Brassy, bluesy, and more than a little rough around the edges, Etta James laid a foundation for generations of future female singers to bare their souls through song. Her Best collects James’s pivotal early Sixties work for the Chicago-based Chess label. The compilation is particularly heavy on simmering ballads in the vein of “At Last”— a song that, even after millions of wedding ceremony appearances, still has the power to bowl over the listener. When soul music was still in its protean stages, James offered a model for the heart-wrenching slow dance with songs like “A Sunday Kind of Love,” “My Dearest Darling,” and “Trust In Me.” While this compilation might shortchange James on her ability to bring down the house with a blues shouter, it does contain a 1963 live recording of “Baby What You Want Me To Do” that has about as much spit and piss in it as any female performer was allowed to offer in that year. Like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, James is an artist whose early career links old guard R&B to full-fledged soul music, and by the time the brilliant “Tell Mama” appeared in 1967, it was clear that James had helped to usher in a whole new era of American music.