A Life in Music:
The CHRIS BARBER DISCOGRAPHY 1949-2001
Compiled by Gerard Bielderman & Julian Purser
A Life in Music: The Chris Barber Discography 1949-2001 is the most recent (4th edition, December 2001) version of a work that has been in progress since 1976. Well-known (and prolific!) Dutch discographer, Gerard Bielderman, has joined forces with his British colleague, official Chris Barber archivist Julian Purser, to produce this impressive discography.
The book begins with short introductions written by Gerard and Julian, and continues with two essays ("The Chris Barber Story" 
as told in 1965, and a second, untitled, piece in German), liberally illustrated with photographs (several never before published) from almost every stage of the band's history .
At the heart of the book, of course, is the discography itself, an amazing 74-page detailed listing of every recording which the Chris Barber band recorded and on which Chris himself played between the first sessions of October, 1949 and the Misty Morning concert CD of December 2000. Each entry (usually one per studio recording session or recorded live concert) gives the leader of the session, where and when it was recorded, and the personnel (complete with instrumentation on the tracks recorded during that session!). Then the tunes and songs themselves are listed, together with details about labels, catalogue numbers, and so on.* As an example shown to the right, I've chosen the page that lists recordings from January 9 to March 9, 1955, which include the famous second Festival Hall concert released and re-released numerous times on the Decca and London labels, and most recently on the Lake Records 2-CD set, The Complete Decca Session 19654/55 (LACD141/142).
At the end of the book is a very useful (not just for cross-referencing purposes) list of record titles organized by format (10-inch LPs, 12-inch LPs, CDs, etc.), a page showing how and when the band's personnel changed, an index of titles, and finally a list of Chris Barber compositions.
I cannot imagine that any dedicated Barber fan would want to be without this absolutely indispensable resource. You can purchase it (or any other of 137 similar discographies of European Tradtional Jazz) by contacting:
Gerard Bielderman* In this edition of the discography, not all issues of LPs, EPs and singles are mentioned. After each title one finds the original issue plus all (where known) CD issues.
Leie 18
8032 ZG Zwolle
Netherlands
E-mail: gerardbielderman@freeler.nl
The cover and sample page shown above and on the pages to which they are linked are Copyright © Gerard Bielderman and Julian Purser 2001 and are reproduced with their permission.
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