Barbara James - Twentieth Century Blues (2018)

This is a fantastic album by one of Australia's most famous dance hall vocalists. Shades of Ella Fitzgerald and Dakota Statton and featuring some of the Trocadero's best dance bands. Mostly from the 1940's this is such an enjoyable album. Includes Frank Coughlan Orchestra, The Cotton Pickers, The Dixielanders, Arthur Rosebery Orchestra and Des Tooley. Great songs too!

Australians have long had a love affair with jazz and blues and it is unfortunate that so little of our early jazz recordings survive. We are fortunate that radio broadcast and recorded a large repertoire especially of our most popular singers and bands and 'by hook or by crook' those Dick Tracey’s of the historical audiophile world have managed to find them and protect them. This is yet another fine testament to their diligence.

Barbara James was one of our best-loved vocalists and she certainly is up there with her American and British counterparts. She was a strong and stylish singer and this excellent compilation captures her perfectly as she sings and swings her way through dance favourites and even some torchy songs. It's easy to close your eyes and imagine yourself transported back to the grand era of the dance palais where men and women dressed to the nines and the orchestras were large enough to pump out music that didn't really need amplification. As the big band strikes up under the conducting baton of a Jim Davidson or Frank Coughlan then up steps Miss Barbara James and the magic begins

Warren Fahey

Barbara James was arguably Australia's leading popular vocaliste for three decades. In the days before artist categorisation became de rigeur she sang everything that came her way. She was not specifically a jazz singer, but she could sing jazz. She sang everything that was popular in the dance and popular field, and when swing became the rage in the middle thirties, she showed that she could swing with the best of them.

Looking back on her career, Barbara said: "If I had my time over, I wouldn't wish to change one thing - I've had a great life in music". That life is well illustrated in this compilation release which covers the gamut of her career, from her first recording in 1933 through to the radio programme ‘Between You And Us’ in the late fifties.

Along the way we hear Barbara singing ballads, pops, swing and jazz - as a soloist, as a guest artist with Jim Davidson's Orchestra from the Palais Royal, George Trevare's recording orchestra and various broadcasting bands, as well as with the Trocadero Orchestras of which she was a regular member. Few singers can boast such a fulfilling career and such a diversity of material. None are more deserving of such a tribute as this album.

Jack Mitchell



Track List:
01. Twentieth Century Blues
02. Black Eyed Susan Brown
03. Let Me Give My Happiness To You
04. It Don't Mean a Thing
05. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
06. The Answer Is Love
07. Good For Nothing (But Love)
08. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
09. The Lights Will Shine Again
10. Sitting Making Faces at the Moon
11. Little Ships Will Sail Again
12. The Smiths and the Jones
13. Austerity Blues
14. Small Town Boogie
15. Kentucky
16. So Long
17. When You Put On That Old Blue Suit Again
18. Minnie's In The Money
19. Slender, Tender And Tall
20. I Don't Know Enough You
21. Buster, The Swagman's Daughter
22. It's A Good Day / If I Were A Bell / Polka Dots And Moonbeams (piano solo) / You'll Find Out (vocal duet) / Give Me The Simple Life / I'm Gonna Life Till I Die

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