Chris Barber

Born:

Apr 17, 1930

Died:

Mar 02, 2021

About

From Wikipedia:

Donald Christopher Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with “Petite Fleur” in 1959. These musicians included the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with Barber triggered the skiffle craze of the mid-1950s and who had his first transatlantic hit, “Rock Island Line”, while with Barber’s band. He provided an audience for Donegan and, later, Alexis Korner, and sponsored African-American blues musicians to visit Britain, making Barber a significant figure in launching the British rhythm and blues and “beat boom” of the 1960s.

[…] A recording of the Lennon–McCartney composition “Catswalk” can be heard, retitled “Cat Call”, on The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away. Written by Paul McCartney, the song was recorded in late July 1967 and released as a single in the UK on 20 October 1967.

In 1969, Barber signed up to the progressive Marmalade Records label and released the album Battersea Rain Dance, featuring both McCartney and Brian Auger. […]