There is some good news for jazz fans out there. Vocalist, pianist, songwriter Patricia Barber and her jazz trio will bring her music at 8 p.m. tonight to Schwab Auditorium in a free concert sponsored by the Penn State Jazz Club.

Chicago-based musician Barber is touring in promotion of the sixth recording of her 20-year career, nightclub. Her performance promises to be a golden opportunity for students who have never really been introduced to jazz music before.

I started listening to two of Barber's albums roughly 72 hours ago and already consider myself a fan.

Barber comes from a long musical history. She was first taught piano at the age of six by her father, saxophonist Floyd "Shim" Barber, who played a few times with the legendary Glenn Miller band. She grew up in the Midwest before studying classical piano and psychology at the University of Iowa. A year after graduation, Barber moved to Chicago to play jazz, and said she "had a horrible time for a few years," until she got started playing piano five nights a week at the Gold Star Sardine Bar. She quickly developed a following, which only grew when she moved to the Green Mill, a club in the center of the Chicago jazz scene.

With her fourth album modern cool, Barber made Billboard's Top 10 jazz list and embarked on her first major tour throughout the U.S. and Canada. She has promoted Nightclub extensively throughout Europe and the U.S. The album has a special ability to make the listener feel as if he or she were looking in on a nightclub scene in Chicago, a city known for its jazz clubs. Barber's creative control is responsible for that. This album, co-released by her small Chicago-based label Premonition and her distributor Blue Note allows her recording freedoms.

"I was the one who had to stop the artist from doing another take, because the first take was more sincere," Barber said.

Hopefully, during her first Central Pennsylvania appearance tonight, students will feel transported to her Chicago roots and to her favorite performance space — a nightclub. Barber will be performing at Schwab Auditorium with her trio that includes bassist Michael Arnopol and drummer Mark Walker.

Of her album Barber said, "I wanted it to sound the way it would in a nightclub."

It does.