Irma Thomas - Soul Queen of New Orleans (1978)

Queen Of New Orleans, recording for labels such as Chess, Imperial and Island, scoring pop and R&B hits and releasing Grammy nominated albums. Bandleader Tommy Ridgley originally discovered her and helped her win a contract with the Ron label, from which she moved to the Bandy and Minit label, where she teamed up with the legendary producer Allen Toussaint. Disc 1 of this 2CD set features the all the singles she recorded for Minit, Ron and Bandy along with b-sides and demos. The demos have been specially enhanced for this release to remove the audible tape noises which blighted previous issues. The second disc features a 1976 live performance recorded at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, originally released that year on Island Records. For the show Thomas was reunited with Tommy Ridgley and blasted through many of the New Orleans classics featuered on disc 1 along with her covers of contemporary disco hits ' Lady Marmalade' and 'Shame, Shame, Shame'.