Review Text
By far the outstanding female British Blues/R&B/Jazz singer of her era, former Belfast art teacher Ottilie Patterson sang with Chris Barber's band between 1955-73 and recorded prolifically as both a solo singer and an ensemble band member. Although Ottilie may have looked like a demure shy Irish coleen, she sang like a white Bessie Smith, as Louis Armstrong once famously observed. The companion set to an earlier Jasmine release (JASMCD2657), this compilation is drawn once again from her repertoire between 1955 and 1962, comprising A and B-sides, EP and LP tracks, and a couple of live rarities, including a duet with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Ottilie was an exceptional live performer, and six of these sides are either from official live albums or gigs which Barber recorded professionally, but were unreleased at the time. A half-dozen of these twenty-four sides are difficult to find elsewhere on CD.
