Alberta Hunter | |
|---|---|
 Hunter in 1979 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | May Alix, Josephine Beatty |
| Born | (1895-04-01)April 1, 1895 Memphis, Tennessee, US |
| Died | October 17, 1984(1984-10-17) (aged 89) Roosevelt Island, New York, US |
| Genres | Jazz, blues |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1914–1984 |
| Labels | Black Swan,Paramount,Gennett,OKeh,Victor,Columbia,Decca,Bluebird,Bluesville,His Master's Voice |
Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s.[1][2][3] After twenty years of working as a nurse, Hunter resumed her singing career in 1977.[4]
Hunter was born inMemphis, Tennessee,[5][6] to Laura Peterson, who worked as a maid in a Memphis brothel, and Charles Hunter, aPullman porter.[2] Hunter said she never knew her father. She attended Grant Elementary School, off Auction Street, which she called Auction School, in Memphis.[7] She attended school until around age 15.[8]
Hunter had a difficult childhood. Her father left when she was a child, and to support the family her mother worked as a servant in a brothel in Memphis, although she married again in 1906. Hunter was not happy with her new family and left forChicago, Illinois, around the age of 11, in the hopes of becoming a paid singer; she had heard that it paid 10 dollars per week. Instead of finding a job as a singer she had to earn money by working at a boardinghouse that paid six dollars a week as well as room and board. Hunter's mother left Memphis and moved in with her soon afterwards.[9]
Hunter began her singing career in abordello and soon moved to clubs that appealed to men, black and white alike. By 1914 she was receiving lessons from a prominent jazz pianist,Tony Jackson, who helped her to expand her repertoire and compose her own songs.[8]
She was still in her early teens when she settled in Chicago.[10] Part of her early career was spent singing atDago Frank's, a brothel. She then sang at Hugh Hoskin's saloon and, eventually, in many Chicago bars.
One of her first notable experiences as an artist was at the Panama Club, a white-owned club with a white-only clientele that had a chain in Chicago, New York and other large cities. Hunter's first act was in an upstairs room, far from the main event; thus, she began developing as an artist in front of acabaret crowd. "The crowd wouldn't stay downstairs. They'd go upstairs to hear us sing the blues. That's where I would stand and make up verses and sing as I go along." Many claim her appeal was based on her gift for improvising lyrics to satisfy the audience.[11] Her big break came when she was booked at Dreamland Cafe, singing withKing Oliver and his band.[12] In early 1923, she suggested thatColumbia Records should record Oliver's band, but when she was not available to record with them, Columbia refused.[13]
She peeled potatoes by day and hounded club owners by night, determined to land a singing job. Her persistence paid off, and Hunter began a climb from some of the city's lowest dives to a headlining job at its most prestigious venue for black entertainers, the Dreamland ballroom. She had a five-year association with the Dreamland, beginning in 1917, and her salary rose to $35 a week.[14]
She first touredEurope in 1917, performing inParis andLondon. The Europeans treated her as an artist, showing her respect and even reverence, which made a great impression on her.[14]
Her career as singer and songwriter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and she appeared in clubs and on stage in musicals in bothNew York and London. The songs she wrote include the critically acclaimed "Downhearted Blues" (1922).[15]
She recorded several records withPerry Bradford from 1922 to 1927.
Hunter recorded prolifically during the 1920s, starting with sessions forBlack Swan in 1921,[16]Paramount in 1922–1924,Gennett in 1924,OKeh in 1925–1926,Victor in 1927 and Columbia in 1929. While still working for Paramount, she also recorded for Harmograph Records under the pseudonym May Alix.[17]
Hunter wrote "Downhearted Blues" withLovie Austin and recorded the track forInk Williams atParamount Records. She received only $368 inroyalties. Williams had secretly sold the recording rights to Columbia Records in a deal in which all royalties were paid to him. The song became a big hit for Columbia, withBessie Smith as the vocalist. This record sold almost 1 million copies. Hunter learned what Williams had done and stopped recording for him.[12][14]In 1928, Hunter played Queenie oppositePaul Robeson in the first London production ofShow Boat atDrury Lane. She subsequently performed innightclubs throughout Europe and appeared for the 1934 winter season withJack Jackson's societyorchestra atthe Dorchester, in London. One of her recordings with Jackson is "Miss Otis Regrets".[18]
While atthe Dorchester, she made severalHis Master's Voicerecordings with the orchestra and appeared inRadio Parade of 1935 (1934),[18] the first British theatricalfilm to feature the short-livedDufaycolor, but Hunter's segment was one of only two in color. She spent the late 1930s fulfilling engagements on both sides of theAtlantic and the early 1940s performing at home.
Hunter eventually moved toNew York City. She performed withBricktop and recorded withLouis Armstrong andSidney Bechet. With a vocal duet chorus between Clarence Todd and herself, "Cake Walking Babies (From Home)," featuring Bechet and Armstrong, was another one of Hunter's hits recorded in December 1924 during her time in New York City.[19] She continued to perform on both sides of the Atlantic, and as the head of theU.S.O.'s first black show, until her mother's death.
In 1944, she took a U.S.O. troupe toCasablanca and continued entertaining troops in both theatres of war for the duration ofWorld War II and into the early postwar period.[18] In the 1950s, she led U.S.O. troupes inKorea, but her mother's death in 1957 led her to seek a radical career change.
Hunter said that when her mother died in 1957, because they had been partners and were so close, the appeal of performing ended for her.[20] She reduced her age, "invented" ahigh school diploma, and enrolled innursing school, embarking on a career inhealth care, in which she worked for 20 years atRoosevelt Island'sGoldwater Memorial Hospital.[21]
The hospital forced Hunter to retire because it believed she was 70 years old. Hunter—who was actually 82 years old—decided to return to singing.[21] She had already made a brief return by performing on two albums in the early 1960s, but now she had a regular engagement at a Greenwich Village club, becoming an attraction there until her death, in October 1984.[21]
Hunter was still working at Goldwater Memorial Hospital in 1961 when she was persuaded to participate in two recording sessions. In 1971 she was videotaped for a segment of aDanish television program, and she taped an interview for theSmithsonian Institution.[22]
In the summer of 1976, Hunter attended a party for her long-time friendMabel Mercer, hosted byBobby Short; music public relations agent Charles Bourgeois asked Hunter to sing and connected her with the owner ofCafe Society,Barney Josephson.[4][23] Josephson offered Hunter a limited engagement at hisGreenwich Village club, The Cookery.[21] Her two-week appearance there was a huge success, turning into a six-year engagement and a revival of her career in music.[4]
Impressed with the attention paid her by the press,John Hammond signed Hunter toColumbia Records. He had not previously shown interest in Hunter, but he had been a close associate of Barney Josephson decades earlier, when the latter ran the Café Society Uptown and Downtown clubs. Her Columbia albums,The Glory of Alberta Hunter,Amtrak Blues (on which she sang the jazz classic "Darktown Strutters' Ball"), andLook For the Silver Lining, did not sell as well as expected, but sales were nevertheless healthy. There were also numerous appearances on television programs, includingTo Tell the Truth (in which panelistKitty Carlisle had to recuse herself, the two having known each other in Hunter's heyday). She also had a walk-on role inRemember My Name, a 1978 film byAlan Rudolph, for whichproducerRobert Altman commissioned her to write and to perform thesoundtrack music.[21][15]
In 1919, Hunter marriedWillard Saxby Townsend, a former soldier[24] who later became a labor leader for baggage handlers via the International Brotherhood of Red Caps, but the marriage was short-lived.[4][25][26] They separated within months, as Hunter did not want to quit her career. They were divorced in 1923.[27]
Hunter was alesbian but kept her sexuality relatively private.[27] In August 1927, she sailed forFrance, accompanied by Lottie Tyler, the niece of the well-known comedianBert Williams. Hunter and Tyler had met in Chicago a few years earlier. Their relationship lasted until Tyler's death, many years later.[28]
Hunter is buried in theFerncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum inHartsdale,Westchester County,New York (Elmwood section, plot 1411), the location of many celebrity graves.[29][30]
Hunter's life was documented inAlberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin' (1988 TV movie), adocumentary written byChris Albertson and narrated by the pianistBilly Taylor, and inCookin' at the Cookery, a biographicalmusical by Marion J. Caffey, which has toured the United States in recent years withErnestine Jackson as Hunter. Hunter's life and relationship with Lottie Tyler are represented in the playLeaving the Blues byJewelle Gomez, produced by the TOSOS theatre company in New York City in 2020.[31] Rosalind Brown (from the original cast ofFootloose andOne Mo' Time) plays the role of Alberta Hunter inLeaving the Blues.[1]
Hunter was inducted to theBlues Hall of Fame in 2011 and theMemphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.[32] Hunter's comeback album,Amtrak Blues, was honored by theBlues Hall of Fame in 2009.[33]
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