Patricia Barber performed at Schwab Auditorium Friday night promoting her newest album, Nightclub, a recording of standard jazz favorites, but there was nothing standard about Barber's concert.

Barber and her trio transformed the auditorium ambience into the Chicago nightclub scene that has been her home throughout her 20-year career. The audience was not only somewhere far away from Schwab, but they also witnessed a true artist in her element. She and her trio walked unassumingly onto the stage about 10 minutes late, and she simply sat down at the piano. After tuning and fiddling with the piano bench, it was almost a surprise when she started to play "Just for a Thrill." We were enthralled.

Regina Minniss had driven from Baltimore for the concert.

"I was listening to CDs at Barnes & Noble, when I saw her album on the wall. So I pulled it off just to sample it," Minniss said before the concert. "She really struck me as different."

Minniss' words proved to be prophetic. Barber played every song as if it were her own composition. Barber's audience sensed her genuine appreciation of the music. When it came time for her other band members to play their instrumental solo, it was almost as if she were another audience member enjoying their part of the show. There was no grandstanding or catering to her audience. She was there just to play music.

"I liked seeing all her little idiosyncrasies," said Caio Moraes Rego (freshman-economics and political theory).

Moraes Rego was referring to the expression of intense concentration on Barber's face during her playing, and her nervous hand movements when the piano didn't require her attention. Her voice is a perfect instrument in itself, but the piano is where she seems to feel the most at home. Without it, she is a constant range of motion, something akin to separation anxiety.

Akshay Sawhney (senior-Web design and development), the president of the Penn State Jazz Club who was responsible for this event, said he had a recurring thought throughout her performance: "The words of her music requires an emotional vocabulary. You can't be an indifferent listener."

In one word Sawhney gave an appropriate description of the show, "fabulous."