BUY NOW
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
|
CHRIS BARBER'S JAZZ BAND
WITH OTTILIE PATTERSON
Barber Back in Berlin 1960
Lake LACD346
|
Disc 1 Playing time 59m. 00s.
1. Bourbon Street Parade
2. Georgia Cakewalk
3. Papa De Da Da
4. Soudan
5. What's I'm Gotcha
6. Lord, Lord, Lord
7. Sweet Georgia Brown
8. There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
9. It's All Over
10. Heavenly Sunshine
Disc 2 Playing time 56m. 32s.
1. Hiawatha Rag
2. Majorca
3. Do Right Baby
4. New Orleans Hula
5. Hushabye
6. Wild Cat Blues*
7. Take Your Pick
8. Whistling Rufus
9. I Can't Give You Anything but Love
10. Come along Home to Me
11. When the Saints Go Marching In
*This track is misnamed in the tray insert and in the booklet. There it is
listed as St. Philip Street Breakdown by George Lewis but is
actually Sidney Bechet's composition Wild Cat Blues.
Recorded Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, May 4, 1960.
Personnel:
Chris Barber - Trombone, double bass (track 2-7), vocal (tracks 1-1,
6)
Pat Halcox - Trumpet, vocal (tracks 1-1, 6; 2-3)
Monty Sunshine - Clarinet, vocal (tracks 1-1, 6)
Eddie Smith - Banjo
Dick Smith - Double Bass
Graham Burbidge - Drums
Ottilie Patterson - vocals (tracks 1-8, 9, 10; 2-9, 10, 11)
Some of us-perhaps many of us-still remember the heady days of the very
early fifties in the U.K. when traditional jazz was beginning to blossom and
to sideline much of the pop music of the time-deathless paeans to doggies in
the window, monkey honeymoons, and crying little white clouds. The story of
the formation of the Chris Barber Jazz Band at that time is fairly
well-known and does not need repeating. It went on to become arguably the
most popular trad band in the U.K., and even with several replacements in
the rhythm section, the band's status did not change as their sound remained
fairly constant, the front line still being the "original" and Ottilie
Patterson still singing with the group.
Barber and his men, while embracing the New Orleans style of emphasis on
ensemble, differentiated themselves from others by "polishing" the ensemble
sound (most improvising being left to the soloists), working out head charts
and then executing them cleanly. Halcox's trumpet lead was not a forceful
one and Barber played a very "light," punchy trombone-no long slurs and
growling glissandi-and on clarinet Sunshine danced around the other two in
the front line. The result was a bouncing, light rhythm that the back line
complemented, the whole effect finding much favor with the fans. That sound
is what we have here. The Berlin concert of 1960 contains both numbers that
are often to be found in the Barber play lists, but others that seldom are
or that are here recorded the first time. Among the latter are Heavenly
Sunshine (disc 1), Take Your Pick, and Come along Home to
Me (disc 2).
The Barber band was never a slouch when it came to tempo, and it charges
out of the gate with Bourbon Street Parade, its signature tune, as
if to get it out of the way and then get on with the program. The tunes that
follow on the first disc, Georgia Cakewalk and Papa De Da
Da, carry on where the first left off, and the same can be said of much
of the rest of the playlist of that night, including Hiawatha,
Majorca, and others on disc 2. That is not to imply that the
renditions are impaired by the tempos, just that they are a bit unusual,
given those one is used to hearing from other bands for many of these same
tunes. The Barber group is obviously well rehearsed, witness the tight
harmonies of the front line on tunes such as Papa De Da Da,
Soudan, or Whistling Rufus, and the absence of flubs,
despite this being a live recording. While there are the usual flaws that
can creep into a live recording, such as someone being off-mike or being too
close to a mike and no mixing remedy available later, these are very few and
minor and can hardly be laid at the door of the musicians.
Well deserving of a share of the artist credit on this CD set, Ottilie
Patterson sings on three tracks on each disc. She was such a large part of
the band at this time, before the throat troubles that forced her to give up
singing some time later. Here she is still in splendid form, her rendition
of There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight almost compelling
the listener to get up and strut as she deftly glides through the several
key changes the band makes. Or there is the absolutely stunning blues in the
following track, It's All Over, where her pitch is perfect as she
hits every note squarely and the passion rises and falls as she interprets
the lyric, using just the right touch of vibrato and supported by the
sympathetic obbligatos of Halcox and Barber. I would concur with the
judgment that she was Britain's greatest blues singer and compares favorably
with her American counterparts.
So this is all classic Barber fare. Of the musician lineup, sadly only
Barber is still with us-and still playing at eighty-six! It is fortunate
that he heard about the tapes of this concert being up for sale on eBay in
2013 and managed to procure them from the eBay seller, and also that he made
them available to Paul Adams, who in turn has released them on this double
CD set. Lake Records generously has included them in the "twofer" category,
which should make acquiring them fairly painless.
Bert Thompson
|
Error processing SSI file
|
CD Reviews
