Alberta Hunter was born on April 1, 1895, and passed away on October 17, 1984. She was an American singer and songwriter who performed jazz and blues music from the early 1920s until the late 1950s. After working as a nurse for twenty years, Hunter began singing again in 1977.

Early life

Hunter was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Laura Peterson, who worked as a servant in a Memphis brothel, and Charles Hunter, a worker on trains who helped passengers. Hunter said she never knew her father. She went to Grant Elementary School, located on Auction Street, which she called Auction School, in Memphis. She attended school until about age 15.

Hunter had a difficult childhood. Her father left when she was a child, and her mother worked as a servant in a brothel in Memphis to support the family. Her mother married again in 1906. Hunter was not happy with her new family and left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois, around age 11, hoping to become a paid singer. She learned that singing jobs paid $10 per week. However, she could not find a singing job and instead worked at a boardinghouse that paid $6 per week, along with room and board. Hunter's mother later left Memphis and moved in with her.

Career

Alberta Hunter began her singing career in a brothel and later performed in clubs that attracted men of all races. By 1914, she was studying with a famous jazz pianist, Tony Jackson, who helped her learn new songs and write her own music.

She was still a teenager when she moved to Chicago. Early in her career, she sang at Dago Frank’s, a brothel, and later at Hugh Hoskin’s saloon and other Chicago bars.

One of her first important performances was at the Panama Club, a white-owned club that only allowed white customers and had locations in Chicago, New York, and other cities. Hunter performed in an upstairs room, far from the main stage, where she began gaining experience by singing blues songs and making up lyrics as she performed. Many people believed her ability to create lyrics on the spot helped her connect with audiences. Her big opportunity came when she was invited to sing with King Oliver and his band at Dreamland Cafe. In early 1923, she suggested that Columbia Records record Oliver’s band, but Columbia refused because she could not record with them at the time.

During the day, she worked peeling potatoes at her boarding house for $6 a week plus room and board. At night, she tried to convince club owners to give her singing jobs. Her hard work led to better opportunities, and she eventually moved from small, low-class venues to a prestigious venue for Black entertainers, the Dreamland ballroom. She worked at Dreamland for five years, starting in 1917, and her salary increased to $35 a week.

In 1917, she toured Europe, performing in Paris and London. Europeans treated her with respect, which left a strong impression on her.

Her career as a singer and songwriter grew in the 1920s and 1930s. She performed in clubs and on stage in musicals in New York and London. One of her songs, "Downhearted Blues" (1922), was critically praised.

She recorded songs with Perry Bradford from 1922 to 1927. During the 1920s, she recorded for several record companies, including Black Swan, Paramount, Gennett, OKeh, Victor, and Columbia. While working for Paramount, she also recorded for Harmograph Records under the name May Alix.

She co-wrote "Downhearted Blues" with Lovie Austin and recorded it for Ink Williams at Paramount Records. She received $368 in royalties, but Williams secretly sold the recording rights to Columbia Records, giving all royalties to himself. The song became a hit for Columbia, with Bessie Smith as the vocalist. Hunter learned about Williams’s actions and stopped recording with him.

In 1928, she performed in the first London production of Show Boat at Drury Lane, playing Queenie opposite Paul Robeson. Later, she performed in nightclubs across Europe and in London with Jack Jackson’s society orchestra at the Dorchester. One of her recordings with Jackson was "Miss Otis Regrets."

At the Dorchester, she made recordings with His Master’s Voice and appeared in Radio Parade of 1935 (1934), a British film that included a short-lived color process. Hunter’s segment was one of only two parts of the film in color. She performed in both the United States and Europe during the late 1930s and early 1940s.

She later moved to New York City, where she performed with Bricktop and recorded with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. A hit song, "Cake Walking Babies (From Home)," featuring Armstrong and Bechet, was recorded in 1924.

In 1944, she joined the U.S.O., an organization that entertained military troops. She led African American Unit 342—"The Rhythm Rascals"—and became the first U.S.O. unit to visit the China-Burma-India theatre of war. She also performed for troops in North Africa and continued entertaining them during World War II and into the early postwar years.

In the 1950s, she traveled with the U.S.O. to Japan and Korea. After her mother died in 1957, she decided to leave performing. She reduced her age, claimed to have a high school diploma, and enrolled in nursing school. She worked as a volunteer at the Joint Diseases Hospital in Harlem and later for 20 years at Roosevelt Island’s Goldwater Memorial Hospital.

Goldwater Memorial Hospital forced her to retire, believing she was 70 years old. She was actually 82 years old and returned to singing. She briefly performed on two albums in the early 1960s and later had a regular job at a Greenwich Village club until her death in October 1984.

She was still working at Goldwater Memorial Hospital in 1961 when she participated in two recording sessions. In 1971, she was filmed for a Danish television program and interviewed for the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1976, she attended a party for her friend Mabel Mercer and was invited to perform at Barney Josephson’s Greenwich Village club, The Cookery. Her two-week engagement became a six-year success, reviving her music career.

John Hammond, a record producer, signed her to Columbia Records after connecting with her through Barney Josephson. Her Columbia albums, The Glory of Alberta Hunter, Amtrak Blues, and Look For the Silver Lining, sold well but not as much as expected. She also appeared on television programs and had a small role in the 1978 film Remember My Name, where she wrote and performed the soundtrack.

Personal life

In 1919, Hunter married Willard Saxby Townsend, a former soldier who later became a labor leader for baggage handlers in the International Brotherhood of Red Caps. However, the marriage did not last long. They separated within months because Hunter did not want to stop working. They were divorced in 1923.

Hunter was a lesbian but kept her sexuality private. In August 1927, she traveled to France with Lottie Tyler, the niece of the famous comedian Bert Williams. Hunter and Tyler met in Chicago several years earlier. They had a relationship that started and stopped several times until Tyler's death many years later.

Hunter is buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York (Elmwood section, plot 1411), a place where many celebrities are buried.

Hunter's life was shown in the 1988 TV movie Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin', a documentary written by Chris Albertson and narrated by pianist Billy Taylor. It was also featured in Cookin' at the Cookery, a musical play by Marion J. Caffey, which toured the United States recently with Ernestine Jackson portraying Hunter. The play Leaving the Blues by Jewelle Gomez, produced by the TOSOS theatre company in New York City in 2020, tells about Hunter's life and her relationship with Lottie Tyler. Rosalind Brown, who was in the original cast of Footloose and One Mo' Time, plays the role of Alberta Hunter in Leaving the Blues.

Hunter was added to the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015. Her comeback album, Amtrak Blues, was honored by the Blues Hall of Fame in 2009.

Discography

1921–23: Complete Recorded Works, Volume 1 (1921–1923) – Document Records
1923–24: Complete Recorded Works, Volume 2 (1923–1924) – Document Records
1924–27: Complete Recorded Works, Volume 3 (1924–1927) – Document Records
1927–46: Complete Recorded Works, Volume 4 (1927–1946) – Document Records
1921–24: Complete Recorded Works, Volume 5 Alternate Takes (1921–1924) – Document Records
1921–40: The Alberta Hunter Collection – Acrobat (2017, 4-CD box set)
1934: The Legendary Alberta Hunter: The London Sessions – DRG (1991)
1961: Chicago: The Living Legends (with Lovie Austin’s Blues Serenaders) – Riverside/OBC (1961)
1962: Songs We Taught Your Mother (with Lucille Hegamin and Victoria Spivey) – Prestige/Bluesville (1962)
1977: Remember My Name – Columbia (1978)
1978: Amtrak Blues – Columbia (1980)
1982: The Glory of Alberta Hunter – Columbia (1982)
1983: Look for the Silver Lining – Columbia (1983)
1988: Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery – Varèse Sarabande (2001)

Filmography

• Goldman, Stuart A.; Albertson, Chris; Taylor, Billy; Hunter, Alberta; Churchill, Jack; Cohen, Robert M.; Alfier, Mary (2001). Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin'. New York: View Video. A 1988 documentary about a performance. ISBN 978-0-803-02331-4. OCLC 49503904.
• Santee, Clark; Santee, Delia Gravel; Conover, Willis; Hunter, Alberta; Allen, Gary (2005). Alberta Hunter Jazz at the Smithsonian. Shanachie Entertainment. A live performance at the Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian Institution on November 29, 1981. ISBN 978-1-561-27270-9. OCLC 58996219.