Ruth Brown - Miss Rhythm (Greatest Hits and More)
By the time she left Atlantic Records in 1963, Ruth Brown could look back on 24 R&B; hits dating back to her first, "So Long," in 1949. Raised in the church, her chops honed in Lucky Millinder's Big Band, she could deliver technique and attitude to burn, breaking hearts with smoky ballads and raising the roof with brash jump-blues numbers. Over the years her reedy, delicate voice evolved into a deep, full-bodied instrument, more expressive in its varied colors than it was early on, and she used it to devastating effect, especially on her double-entendre workouts ("Wild Wild Young Men"). The 40 tracks on this 2 CD set chart all the early, towering entries, as well as some interesting non-hits (among these a scintillating foray into gospel-based pop, "I Can See Everybody's Baby") and three previously unreleased cuts. In recent years Brown has delivered exemplary work on the Fantasy and Bullseye Blues labels, butMiss Rhythmis the rock the legend is built on.--David McGee