Best Yet! (Chris Barber Bandbox, Volume Three), by Chris Barber’s Jazz Band with Ottilie Patterson, is one of the great milestones in the 55-year span of Chris’s musical career. On the surface, the major change from the music and records that preceded it was the arrival of reedman Ian Wheeler to replace the departed Monty Sunshine. True, Ian had recorded with the band before Best Yet! – being first introduced to the Barber audience on Chris Barber International Volume Three / Barber at the London Palladium. But it was with Best Yet!
that Ian’s warm clarinet sound – coupled with his mastery of the saxophone – began to influence the band’s musical persona and direction.
that Ian’s warm clarinet sound – coupled with his mastery of the saxophone – began to influence the band’s musical persona and direction.
Equally as important as Ian’s joining the band were the cohesion and skill displayed on this record by the rest of its members – a true unit that had been together for five years by this point, thus taking advantage of the growing maturity of the individual members, and their confidence and skill playing together as a group. Nowhere is this more evident than in the driving Stevedore Stomp, a number that had been recorded some seven years earlier, but tackled here with an obvious delight in ensemble playing that few if any of Britain’s other traditional jazz bands of the time could conceive of, let alone hope to emulate. All eleven of the other tracks from the original LP on this indispensable CD are equal gems in their own right, but perhaps Basin Street Blues should be mentioned as an especially outstanding performance, featuring Ian’s soprano sax and Ottilie Patterson’s passionate and distinctive voice.
Chris Barber (trombone)
Graham Burbridge (drums)
Pat Halcox (trumpet)
Ottilie Patterson (vocals)
Dick Smith (bass)
Eddie Smith (banjo, guitar)
Ian Wheeler (saxophone)
Alternate frontcovers
Tracklist:
01. We Shall Walk Through The Streets Of The City (Traditional) 3.00
02. Basin Street Blues (Williams) 3.14
03. Chiquita (Hardwick) 3.35
04. Lazy River (Carmichael/Arodin) 4.22
05. 'Tain't What You Do (Oliver/Young) 2.48
06. King Kong (Matshizika) 2.30
07. Gonna Build A Mountain (Newley/Bricusse) 3.40
08. Yvette (Hugo) 2.45
09. If You Can't Be Good, Be Careful (Waller/Razal) 2.22
10. Stevedore Stomp (Ellington/Mills) 3.52
11. I Can't Give You Anything But Love (McHugh/Fields) 2.44
12. Moose March (Traditional) 3.27
