The “Golden Hits Of The 50s” 

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IVORY JOE HUNTER

“SINCE I MET YOU BABY”

(Ivy Joe Hunter)

Atlantic 1111

No. 12    December 29, 1956

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With a daddy preacher who played guitar, a mama who sang in a choir, a house full of instrument-

abusing sibs, and a God-given name like Ivory, it was natural that Ivory Joe (b. Nov. 10, 1914, Kirbyville,

TX) would take up the piano.  He performed in school orchestras, sang in a church quartet, and after

graduation, he and his combo, heavily influenced by Duke Ellington and Fats Waller, played the bars

from Galveston to Port Arthur.  In the ’40s, Joe and his jumpers held down a radio pro­gram on KFDM

in Beaumont, Texas.  With the out­ break of World War II, Hunter dropped the band and hoofed it to

the West Coast, where he worked the L.A. and San Francisco clubs.

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In 1945, Hunter formed the Ivory label and pressed up some copies of his first record, “Blues at Sunrise”

b/w “You Taught Me to Love.”  Accompanying him on the disk were the soon-to-be-famous Three Blazers

(Charles Brown, Johnny Moore, and Eddie Williams).  The disk sold well and was picked up for distribution