In his entertaining and enlightening 1988 documentary, director Stuart A. Goldman tracks Alberta Hunter's trajectory from Jazz Age sensation to dedicated nurse to octogenarian singing star.
Described by producer John Hammond as "a teacher as well as a preacher as well as a singer," few musicians have had a career quite like the powerhouse entertainer. Throughout the film, Goldman inter-cuts a performance from Hunter, 86, with a pianist and bass player at Barney Josephson’s club, the Cookery, in Greenwich Village. She puts hands on hips, laughs, growls, and winks at the audience while singing suggestive lyrics like, "I want a toothless, double-jointed, rough and ready man."
Drawn to music from an early age, Hunter moved from Memphis to Chicago as soon as she was old enough to travel by herself--she claims she was eight, though other reports indicate she was closer to 12. By 1912 at 16, she made her professional debut. Her audiences included pimps, prostitutes, pickpockets, and confidence men. As she recalls, they were encouraging and supportive.
Once jazz overtook the city, invigorated by new arrivals from the South, like New Orleans bandleader King Oliver, Hunter found herself swept up in the excitement. At the Deluxe and Dreamland Cafés, she performed with pianist and mentor Tony Jackson, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and Louie's soon-to-be wife, pianist Lil Hardin, who became a steadfast friend.
By 1917, the Southside Sweetheart began her songwriting and recording career with the town's top players, including Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson. Bessie Smith would have a hit with her song "Down Hearted Blues," which Hunter performs in the film. Starting in the 1920s, she learned to sing in seven languages and performed in Paris, London, Stockholm, Cairo, and New York, where she became a leading lady on Broadway (in London, she performed opposite Paul Robeson in Showboat).
Once the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, she returned to the States. Then, when her bookings declined, she joined the USO, but ageism became a factor after the war, and she segued to nursing when she could no longer support herself as an entertainer.
In 1977, she reemerged, after 20 years as a licensed practical nurse in New York, to pick up where she left off. Audiences were enthusiastic, and she was more popular than ever. Hunter was 82. The film doesn't mention it, but Alan Rudolph titled his 1978 psychodrama Remember My Name after her song (producer Robert Altman convinced her to contribute music to the film).
Though Goldman cites a brief marriage to a soldier, he doesn't acknowledge her sexual orientation, which may have been a bridge too far for a TV documentary in 1988, though peers Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey were also reportedly bisexual.
With a script from Chris Albertson and narration from bandleader Billy Taylor, the director covers almost every facet of Alberta Hunter's career in a brisk 57 minutes, making for a fine introduction to a uniquely inspiring talent.
Where does this title belong on library shelves?
Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin' belongs on shelves in academic and public libraries with music documentaries.
What kind of film series could use this title?
My Castle's Rockin' would fit with music documentaries about jazz and blues figures, especially Black women musicians in the 20th century, like Carol Bash's 2017 portrait of pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, The Lady Who Swings the Band.
What type of instructors will use this title?
College and graduate-level music instructors could make productive use of this lively, well-researched documentary, especially in conjunction with Frank C. Taylor's acclaimed biography, Alberta Hunter: A Celebration in Blues.