Poor Man’s Blues
Make Me A Pallet On The Floor
Trouble In Mind
Careless Love
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
Ugly Child
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
New St. Louis Blues
Beale St. Blues
’Taint No Sin
Jailhouse Blues
Shipwreck Blues
Trombone Cholly
When Things Go Wrong
Kay Cee Rider
Don’t Fish In My Sea
Salty Dog
Mean Mistreater
As Long As I’m Moving
Backwater Blues
Heavenly Sunshine
Lonesome Road
Weeping Willow Blues
Ottilie Patterson (vocalist)
Chris Barber’s Jazz Band
rec. 1955-63
Lake has proved a goldmine
for the Patterson-Barber aficionado, a state
of affairs that happily – and verdantly –
continues with this release. It covers the
years 1955 to 1963 though it concentrates
on the earlier years - 1955-57 predominantly.
There are some titles provisionally dated
to 1959 and three from January 1963.
But in the main this is classic
territory. The first dozen titles derive from
two EPs – That Patterson Girl, Volumes
1 and 2 and demonstrate quite how rapid
her rise to eminence in the British jazz scene
had become. Much of the material is Classic
Blues, as one would expect – Bessie Smith
predominately, but also Ma Rainey and Ida
Cox. Her assurance results in uncanny verisimilitude.
The primary models sound entirely absorbed
and not freakishly put on like a cloak, or
embarrassingly half diluted. But then Patterson
was always the most dedicated and remarkable
of the absorbers of the Classic Blues singers.
The band mines Bunk Johnson
and George Lewis for Make Me A Pallet On
The Floor with Pat Halcox’s wavery lead
taking its cue from the dogmatic but assured
idealism of Ken Colyer. Barber contributes
some modified tailgate, sufficiently modified
to be anathema to the righteous Colyer. Their
rhythm is springy and vibrant in a superb
performance of I Wish I Could Shimmy Like
My Sister Kate complete with a very knowing
vocal from Patterson. The band even at this
point was tightly organised and versatile
– note Halcox’s muted lead in Trouble In
Mind and conversely the big fat almost
Al Fairweather sound he gets on I Can’t
Give You Anything But Love. Patterson
sings Ugly Child quite straight, that’s
to say entirely shorn of the gloriously leering
vulgarity of George Brunies’s version. And
Monty Sunshine comes to the fore in New
St. Louis Blues where he spins a swinging
line, eclipsing himself with a stentorian
introduction to Jailhouse Blues, which
inspires Patterson to some magnificent blues
melismas. We can also hear her simple but
effective piano playing over which she sings
Shipwreck Blues. Her harmonium playing
– in emulation of Fred Longshaw? – I find
rather lugubriously attractive.
In some of the later tracks
a few things intrude – the band gets congested
and steps on Patterson’s toes in Don’t
Fish In My Sea. Some of the later R ‘n’
B influenced sides won’t be to the
tastes – a touch raucous - though I like them
and Barber’s adventurous absorption of a range
of musical models has always been one of the
most enjoyable things about his bands, big
and small. Patterson sings Gospel in Heavenly
Sunshine doubtless influenced by singers
such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and others with
whom she and the Barber band toured. There’s
a touch of pitch instability in the final
track, Weeping Willow Blues, but it’s
over quickly. The playing here, in 1963, sounds
like a blueprint for the current band – energetic,
wide-ranging and tremendously swinging.
Another winner from Lake
– and given Barber’s perennial popularity
a big seller one would think. But above all
this is Patterson’s disc and offers a fresh
look at her absorbing take on the Classic
Blues.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE LACD244 [77:08]
