Beale Street Blues: 1921-1940 (2000)

About this title: This is a compilation of Alberta Hunter's recordings from the first 20 years of her career. During this time she took a ten-year hiatus, so there is a significant shift in style between the records she made in the early '20s with those from the '30s. This change is evident in a number of ways. The recording quality improved significantly, so her voice comes across much stronger on the later recordings. However, in the '20s she had more powerful material, and tracks feature such legends as Fats Waller on organ and Louis Armstrong on trumpet. A good compilation for both the curious and the ... read more

Tracks:

1. Sugar [Pinkard/Alexander]
2. How Long, Sweet Daddy, How Long?
3. I'm Hard to Satisfy
4. Beale Street Blues [Handy]
5. Your Jelly Roll Is Good
6. My Particular Man [Johnson]
7. I'm Going to See My Man [Todd]
8. You Can Have My Man If He Comes to See You, Too [Mehr]
9. Gimme All the Love You Got [Hennessy]
10. Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning [Delaney/Delaney]
11. Miss Otis Regrets [Porter]
12. Fine and Mellow Holiday [Campbell]
13. Two Cigarettes in the Dark [Pollack/Webster]
14. I Won't Let You Down [Hunter]
15. Somebody Sweetheart [Spikes]
16. Two Little Files on a Lump of Sugar [Fain/Kahal]
17. Downhearted Blues [Austin/Hunter]
18. My Castle's Rockin' [Hunter]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.