has recorded many great albums, but it's difficult to argue with such a perfect distillation of his catchy, grooving, slapdash pop work as this set. Coming out of the R&B studio subculture of New Orleans, the former possessed songwriting smarts and reams of recording expertise, each of which had reached their peak by the early '70s. Focused squarely on that prime era, 1970 through 1974, the collection begins with his only Top Ten hit, 1973's irrepressibly fatalistic Two others come from his best album (1973's ), the jaunty and 1972's also rates three tracks: the New Orleans classics plus The compilers were also wise to choose three songs from , his unjustly neglected psychedelic debut, including (but unfortunately, not the glorious ). A version of ' jump-blues classic from 1981's , spotlights his sparkling boogie-woogie piano, and the set closes with a pair of standards from his latter-day years (one of which is the unofficial Mardi Gras theme ). Whether it's for a first listen or the perfect road-trip disc, has all of the New Orleans master's best recordings in one spot. ~ John Bush