff Hufnagle, Marc Pequignot, Chris Slone, John Wesley Taylor, Rusty Burge, Tom Downs, Greg Dearth, Jim Masters, Tim Cummiskey, and Patricia's husband, bassist Christian Berg, as well as guest appearances by cellist Peter Thomas and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Greg Abate.
Including five original songs written by Patricia and/or Chris, Sorrow was described by jazz writer Duante Beddingfield in the Dayton City Paper as "a warm, mellow, deeply intimate collection of reflective tunes" with "almost an aching softness...like being wrapped in a cashmere blanket on a cool summer evening."
Patricia began vocal lessons at age 13 and has spent the last decade focusing primarily on jazz. She cites Ella Fitzgerald as her primary inspiration, displayed in her strong sense of melody, as well as an easy, modern swing infuenced by the likes of Jane Monheit.
Other prominent musicians Patricia has had the pleasure of working with guitarists Jamie Murrell, Brandom Brahm, and Jim Smith, pianist Charlie Parker, and late big bandleader Gardner Benedict, who was a highly influential mentor early in her career. She has performed at the Dayton Convention Center and enjoyed extended engagements at the Oregon District's Café Boulevard and The Greene Town Center's Estilo Mediterranean Grille. She has has been married for three years to (self-described) "uber-genius" Chris, who is a music professor, scientist, classical composer/arranger, and patent-holding inventor in addition to steady work as one of the region's most sought after jazz bassists.
Respected Seattle attorney and Seattle Symphony Chorale member James H. Lovell has written, "Patricia Berg has a great voice, soulful and expressive, which she uses in a manner that extracts every nuance from the songs she performs. [She] displays a keen sense of timing and lyrical emphasis that keep the listener enthralled and warmed by her singing."
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