The Matt Barber Trio at the Grape Life Wine Store & Lounge -- May 28.
Friday, May 28, 8 p.m.
The Grape Life Wine Store & Lounge, 3402 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
Accompanied by an entire repertoire of jazz standards and iconic pop hits, a 2005 graduate of Rock Island High School returns to the Quad Cities when the Matt Barber Trio plays a live concert event at Davenport's Grape Life Wine Store & Lounge on May 28, an evening that will find Barber and his longtime touring musicians performing classics from the five albums he has recorded since 2007.
With the artists' song list boasting standards by Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, and more, the Matt Barber Trio features Barber on vocals, Twewanta Lopez on keyboard, and David Saelens on drums. Barber's father Mark was a longtime radio personality on KUUL-FM in Davenport, and helped manage Matt when he started performing during his days at Rock Island High School. In 2005, the younger Barber went on the road, playing in numerous coffee houses, cafés, and wherever he could from Los Angeles to New York City. Over the years since, Barber's music has been featured on Los Angeles jazz radio station KKJZ (KJAZZ) 88.1 FM, and he has had the honor of performing at such notable venues as The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Andy Williams’ Moon River Restaurant in Branson, and at the Illinois State Fair.
Barber recorded his album debut Romancing Nashville in 2007, following it with Love Notes from Paradise in 2009, It's Been a Merry Christmas in 2009, The Masterpiece Collection in 2011, and More Today Than Yesterday in 2015. And while Barber performs beloved standards, his repertoire also runs the gamut of musical genres, with his albums also boasting covers of everything from Barry Manilow's “Copocabana” to Judy Garland's “Over the Rainbow” to the Righteous Brother's “Unchained Melody” to Tony Bennett's “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
In addition to touring alongside Lopez and Saelens in the Matt Barber Trio, Barber has frequently performed alongside singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brother Day Kelly – famed for his work with Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and the Ray Charles Orchestra – as “The Jazz Brothers,” with which Barber accompanied by Day on vocals, trumpet, and soprano saxophone. He has also been a co-star in the long-running touring production Love Is a 4-Letter Word, a musical comedy that finds Barber and his co-stars crooning such timeless hits as “Moon River,” How Do You Keep the Music Playing,” and the Sinatra classic “My Way.” A new album from Barber is scheduled to drop later this year, and Barber recently released his first original single "Moments In Time," a song co-written and produced with Day Kelly, who played trumpet with Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown.
Advance reservations are required for the Matt Barber Trio's 8 p.m. performance on May 28, admission is $5 per person, and more information is available by calling (563)355-7070 or visiting TheGrapeLife.com and MattBarberExperience.com.
