Ivory Joe Hunter
Bespectacled and velvet-smooth in the vocal department, pianist Ivory Joe Hunter appeared too much mild-mannered to be a rock & roller. But when the rebellious music first crashed the American consciousness in the mid-'50s, there was Ivory Joe, deftly delivering his blues ballad "Since I Met You Baby" right alongside the wildest pioneers of the era.
Hunter was already a grizzled R&B vet by that time who had first heard his voice on a 1933 Library of Congress cylinder recording made in Texas (where he grew up). An accomplished tunesmith, he played around the Gulf Coast region, hosting his own radio program for a time in Beaumont before migrating to California in 1942. It was a wise move since Hunter -- whose real name was Ivory Joe, incidentally (perhaps his folks were psychic!) -- found plenty of work pounding out blues and ballads in wartime California. He started his own label, Ivory Records, to press up his "Blues at Sunrise" (with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers backing him), and it became a national hit when leased to Leon Rene's Exclusive imprint in 1945. Another Hunter enterprise, Pacific Records, hosted a major hit in 1948 when the pianist's "Pretty Mama Blues" topped the R&B charts for three weeks.
At whatever logo Hunter paused from the mid-'40s through the late '50s, his platters sold like hot cakes. For Cincinnati-based King in 1948-1949, he hit with "Don't Fall in Love with Me," "What Did You Do to Me," "Waiting in Vain," and "Guess Who." At MGM, then new to the record biz, he cut his immortal "I Almost Lost My Mind" (another R&B chart-topper in 1950), "I Need You So" (later covered by Elvis), and "It's a Sin." Signing with Atlantic in 1954, he hit big with "Since I Met You Baby" in 1956 and the two-sided smash "Empty Arms"/"Love's a Hurting Game" in 1957.
Hunter's fondness for country music reared its head in 1958. Upon switching to Dot Records, he scored his last pop hit with a cover of Bill Anderson's "City Lights." Hunter's Dot encores went nowhere; neither did typically mellow outings for Vee-Jay, Smash, Capitol, and Veep. Epic went so far as to recruit a simmering Memphis band (including organist Isaac Hayes, trumpeter Gene "Bowlegs" Miller, and saxist Charles Chalmers) for an LP titled The Return of Ivory Joe Hunter that he hoped would revitalize his career, but it wasn't meant to be. The album's cover photo -- a closeup of Hunter's grinning face with a cigarette dangling from his lips -- seems grimly ironic in the face of his death from lung cancer only a few years later.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
-
Don't Leave Me
Jazz - Erschienen bei Beat Machine Records am 27.10.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Need You By My Side
Pop - Erschienen bei Digital Minds am 01.06.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
The Lovely Hunter
Pop - Erschienen bei Digital Perfection am 01.07.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Since I Met You Baby & All the Hits (1945-1958)
R&B - Erschienen bei Jasmine Records am 17.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gimme a Pound O' Ground Round
Pop - Erschienen bei Jazztastic am 01.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I'm Yours 'til Eternity
Pop - Erschienen bei Jazztastic am 01.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music Before Dawn
Pop - Erschienen bei Music City Entertainment am 01.04.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ivory Joe Hunter - Vintage Sounds
Blues - Erschienen bei Retro Music Box am 09.02.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les Idoles Américaines Du Blues: Ivory Joe Hunter, Vol. 1
Blues - Erschienen bei Mpm am 25.12.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Time Has Passed
Jazz - Erschienen bei Edizione Jazz am 25.07.2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best of
Blues - Erschienen bei Burning Fire am 28.04.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
You're Always Looking for More
Pop - Erschienen bei Jazztastic am 01.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gimme a Pound O' Ground Round
Pop - Erschienen bei Jazzboutique am 01.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gimme a Pound O' Ground Round
Pop - Erschienen bei Jazztastic am 01.05.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
How About Me - Ivory Joe Hunter
Blues - Erschienen bei ISIS am 31.01.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
You Mean Everything to Me
Pop - Erschienen bei Beat Club am 26.06.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
One More Memory
Pop - Erschienen bei Studiomasters am 01.04.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Low Pay Blues
Pop - Erschienen bei Music City Entertainment am 01.04.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo