CD1
Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone
Harlem Bound
Saratoga Swing
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
Battersea Rain Dance
Some Of These Days
Oro
Give Me An Old Fashioned Swing In The Evening
Up A Lazy River
CD2
Jazz Me Blues
New Orleans Wiggle
Ubava Zabava
Just A Little While To Stay Here
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Csikos
Going To Chicago
Ain’t Nobody’s Business
Doin’ The Crazy Walk
Big Boss Man
Dardanella
Got A Gal Lives Up On The Hill
BONUS TRACKS
Lend Me Your Love
Corinne Corinna
Chris Barber’s Jazz & Blues Band with Jimmy Witherspoon (vocals) in Berlin; Muddy Waters’ band in London
Recorded Cologne, July and November 1972, Berlin, August 1977, and London 1979
Two CDs for the price of one
LAKE LACD332
[62:27 + 71:40]
Here’s the latest Barber release from Lake – a twofer that is literally two-for-the-price-of one. It charts the band in Germany, touring. The first CD and
half of the second finds them in Cologne, over two concerts, in 1972. The remainder of the second CD witnesses collaboration between the Barber Band and
singer Jimmy Witherspoon in Berlin in August 1977. The last two tracks, the Bonus material, was recorded on cassette, in-concert, by a fan of the band
during 1979’s Capital Jazz Festival, held at Alexandra Palace, London. Barber joined Muddy Waters’s band – the band that included Pinetop Perkins.
The Barber Band was on the cusp of new directions at the time. Guitarist and banjo player Steve Hammond was instigating novel ideas that were soon to bear
fruit. As it is these concerts show Barber’s infatuation with Balkan music and with unusual song lengths – some brief, others very extended. Sustaining
rhythm over longer tracks was a knack that this band certainly possessed, and it’s not something that could always be said of some other bands of the time.
Harlem Bound
is one of those catchy tunes excavated by Barber the Antiquarian and rendered anew in concise, hugely efficient manner whereas he extends Saratoga Swing in a daringly slow manner, all the while graced by a fine series of solos and ensemble colours – John Crocker’s clarinet solo, all
curlicues and wood smoke, is especially fine and drenched in New Orleans spirit. Battersea Rain Dance is a funky opus, effective as ever, whilst
Pat Halcox takes two fine solos on Some of these Days, tripping elegantly through the first and unveiling a stop chorus on the second. Barber’s
composition Oro has a lyrical slant whilst the familiar version of Up A Lazy River reprises the band’s many virtues; a long track,
beginning seemingly innocuously, then around 8 minutes taking on bluesy vamps, trombone and banjo exchanges, a Bluegrass feel, call and responses, and a
lot of byplay and humour. The Balkan tinge emerges in the second disc, not least in the very long Ubava Zabava an adventurous tone poem with hints
of High Life, driving rock guitar solo courtesy of John Slaughter, and a cod Dixie finish. The other Balkan number, Csikos, again a Barber
composition, is great fun and rhythmically vivid. The band was fond of Joe Zawinul’s Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and take it at a respectful slow tempo.
They were joined in Berlin by Witherspoon and we hear six tracks. The recorded balance is not perfect – good though it is to hear Slaughter he is
over-recorded, as is Jackie Flavelle’s bass, and Spoon is sometimes just off mic. But there’s plenty of bustling spirit in this set, fine alto especially
from John Crocker - reminiscent of Pete Brown, perhaps. Spoon does his thing with practised control – and he’s a delight even when the material is
predictable. Note that he sits out Dardanella, largely a vehicle for Crocker’s clarinet supported by the folksy banjo of Steve Hammond. The last
tracks in this twofer are obviously not the last word in hi-fidelity but it’s valuable to hear Barber with Muddy’s band, not least because Barber had first
brought the band over to England over two decades before.
There’s a great deal to enjoy in this latest release – a case of Balkan, Blues and Barber.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE LACD332
