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Donald Christopher Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. As well as scoring a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with “Petite Fleur” in 1959, he helped the careers of many musicians. These 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.
When Rod wanted a trad jazz band to play on the track ‘Dixie Toot’ for his 1974 album ‘Smiler’ it was The Chris Barber Band who he turned to, Chris and his band also featured in the officially unreleased TV documentary ‘Smiler’ and amazingly Chris did not have a copy of his performance until SMILER gave him a copy after our interview for Issue 59 in 1999
Photo Mike Walton