Chris Barber’s Jazz Band & Ottilie Patterson • The Allan Gilmour Tapes

While Paul Adams and the Lake label have been slowing down a bit in recent times, whenever he runs across a valuable and previously unheard set of music, he uses the Lake label to make it available. More recordings and performances by trombonist Chris Barber and his bands have been released and reissued on Lake than on any other label by far. While Barber had a 70-year career (1949-2019), he led what was arguably his finest band in 1963. The dependable and frequently hot trumpeter Pat Halcox had been with him for nine years and had 45 more to go. He spent 54 years as a sideman with Barber which is probably an all-time record in jazz. While clarinetist Monty Sunshine had departed to lead his own successful band, his replacement Ian Wheeler (who also played alto and occasional harmonica) was Sunshine’s equal in playing New Orleans jazz and he was much more versatile. That mighty frontline was joined by banjoist Eddie Smith, bassist Dick Smith and drummer Graham Burbidge, not to mention the great singer Ottilie Patterson. She made her initial fame singing Bessie Smith blues but developed into a stylist of her own, performing bluesy material from several eras plus jazz standards. The two-CD set The Allan Gilmour Tapes has essentially a complete two-set show by Barber’s Jazz Band. There are a few departures from the New Orleans jazz repertoire including Barber’s “The Great Bear,