Songs We Taught Your Mother

Performer: Alberta Hunter
Engineer: Rudy VanGelder...
Producer: Chris Albertson...
Distributor: Fantasy

Notes: Personnel: Alberta Hunter, Lucille Hegamin, Victoria Spivey, Sidey De Paris, J.C. Higginbotham, Buster Bailey, Cliff Jackson, Zutty Singleton, Henry Goodwin, Cecil Scott, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Gene Brooks. Originally released on Bluesville (1052). Personnel: Alberta Hunter (vocals); Victoria Spivey (vocals, piano); Lucille Hegamin (vocals); Cecil Scott (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Buster Bailey (clarinet); Sidney DeParis (trumpet, tuba); Henry Goodwin (trumpet); J.C. Higginbotham (trombone); Cliff Jackson , Willie "The Lion" Smith (piano); Gene Brooks, Zutty Singleton (drums). Liner Note Author: Chris Albertson. Recording information: Englewood Cliffs, NJ (08/16/1961); New York, NY (08/16/1961). Unknown Contributor Roles: Cliff Jackson ; Cecil Scott; J.C. Higginbotham; Gene Brooks; Sidney DeParis; Willie "Big Eyes" Smith; Zutty Singleton; Buster Bailey. Although Alberta Hunter, who had briefly come out of retirement, gets first billing on this CD reissue, in reality she shares the spotlight with two other veterans of the 1920s: Lucille Hegamin and Victoria Spivey. Each of the singers is featured on four songs apiece while backed by such top players as clarinetist Buster Bailey, trombonist J.C. Higginbottham, and Cliff Jackson or Willie "The Lion" Smith on piano. Hunter is in superior form on such numbers as "You Gotta Reap Just What You Sow" and "I Got a Mind to Ramble," although she would soon be out of music for another 15 years, continuing her work as a nurse. Hegamin (who had not recorded since 1932) was having a brief last hurrah, despite sounding good, and Spivey, reviving her "Black Snake Blues," would soon be launching her own Spivey label. This is a historic and enjoyable set recommended to both classic jazz and blues collectors. ~ Scott Yanow

One of the earliest recorded blues acts, Hunter sang with a clarity of diction and tone that made her music accessible to white audiences. At the height of her popularity, she recorded with nearly all her great jazz contemporaries, among them Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and Fletcher Henderson. In the '30s Hunter branched out to Broadway. She ended her career in the '80s as a star of the New York cabaret scene.

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