Chris Barber's Jazz Band, the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group, and Chris Barber's Skiffle Group, Chris Barber 1956

LPs and EPs originally recorded in 1956; Reissued on CD in June 2007 on Lake Records LACD246.

Chris Barber 1956 is the second CD in a (so far) two-part series of re-issue discs from Lake Records, each charting a year in the band’s early recording history (the previous CD was Chris Barber 1955).

In actuality, I suppose one should say these are the second and third in the series, because Chris Barber 1956 is a 2-CD set (for the price of one!) that contains the entire recorded output of the Barber Band on the Pye/Nixa label in 1956, with the exception of some Ottilie Patterson tracks, which have also recently been re-released by Lake (That Patterson Girl).

Going by the personnel, there are essentially three sets of recordings in the set: 24 by Chris Barber’s Jazz Band, six by Lonnie Donegan’s Skiffle Group, and four by the Chris Barber Skiffle Group. The band pieces originally appeared on three LPs: Chris Barber Plays, Volumes 2 and 3, and the first of the Chris Barber In Concert series. Most of the skiffle sessions were released on “feature” EPs.

All of the tracks have been previously re-released on one CD or another, but it’s nice to have this more or less chronological package of recordings from a single year, not least because it gives a clear picture of changes in the rhythm section over this short period. Bass player Micky Ashman left in April, being replaced by Dick Smith, who was to remain in the band for the next decade, while in 1956 the band had three banjo players: Lonnie Donegan to begin with but who left to take advantage of his growing fame from the success of Rock Island Line, then Dick Bishop for a short few months, and finally Eddie Smith who, like Dick, stayed around until the mid-1960s.

I seem to say this with each successive new CD from Lake Records, but as usual the packaging is superb, with detailed personnel lists and recording dates, informative notes by producer Paul Adams, and several contemporary photographs.

The Big Chris Barber Band, Can't Stop Now (European Tour 2007)

Released on the Blues Legacy Label in February 2007. (Click here for re-release dates in October through December, 2007).

At the time of issue of this, the latest newly-recorded CD by the Big Chris Barber Band, both Chris and his long-time musical partner, Pat Halcox, are almost 77 years old. They've been playing together permanently since May of 1954, and less formally even before that. Chris himself has led a band since 1949, a staggering close-to-60 years! How appropriate, then, that the title of this CD, recorded in late 2006 and early 2007, should be titled Can't Stop Now, and that the title song includes the lyrics, "I can't stop now / While I'm feeling so good / I can't stop now / Who's to say that I should / When the music is right / It's my heart, it's my soul, it's my life."

As a souvenir of the band's European Tour of 2006-2007, this new CD is outstanding: it introduces two new members of the band, Mike Snelling on reeds and Joe Farler on banjo and guitar, both of whom are featured soloists on a number of tracks; it mixes the old -- and refreshed (Lead Me On, The Martinique, Wild Cat Blues; Mike Snelling is superb on all of them) -- with the new: the title track, plus a new arrangement of an old Duke Ellington Composition, Hot And Bothered. If this weren't enough, we also get to enjoy several songs by Andy Fairweather Low, who along with Van Morrison and Bill Wyman was a guest at Chris's Liverpool birthday concert in 2005, and who toured with the band in the UK a year ago. And finally, on a perhaps sad but musically outstanding note, these are the last recordings that bassist Vic Pitt made with the band before retiring early in 2007 after almost three decades.

Music: Can't Stop Now || The Martinique || Worried Man Blues || Hot And Bothered

Ottilie Patterson with Chris Barber's Jazz Band, That Patterson Girl

Recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, reissued on Lake Records LACD 244 in March 2007.

Music: Beale Street Blues || 'Taint No Sin || Trouble In Mind

Fans of Chris Barber's Jazz Band in the 1950s and early 1960s, and in particular Ottilie Patterson, will be delighted with this newest CD release from Lake Records. It replaces a previous CD, Ottilie Patterson with Chris Barber's Jazz Band 1955-1958 (Lake LACD30), published by Lake in 1993, but out of the catalogue for several years.

Like its predecessor, the new That Patterson Girl CD includes eight tracks from the original EP issues on the Pye/Nixa label, That Patterson Girl and That Patterson Girl Volume 2, plus four other recordings for the same label recorded at more or less the same time. Short excerpts from three of the tracks can be heard here by clicking on the links for Beale Street Blues, 'Taint No Sin, and Trouble In Mind. In addition, there are eleven previously unreleased songs, several from private sources and thus unavailable in any form before now.

Taken together, the CD provides an excellent retrospective of Ottilie's development as a jazz and blues singer over the first nine years that she was a full-time member of the Chris Barber Band. To quote briefly from the sleeve notes: "Ottilie was a compelling performer for her soft-spoken introductions contrasting with her big, powerful renditions of big Blues songs…. The demand for her recordings seems to go on unabated. She is remembered with much affection by the fans. It's not simply nostalgia: she chose a notoriously difficult genre and yet sings Blues more convincingly by far than anyone of her generation."

As with all Lake Records CDs, it almost goes without saying by now, but the entire presentation and packaging of this latest Lake CD is superb, with brilliant re-mastered sound, excellent photographs, and detailed and informative sleeve notes and discographical information.

LPs originally released in 1953 and 1954 and reissued in 2007 by Membran Music Ltd; Available from various Internet sellers, including Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Canada, and Amazon USA.

To my knowledge, this new CD marks the first time that these two classic and indispensable 1950s 10-inch LP records have appeared together on the same CD, although there have been recent releases of both sets of tracks quite recently on the Lake Records label. Thus, for any Barber or Colyer fans who don't already have the two LPs on one CD or another, this new version of the complete New Orleans To London (by Ken Colyer's Jazzmen) and New Orleans Joys (by Chris Barber's Jazz Band) makes a very attractive proposition.

The presentation of the CD is also very attractive: the disk itself is designed to resemble an LP, and a very well produced and informative booklet is part of the package. This includes reproductions of the front and back covers of the original LPs, as well as the full English text of each set of sleeve notes. The discographical information is complete and accurate, and the package is completed with an informative essay about the background to the formation and demise of the Colyer Band and its rebirth under Barber's leadership. The CD is obviously aimed at the international market, since the essay is printed in English, German, and French.

At last, the 1965 Decca Album Folk Barber Style has been released on CD by the British record company Vocalion. All the tracks on the original LP are included and the CD box comes with the 1965 LP sleeve notes by Peter Clayton.

As with many other records by Chris Barber, this is not a pure Dixieland CD, but a very fresh jazz CD. You will find 14 very interesting arrangements of popular folk songs. Ottilie's singing is remarkable: she is featured on two wordless vocals, Banks of the Bann and On Top of Old Smokey. In my opinion, these songs are among the best that Ottilie ever recorded. Furthermore, she plays the introduction to Streets of Laredo on a melodica!

All titles have their own individual character and I'm sure they will please both old and new Chris Barber fans. Here are some comments on just a few of the songs:

• Listen to the Chris Barber version of Midnight in Moscow – quite different from the well-known versions of Kenny Ball who enjoyed a major international "hit" in the sixties with this tune.
• Good Night Irene: Ian Wheeler, very well known for his alto and clarinet playing, is here featured on the soprano sax, an instrument that he should have played more often! An extremely slow and very bluesy song.
• Note the "jazz" version of Midnight Special, an instrumental and very swinging version of this well known song.
• Ha, Ha, This A-Way, often played in concerts, but only released on this CD and later in 1980 (CD: Concert '80 - The First Digital Live Recording).

Listen to that special sound of 1965 and enjoy these folks songs, “Barber style”.

Andreas Wandfluh, October 2006

I must admit to having something of a “soft spot” for Worried Man Blues: it was the first song I learned to play at the age of 12 when my Dad bought me a guitar and the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Book, afterwards launching my skiffle group (one of thousands of such amateur bands across England at the time) on the unsuspecting British public (by which I really mean my family!). Worried Man Blues is one of two Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group tracks on the new compilation CD from Lake Records, in which the theme – as the title suggests – is recordings by the Barber Band during their first full calendar year after being formed in May of 1954. For me, then, this CD is very welcome, if only for the two skiffle group recordings.

There are, however, some other compelling reasons for buying this excellent CD. To begin with, it includes all but the Ottilie Patterson tracks from the first two Barber LPs for the Nixa Jazz Today series (Chris Barber Plays and Echoes Of Harlem). While many of these have become available on CD in one form or another in the last few years, the sound re-mastering is superb, far better than any previous re-issues. As a Barber fan who has owned the original vinyl albums for over forty years, I find it’s a great pleasure to hear these tunes sounding almost as if they’d been recorded today. Then there are the previously unissued tracks: a recording of Trouble In Mind from a year before the more familiar version that first came out on a 7-inch EP, and five tracks from a short film made in 1955, Momma Don’t Allow. In short, Chris Barber 1955 is a very welcome addition to any collection of early Barber recordings.

Jeff Healey and the Jazz Wizards: It's Tight Like That, with special guest Chris Barber

Stony Plain Records SPCD 1314 / Released in April 2006

Music: Bugle Call Rag || Basin Street Blues || Going Up The River

Jeff Healey is Canada’s guitar legend. Blind since he was three years old, his unorthodox technique and his high-energy power rock earned him multi-million record sales and a world-wide reputation that remains intact today. Healey is a musicologist with an encyclopedic knowledge of the work of both jazz and blues artists from the early days of the last century onwards. In addition to his guitar work, Healey has become an accomplished trumpet player, deeply influenced by such vital historic figures as Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and many others. The Jazz Wizards, recreating and reinterpreting the classic jazz of the 1920s and 1930s have brought Healey to a new audience, and many of his enthusiastic fans in Canada have discovered what is, to them, a new kind of music.

It’s Tight Like That features trombonist and occasional vocalist Chris Barber, one of the few remaining fathers of the British traditional jazz and blues scene. He still leads the Big Chris Barber Band, now celebrating more than half a century of touring in the UK and Europe. Chris Barber created the craze and coined the term Skiffle Music along with Lonnie Donegan and was the man who first brought legends like Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe to the UK.

It’s Tight Like That was recorded live at sold-out performances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and at Hugh’s Room, the pre-eminent acoustic music venue in Toronto. In addition to soloing on trumpet and guitar, Healey’s band features some of the best-known young jazz players in Toronto, as well as vocalist Terra Hazleton.

[Adapted from the Stony Plain Records website]

Chris Barber's Jazz Band: Vintage Chris Barber

Lake LACD222 / Released in January 2006

Music: Shout 'Em Aunt Tillie || Blue Sunshine || Whistlin' Rufus

Toll - die berühmte "Jazz - Sacred & Secular" LP ist erneut auf CD erhältlich, zusammen mit einigen weiteren, sehr interessanten Stücken. Es sind Aufnahmen mit der Original 1954 Band mit zwei Ausnahmen: Mickey Ashman spielt in "South" und "Whistlin' Rufus" den Kontrabass anstelle von Jim Bray. Diese Stücke gehören übrigens mit "Everybody loves my baby" zu den drei bisher unveröffentlichten Songs dieser CD. Im weiteren sind auf dieser CD 3 Stücke einer Storyville EP (SEP 300) enthalten: "Ice Cream", "Saratoga Swing" und "Tiger Rag". Von der SEP 314, ebenfalls Storyville, ist zudem "Down By The Riverside" übernommen worden. Ebenfalls enthalten sind die 4 Stücke aus der EP "Chris Barber plus one / Chris Barber minus one". Beim "plus one" Spieler handelt es sich um den Kornettisten Ben Cohen, ein Musiker, der in Chris' Amateur Band 1950 - 1952 spielte. Zu hören sind hier also Pat Halcox und Ben Cohen in "Tuxedo Rag" und "Camp Meeting Blues". Wegen einer verspäteten Ankunft des Bassisten Jim Bray im Aufnahmestudio übernahm Chris den Kontrabass und die so "reduzierte" Band spielte die beiden "minus one" Titel ein: "Blues Sunshine" und "Brownskin Mama". Die Sound Qualität ist wieder sehr gut dank der sorgfältigen Arbeit von Paul Adams. Die Musik entspricht der Zeit der "frühen" Chris Barber Jazz Band und ich empfehle diese CD nicht nur den "Traditionalisten", sondern auch den Fans der "Big Chris Barber Band", um ihnen den Ursprung der heutigen Band aufzuzeigen.

Wow! -- The famous Jazz Sacred & Secular LP has again been released on CD together with 14 additional and very interesting tracks. The recordings date back to 1954-1956 and the CD features the original line-up of 1954 with two exceptions: Mickey Ashman plays the string bass instead of Jim Bray on "South" and "Whistlin' Rufus". These two tunes plus "Everybody Loves My Baby" have not been previously issued. Furthermore, the CD contains three songs from the famous Storyville SEP 300 of 1954, with "Ice Cream", "Saratoga Swing" and "Tiger Rag", as well as "Down By The Riverside", originally released on the Storyville label (SEP 314). The four tracks from the EP Chris Barber Plus One/Minus One are also included on this CD. The Plus One player is Ben Cohen on cornet, a musician who played in Chris Barber's amateur band (1950-1952). The band features the two cornet players Pat Halcox and Ben Cohen on "Tuxedo Rag" and "Camp Meeting Blues". Due to the late arrival of bass player Jim Bray at the recording studio, Chris took over the string bass and they recorded the Minus One tracks: "Blue Sunshine" and "Brownskin Mama". Again, the sound quality is very good thanks to the great work of Paul Adams. The music represents the early years of the Chris Barber Jazz Band and is recommended not only to all traditional jazz fans, but also to fans of the Big Chris Barber Band, showing them the roots of the present band.

Andreas Wandfluh, 28th January 2006