Louis Jordan & Chris Barber
The Chris Barber Band with Louis Jordan
Black Lion BLCD760156
Released 1991 Louis Jordan & Chris Barber includes the four Jordan/Barber tracks from The Best Of Both Worlds, plus five others that were not included on the original World Record Club LP. Each one is great fun and further illustrates the impact that Louis Jordan had on the band -- amply illustrated by the excerpt chosen for this page: "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?". The CD re-issue on Black Lion adds a further five tunes, three of which were recorded a decade and more later, one of these a rare recording from the two years when Steve Hammond was the banjo player.
As an example of a non-Jordan track on this CD, listen to "Jazz Lips," a beautifully played and recorded version of a late-1920s Duke Ellington composition. Every member of the band is outstanding on this piece, but pay particular attention to the understated but melodic lift that bass player Dick Smith provides on this number.
For more information about these recordings, you can read a scanned article from the magazine of the World Record Club, which issued some of these tracks on a British LP, and the programme from the British tour with Louis Jordan in December 1962. There is also a page for The Best Of Both Worlds, the original LP. |