Wilbert Harrison Kansas City: The Best Of Wilbert Harrison
Release Date: January 15, 2021
Label: Sunset Blvd.
It is extremely unlikely that any other 1950s R&B artist blended quite as many disparate idiomatic influences into an instantly identifiable whole as Wilbert Harrison.
Wilbert's skill on a variety of instruments was a key factor in his uncommon versatility. He played rolling piano on “Kansas City” and several of his follow-ups for Bobby Robinson’s Harlem-based Fury Records, but he was just as likely to utilize a guitar/harmonica combination that sometimes expanded into a one-man-band setup with the addition of hi-hat. Harrison wasn’t afraid to incorporate instrumentation on his recordings that registered well outside the R&B mainstream.