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."

Barbara Dane with Tammy Hall Throw It Away …

Barbara Dane with Tammy Hall
Throw It Away …
Dreadnaught Music

What marvelous career Barbara Dane has had ranging the whole spectrum of American music. From her classic jazz recordings, and her memorable album shared with Lightnin' Hopkins over a half century ago, she remains a singular presence on the music scene. Now at 88, she teamed with a wonderful pianist, Tammy Hall and produced "Throw It Away …," with classic blues, torch songs and a few more modern gems. Filling out the backing is bassist Ruth Davies (best known from her time with Charles Brown) and drummer Bill Maginnis with Pablo Menéndez adding blues harp on three tracks and Richard Hadlock adding soprano sax on one.

Dane may not have the range as a singer she once had, but the jazzy accompaniment allows her to "explore entirely new ways of singing." Certainly this is evident in the opening rendition of Memphis Minnie's bawdy "I'm Selling My Porkshops," where her delivery evokes Helen Humes and Ruth Brown in their latter days, and followed by her take on Leonard Cohen's "Slow," with its humorous, half spoken vocal about her partner wanting to get their fast, but she wants to get it last, and that she always liked it slow because it is in her blood. There are a number of other gems including Abby Lincoln's song that provides the CD its title, and that sometimes it is best to let go; Paul Simon's "American Tune;" Duke Ellington's "All Too Soon" which she added lyrics and Hadlock's soprano sax suggesting Johnny Hodges; and the Lennon and McCartney classic, "In My Life."

There is plenty of humor here such as Lu Mitchell's "The Kugelsburg Bank," celebrating a little old lady that is enjoying her slice of the pie south of the border after years of being the bank's outstanding employee as well as her rendition of Mose Allison's "My Brain" (set to the "This Train"/"My Babe" melody). She does not ignore her progressive leanings whether in her environmentally conscious "King Salmon Blues" and her rendition of a Leroy Carr standard "Tell Me How Long" as he asks when we will get justice, tell me how long.

Not the singer of her youth perhaps, but her experiences have helped her shape these performances marvelously and Tammy Hall is a stellar accompanist and the rhythm rendering apt, complementary backing. "Throw It Away …" is a gem of a recording.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is a video associated with this release.