Platinum Collection, The

Ruth Brown was Atlantic Records' first consistent hitmaker and the biggest female star of the label's first decade, and while she didn't cross over to the pop audience the way some of her peers at Atlantic would do in time, "Miss Rhythm" cut enough great sides during her tenure with the label to keep any party respectably rockin' all night long. Brown's installment in Warner Platinum's Platinum Collection series contains more surprises for novices than most of the titles in this line, primarily because Brown's failure to go pop means one rarely hears her on the radio these days. But if you're looking for early R&B stuff that rocks with a solid swing, Brown's your gal, and there isn't anything approaching a dud in the 21 songs on this disc. Brown's voice walked a fine middle ground between sweetness and grit, and she wasn't afraid to let her considerable vocal sex appeal take the center stage. Add plenty of great songs (including material from Rudy Toombs, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, and a few from Ahmet Ertegun under his nom de plume of "Nugetre") and some seriously wailing session bands and you get just under an hour of top shelf R&B. While serious admirers are advised to search out Rhino's excellent two-disc set Miss Rhythm: Greatest Hits and More, if you're looking for a good single-disc introduction to one of the greatest stars of jump blues and first-era R&B, this will fill the bill and then some. ~ Mark Deming|