Creative, compelling imagination

Dedicated musical artists create their own environments, unaffected by anything beyond their own creative imaginations. From a listener’s point of view, encountering such a determinedly expressive inner view can be a compellingly illuminating experience -- but only for those willing to surrender to the artist’s spontaneous flow of ideas and images.

Patricia Barber’s opening set at Catalina on Thursday was a case in point. Arriving on a crest of interest in her critically praised album “Verse,” she was greeted by an audience seemingly eager to hear some of the collection’s brilliantly crafted original songs.

But Barber was in a mood to display her piano playing and the remarkable cohesiveness of her musical partners -- guitarist Neil Alger, bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Eric Montzka -- in a more far-ranging set of material. The results were extraordinary, the compelling product of a passionate musical imagination.

Barber’s delightful take on Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” for example, began with an intensely focused piano solo, dancing the melody through a series of piquant variations before turning it over to each of the other players. Her intimate vocal rendering of the classic Mercer-Raksin movie theme “Laura” captured both the mystery and the romance of the haunting theme. And the extended improvising in virtually every tune underscored an instrumental skill not always acknowledged even by Barber’s most supportive fans.

Listeners eager to hear songs from “Verse” were finally rewarded with a few tunes, most notably the marvelously metaphoric “I Could Eat Your Words.” But Barber’s variegated program was about much more than a single album -- it was about an artist coming into the full blossoming of her creativity.

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Patricia Barber

Where: Catalina Bar & Grill,

1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood

When: Tonight, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.

Ends: Tonight

Price: $22-$25, with

two-drink minimum

Contact: (323) 466-2210