Whether she's breathing new life into Ovid's Metamorphoses (on her 2006 album Mythologies), paying tribute to one of her songwriting idols (on her 10th album The Cole Porter Mix), or delivering a set of sparkling originals (on her 2013 Concord Jazz debut, Smash), the US songwriter, vocalist and pianist Patricia Barber has ploughed one of the most distinctive artistic furrows in jazz. Elected to the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences earlier this year, Higher sees Barber return to the song cycle with ‘Angels, Birds and I…’, which brings together eight iridescent originals that seamlessly blend the language of jazz with the French mélodies of Debussy, Fauré and Ravel. There are paeans to music (‘Surrender’), comedic flights of fancy (‘The Albatross Song’), and philosophical musings (the beautiful title-track, dedicated to her mother), all delivered in Barber's characteristically confessional, sotto voce style. In addition to ‘Angels, Birds and I…’, the album also features the Brubeck instrumental ‘In Your Own Sweet Way’, a further brace of creatively reimagined standards (‘Early Autumn’ and ‘Secret Love’), plus the operatic soprano, Katherine Werbiansky, recapitulating ‘The Opera Song’.