The GREAT jazz/blues artist Alberta Hunter!

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 10/10/08 at 11:48pm

I used to hear her sing at this place called The Cookery somewhere in the Village (5th Ave & 8th St.??), in the late 1970s.
This was when she about 80! The NYU students adored her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGvtHSF0EfI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-q6_5i-TQw&feature=related





Updated On: 10/10/08 at 11:48 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 12:36am

I was going to graduate school at NYU at the time and worked at the Cookery as a host, showing people to their tables and making "gourmet omelets" at the copper omelet bar that can be seen in the video.

I used to annoy the owner, the legendary Barney Josephson (you can see him leading Alberta to the mike in that video), by giving kids from NYU the prize 4-top right in front of Alberta, known to the waitresses as the "diamond by the mike." The owner preferred to have big spenders there and the waitresses preferred to have big tippers there, but Alberta loved having college kids who really got into her music, no matter how much they drank or ate or tipped.

After a few months, Barney, who was almost as old as Alberta, couldn't stay to introduce Alberta at the late show, which was Saturday at 11. So he asked me to do it, but I was not allowed to veer from the exact intro he used: "Ladies and gentlemen...the Cookery is proud to present...the legendary...Miss...ALBERTA HUNTER!" And then I would take her by the hand and lead her to the microphone.

So I would take longer and longer with the pauses, which at first amused Alberta, because she realized that the longer I paused, the louder they applauded. But one night, I went too far and when I went to get her to lead her to the mike, she stood there, hands on her hips, shaking her head. And that pause made them applaud even MORE!

One night, during one of Alberta's songs in which she got the audience to clap their hands along with her (like the one in the video), I got the waitresses to stand with me at the copper bar and do Supremes-style synchronized hand-clapping. Alberta turned around and saw us and laughed and came over and joined our back-up troupe while the trio kept playing. Barney heard about it the next day and told me to "cut out the monkey business."

More and more, Barney started to resent how much fun I was having. One night he had his manager, Mo, fire me while we were setting up. Mo told all the waitresses I was stealing liquor, which was not only a lie but devastating to me.

On my way out the back door, I walked by the booth where Alberta and her trio were having dinner. She reached out her bony little hand and pulled me down next to her. I was on the verge of crying and I said, "Alberta, I can't believe he's saying I stole things. I love working here--I wouldn't steal anything."

Alberta squeezed my hand tightly and said, "You listen to me. People are gonna say a lot of untrue things about you in your life--you pay them no mind. You understand me? YOU PAY THEM NO MIND." And with that she gave me a kiss on the cheek and sent me out.

It wasn't the last time in my life I was fired, and it wasn't the toughest. But I never forgot the fierceness of that advice from a woman who had lived through so much.

Somewhere I have a VHS copy of her show. I'll see if I can upload her rendition of "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," which she does as a life statement as moving and as profound as a Shakespearean soliloquy or a Verdi aria.

Updated On: 10/11/08 at 12:36 AM

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 12:58am

Well, PJ, what a fantastic story!!
Those were my days after college, when some guy I dated introduced me to a myriad of great blues/jazz artists, including Alberta, Maynard Ferguson, Erroll Garner, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters etc., etc. Sometimes I think we (old!?) BWWers
should start a thread named "we actually lived in the 60s and 70s and had a ****in' blast!" I just think sometimes that the classic musicians of the golden ages will never, ever be again...whether it's jazz, blues, rock, Sinatra,....Bwahhhhhhh.......I miss experiencing them live.
(your YouTube links are always my faves. I remember them all).
Thanks.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 8:38am

She had such an amazing life- After her mother died n 1954, she decided that the life of a singer was too frivolous and reinvented herself- as a nurse! She worked for about a decade anonymously serving others before the hospital, believing she was 65, retired her (She was actually in her 80's).

She then felt free to return to music and began her stand at the Cookery, which lead to a career rennaissance.

Her voice is spectacular! I can remember when Amtrak Blues came out and I listened to that album over and over and over!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 9:21am

Maynard Ferguson played up the street at another club on University Place. There were still a few jazz clubs then.

The Cookery is now a BBQ. It used to make me sad, but now I'm just glad it was around for so long. I met so many wonderful old jazz musicians, like Helen Humes, Rose "Chi Chi" Murphy and Joe Turner--the stride pianist, not the blues singer.

Here's Helen Humes singing her "Million Dollar Secret"--which she used to sing at the Cookery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5WKpLvptfY

[D2]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 9:23am

Thank you for sharing the link, TM.

And thank you for that wonderful, evocative and very moving reminiscence, PJ.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 1:53pm

I'm starting a new thread! For Blues Video links only...

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 4:24pm

I saw Miss Hunter on my first trip to NY, at the age of 17. I'd seen her on Merv or Mike Douglas and thought she was spectacular. So I dragged my friend down to 8th Street, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime evening.

Years later, when I started becoming friends with PalJoey, we were discussing performers we liked, and Alberta Hunter's name came up. I told him of seeing her on that visit, and he said "Do you realize I would have been the guy who seated you? Did I give you a good table?" I said we had the table up front.

So years before I formally met PJ, I'd already met him--and he was partially responsible for one of the best evenings of my life.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/11/08 at 5:24pm

Cute boys and their female friends? The best table in the house!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:45pm

Okay. Watch this. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdaNlZhmHoM

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 10:52pm

"Alberta squeezed my hand tightly and said, "You listen to me. People are gonna say a lot of untrue things about you in your life--you pay them no mind. You understand me? YOU PAY THEM NO MIND." And with that she gave me a kiss on the cheek and sent me out."


She was a wise woman, I'm sure you learned something from her.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 11:10pm

PJ, that story and those videos put me over the moon! Thank you. I never had the chance to see her live. I am so envious.

Yea, and like you weren't nipping into the hooch! Bull.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/12/08 at 11:11pm

"You pay that SueleenGay no mind--you hear me? YOU PAY HER NO MIND!"

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 3:53am

Joey, you're making me craaaaaazy with that newest (old) Miss Hunter vid! That voice KNOCKS
ME
OUT!
I don't even remember now what initially possessed me to post last wk. Just one day she popped into my mind. The significance of YOUTUBE!!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 10:45am

This is very trippy. I've never seen it before. Alberta in a British musical from 1935 called Radio Parade of 1935, singing a song called "Black Shadows":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lnZNJYVi-k

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 12:14pm

Tinymagic, she just popped into my mind last week, too, and I started poring over YouTube videos. And really, I hadn't for years.

I do have her "Darktown Strutter's Ball" in a party playlist on my iPod, and everytime I play it at a gathering, people stop in their tracks and ask who it is. I particularly love when it's people in their twenties who respond so passionately.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/08 at 1:23pm

Her Dick Cavett appearance, in two parts:

Part One (interview and "Downhearted Blues," which she wrote for Bessie Smith):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_1xUmRkzYk


Part Two ("I Love You Much Too Much," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Bye and Bye" and "I Got Rhythm"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXH0XiTl4NQ

Updated On: 10/13/08 at 01:23 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/7/11 at 9:36am

Some mornings I wake up, thinking about Alberta.

That Dick Cavett interview was taken down from YouTube, but here's a concert from French TV I'd never seen:


Part 1:

http://youtu.be/gKD1cY8C-To


Part 2:

http://youtu.be/KwVaONPgzaI


Part 3:

http://youtu.be/AS7cGsyGx1c

Updated On: 8/7/11 at 09:36 AM

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 8/7/11 at 11:32pm

Great clips, JOEY.

On another note (but a blues/jazz note) someone I discovered the other day accidentally while perusing Diana Krall "Lost Mind" vid.

This Mac Odom guy blows me away with this incrediblly soulful rendition of "Lost Mind" !! Dying to hear these guys in person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQoIVZcO3m8

Whattya think, blues fans?


Updated On: 8/7/11 at 11:32 PM

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 7:01am

I was introduced to Alberta Hunter's singing only via recordings; unfortunately I never saw her live, at the Cookery. Pal Joey, I enjoyed your long anecdote about working at the Cookery, and your always helpful You Tube links.

Another great jazz/blues artist of the 1960's was the pianist Erroll Garner who I used to hear at the VIllage Vanguard. A great and unique talent, he sort of mumbled song lyrics while he played, not unlike Fats Waller. I recently bought a CD of Garner and the happy memories returned.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 8:02am

I loved hearing Ferguson do that! It was very sort of like the jazz version of Glenn Gould, who used to sing the piano parts of classical pieces to himself as he played.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 12:52pm

I wrote a piece about Alberta for a website I contribute to. It was amazing how many "biographies" had completely conflicting facts!
Alberta Hunter - An Extraordinary Woman

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/8/11 at 2:37pm

Nice article. Alberta loved all those stories. It all made her smile.

One phrase seems off: "...she began seeking singing engagements."

I don't think Alberta looked for the gig at the Cookery. I think Barney Josephson went and found her.

As I recall it, when Barney Josephson, who had managed Cafe Society back in the 1940s, opened the Cookery, he called on a lot of the retired or forgotten jazz performers he had known since then to perform there. The way Barney told it, and Alberta never disagreed, he found Alberta living on Roosevelt Island (where the hospital she had worked at was) and teamed her up with accompanist Gerald Cook, and they put together a program of songs for the initial 2-week engagement.

By the time I started working there in 1978, Alberta was the regular, and Rose Chi-Chi Murphy and Joe Turner and the others would play when Alberta took off.

And did Kitty Carlisle really say on To Tell the Truth that she had worked with Alberta in clubs in the 30’s? What kind of integrated club would have booked them together? And did Kitty Carlisle even do nightclubs?

Unless she meant in Europe, I'm pretty sure Kitty Carlisle must have meant that she had seen Alberta not worked with her.