As an astute reviewer, Chris Albertson has long uplifted the field of jazz journalism. His main accomplishments are producing Riverside's The Living Legends series of the early '60s which resulted in quite a few veterans of the 1920s and 30s returning to records before it was too late, and his writings on Bessie Smith. Albertson's extensive liner notes for Columbia's 1970 reissue of all of Bessie Smith's recordings were quite notable and served as a stepping stone to his notable 1972 Smith biography Bessie. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi