Alberta Hunter Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery

Alberta Hunter
Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery
Rock Beat

This recording brings back memories of a couple of evenings this writer had in the late 1970s when the legendary Miss Hunter was a regular feature at Barney Josephson's "The Cookery" in Greenwich Village with pianist Gerald Cook and bassist Jimmy Lewis. Alberta Hunter was, of course, one of the legendary so-called 'classic' blues singers, but her career extended decades. She is famous for writing "Downhearted Blues," that is most famous from Bessie Smith's famous recording (and as she tells the audience, she was still collecting royalties from when this performance was recorded in 1980).

Hunter also recorded at a famous recording session with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet in the twenties and continued to perform until the 1960s. She started working as a nurse in 1957 until she was forced to retire by hospital regulations in 1974. She was bored until Josephson invited her to a six-week engagement at The Cookery and her star was ignited once again, recording four albums, writing songs for a Robert Altman film and delighting audiences.

The performances here were featured in the documentary "Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin'," and what a marvelous set of music we have starting with her exuberant, sassy opener "My Castle's Rockin'," with he getting the audience to clap along with her. It is a wonderful program including her rendition of "Downhearted Blues," "The Love I Have For You" which she wrote for a Robert Altman film, a marvelous "I Got Rhythm," the bawdy "Two-Fisted Double-Jointed Rough and Ready Man," "The Dark Town Strutter's Ball," a strong rendition of "I Got a Mind To Ramble," "When Your Smiling," "Georgia on My Mind," and "Handy Man." Supported by Cook's marvelous accompaniment, she displays plenty of feisty sassiness and also tenderness. More important, she swings hard and leads her accompanists in this manner. I imagine how striking her fist into the palm of the other hand as she got The Cookery audience rocking on so many nights.

I purchased this. This review appeared in the January-February Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 382).   He she performs "Two-Fisted Double-Jointed Rough and Ready Man."

Otis Rush
Double Trouble Live Cambridge 1973
Rock Beat

Joe’s Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the seventies must have been quite a place as Joe mentions Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry along with Lowell Fulson as upcoming acts before he introduced Otis Rush for a night of blues. Rush that night was backed by Little Bo on tenor sax, Ernest Gatewood on bass and Bob Richey (not Richards as mistakenly spelled on the back cover) on drums.

Rush, until a severe stroke in 2004 curtailed his career, was one of the most revered blues artists bringing some of the strongest modern blues guitar playing which was matched by his angushed singing. This recording has some uneven sound quality (Little Bo is somehwat muffled on the opening "Watermelon Man"), but the brilliance of Rush's playing doesn't suffer in the mix. The program here includes several renditions of Rush's Cobra recordings including "It Takes Time," "I Can't Quit You Baby," Keep On Loving Me," and "Double Trouble," along with several numbers associated with B.B. King, including "Gambler's Blues" (which became identified with Otis), and "Why I Sing the Blues." In addition to the instrumental warm-up of "Watermelon Man," there are a couple James Brown numbers, an instrumental workout on "Popcorn" (as much a feature for Little Bo who is more audible here), and the closing "Please, Please, Please," and inspired playing on Rush's instrumental treatment of Ike and Tina Turner's "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine." This latter number has more saxophone from Little Bo, demonstrating why Rush described him as the little man with the big sound..

Frank Scott provides an overview of Rush's career and a brief description of the performance in the accompanying booklet.

I purchased this. Here is Otis' rendition of "Gambler's Blues" from this performance.

Bobby Blue Bland Live & Righteous 1992

Among recent blues and rhythm recordings issued on the Rock Beat label is a nineties live recording of Bobby Blue Bland, Live & Righteous 1992. The CD contains 13 selections from the Hotel Meridien in Paris from 1992 and four selections from a performance in Indianapolis in 1992. Mark Humphrey provides a concise overview of Bland's life and career but no specific dates are provided or personnel listed. These are likely air checks as indicated from some French narration over the performance from Paris. During the track entitled "I Don't Know," (actually the song known as Grits Ain't Groceries or 24 Hours a Day), the personnel are introduced although guitarist Mark Lee's named is mentioned several times.

The 1992 selections are particularly nice representatives of the "World's Greatest Blues Singer" as one might have heard in the early 1990s. The repertoire is fairly representative including Today I Started Loving You Again, Share Your Love With Me, Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine. You've Got To Hurt Before You Heal, and Members Only. A high point is the medley entitled Sunday Morning Love/Stormy Monday that also segues into Drifting Blues at the end. Bland's voice is typical. If he no longer possessed the range of his younger days and his squeals became squawks, his phrasing and intonation still invested his performances with real depth.

The Indianapolis selections include briefs renditions of That's The Way Love Is, Further On Up the Road, and I Pity The Fool, along with a workout on Soon As the Weather Breaks. Audio throughout is acceptable and certainly this  will appeal to Bobby's fans, even if it is not essential.

I purchased this. Here is Bobby and B.B. King on Soul Train from the seventies.

Lowell Fulson Live in 1983

We have Billy Vera to thank for the release of Lowell Fulson Live 1983 At My Place (Rock Beat). Fulson is caught in performance backed by Billy Vera and the Beaters at the Santa Monica club, At My Place and its a marvelous near hour of music as Fulson revisits a number of classic she had recorded such as (Honey Hush) You Talk Too Much; Blue Shadows: Reconsider Baby; Black Nights; (Blues Pain) Do The Things You Do; Every Day I Have the Blues; Sinner’s Prayer and Tramp; along with interpretations of blues standards Going To Chicago; Stoop Down Baby; Too Many Drivers at the Wheel; and Love Her With a Feeling. I added parenthesis to a couple song titles to indicate what the song is also known as.

Fulson is in solid form here. His parched, graining Oklahoma panhandle blues voice carried the same soulfulness here as on his numerous recordings. And The Beaters provide strong backing. Saxophonists Jerry Peterson and Lon Price adding their own solos to Fulson’s own prickly T-Bone Walker-style. There was an excellent Fulson live recording from a Japanese tour with a band that included Lee Allen that has never been issued in the US. The performances on Live 1983 At My Place stand up nicely to that earlier one and this should be of interest to anyone interested in one of the giants of the last sixty-five years of blues.

I purchased this and you might try www.bluebeatmusic.com for copies. Here is Lowell Fulson with Lloyd Glenn doing Reconsider Baby from 1984.

 

Magic Sam Live in Berkeley in 1969

With a small body of studio recordings augmented by live recordings, a new CD of club performances by the legendary Magic Sam is certain to be warmly received by West Side Chicago blues lovers. 17 performances (Nearly 80 minutes of music) from Mandrake’s in Berkeley, California are made available on Live 1969 - Raw Blues on the Rock Beat label. These July, 1969 performances date are five months before his passing, and give a strong display of the blues world’s loss. I believe Sam’s legendary Ann Arbor Blues Festival performance was shortly thereafter. On these club recordings Magic Sam was backed by Bruce Barlow (later with Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen) on bass and Sam Lay on drums. These were the same musicians that were with Sam at his legendary Ann Arbor Blues Festival appearance.

Songs include familiar items of his repertoire from his Cobra recordings and his Delmark albums such as All You Love, J. B. Lenoir’s Mama Talk To Your Daughter, Willie Cobb’s You Don’t Love Me, Junior Parker’s I Feel So Good, Bobby Bland’s I Don’t Want No Woman, Freddie King’s instrumental San-Ho-Zay, and his own instrumental Looking Good. Less familiar material includes renditions of B.B. King’s I Got Papers On You, and You Done Lost Your Good Thing, as well as Albert Collins’ Tremble, and Freddie King’s Just Pickin’.

There are some minor variations from his recordings such as in the guitar accompaniment on You Don’t Love Me, which is a bit simpler than the “Black Magic” rendition. On I Feel So Good, and Looking Good, the tempo goes into warp drive while Sam avoids sounding frenzied. The performance of “”I Got Papers On you Baby” is representative of the intensity he invested his performances with.

The album closes with a fiery Sweet Home Chicago. It was Sam’s recording and performances of this perhaps had a role in making it the blues anthem it has become. The accompanying booklet includes Mark A. Humphrey’s astute overview of the music and sam’s career and legacy. Sound is not high fidelity but not terrible with the power of his searing guitar and soaring vocals evident. Magic Sam’s Live 1969 - Raw Blues, undoubtedly will be on many lists of the best blues releases of 2012. The music is that good.

This was a purchase from bluebeatmusic.com, although it should be readily available from better retailers.