Like the two CD-sets shown on the previous cover page, and particularly Hits From The Golden Era Of Traditional Jazz, this new double-CD, Chris Barber Greatest Hits, is a compilation of forty tracks spanning the Chris Barber Band's earliest recordings in 1954 to those of the mid- to late-1950s. The tracks are drawn from LP and EP records originally published on several labels, including Decca, Pye/Nixa, and Columbia. As such they provide a comprehensive -- if conventional for this sort of compilation -- selection of tracks from roughly the first five years of the band's existence, with a couple of additional "hidden gems" that do not always make it on to compilations of this kind -- for example, Hot House Rag, I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair, and Camp Meeting Blues. As in the case of Hits From The Golden Era Of Traditional Jazz, my assessment is that the current double-CD provides an excellent introductory compilation of the Barber Band's catalogue in the 1950s but that there is little here to appeal to serious collectors of Chris's older recorded output, who most likely have the majority, if not all, of the tracks already in their collections.

Ed Jackson, September 2011