Subtitled "complete Jubilee, Sansu, SSS International masters, 1963-1969," this is a thorough retrospective of the minor but quality soul singer's 1960s work. The Jubilee sides, all from 1963 and 1964, are decent New York pop-soul, several of them written by top NYC songwriter-producer
Bert Berns, and most of them produced by
Jerry Leiber and
Mike Stoller. "Cry to Me" (also done by
Solomon Burke, and covered by
the Rolling Stones) was the only hit from this batch, but if you like the style you'll like what's here; "His Kiss," for instance, sounds a lot like the songs
Burke was doing at the same time. From 1965 to 1969
Harris recorded under the direction of the great New Orleans producer and songwriter
Allen Toussaint, who wrote every last one of the 20
Harris sides on this disc that were cut during the collaboration. The presence of an ace producer-songwriter is often what's needed to make a good, but not great, vocalist like
Harris into something special. While the
Toussaint material here is satisfying New Orleans soul, it didn't get
Harris over the hump commercially (although "Nearer to You" was an R&B hit), or endure as top-line classic soul. The tracks certainly cover a lot of territory, from the good commercial pop-soul of "What a Sad Feeling" and arching soul balladry of "Can't Last Much Longer" to numbers whose arrangements recall the New Orleans bounce of
Lee Dorsey (who duets with
Harris on a couple of songs). Some of the later tracks move into the kind of funk associated with
the Meters, not a surprise as musicians from
the Meters are supposed to have supplied the rhythm section for at least some of these sides. ~ Richie Unterberger