Alberta Hunter
Encyclopedia
Alberta Hunter was an American
blues
singer, songwriter
, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues
recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters
and Bessie Smith
. In the 1950s, she retired from performing and entered the medical field, only to successfully resume her singing career in her eighties.
, she left home while still in her early teens and settled in Chicago
, Illinois
. There, 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 through 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.
She first toured Europe in 1917, performing in Paris and London. The Europeans treated her as an artist, showing her respect and even reverence, which made a great impression on her.
Her career as singer and songwriter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and she appeared in clubs and on stage in musicals in both New York
and London
. The songs she wrote include the critically acclaimed "Downhearted Blues
" (1922). She recorded several records with Perry Bradford
from 1922 to 1927.
Hunter recorded prolifically during the 1920's, starting with sessions for Black Swan
in 1921, Paramount
in 1922-1924, Gennett
in 1924, OKeh
in 1925-1926, Victor in 1927 and Columbia
in 1929.
Hunter wrote "Downhearted Blues" while recording for Ink Williams
at Paramount Records
, but she received only $368 in royalties
. Williams secretly sold the recording rights to Columbia Records
, in a deal giving the royalties to Williams. The song became a big hit for Columbia, with Bessie Smith as the vocalist. Hunter learned what Williams had done and stopped recording for him.
In 1928, Hunter played "Queenie" opposite Paul Robeson
in the first London production of Show Boat
at Drury Lane
. She subsequently performed in nightclub
s throughout Europe
and appeared for the 1934 winter season with Jack Jackson
's society orchestra
at London's Dorchester Hotel
. One of her recordings with Jackson is Miss Otis Regrets (she is unable to Lunch Today).
While at the Dorchester, she made several HMV
recordings
with the orchestra and appeared in Radio Parade of 1935 (1934), the first British theatrical film
to feature the short-lived Dufaycolor
, but only Hunter's segment was in color. She spent the late 1930s fulfilling engagements on both sides of the Atlantic
and the early 1940s performing at home. In 1944, she took a U.S.O. troupe to Casablanca
and continued entertaining troops in both theatres of war for the duration of World War II
and into the early postwar period. In the 1950s, she led U.S.O. troupes in Korea
, but her mother's death in 1954 led her to her seek a radical career change. She prudently reduced her age, "invented" a high school diploma
, and enrolled in nursing school
, embarking on what was apparently a fulfilling career in healthcare.
's Goldwater Memorial Hospital in 1961 when record producer
Chris Albertson
asked her to break an 11 year absence from the recording studio
. The result was her participation (four songs) on a Prestige Bluesville Records
album
, entitled Songs We Taught Your Mother. The following month, Albertson recorded her again, this time for the Riverside Records
label, reuniting her with Lil Armstrong and Lovie Austin
, both of whom she had performed with in the 1920s. Hunter enjoyed these outings, but had no plans to return to singing. She was prepared to devote the rest of her life to nursing, but the hospital retired her in 1977, when they believed her to have reached retirement age (she was aged over 80).
Bored by inactivity, Hunter decided to resume her singing career, because she "never felt better." In 1978, at the suggestion of Charles Bourgeois
, restaurateur Barney Josephson offered Hunter a limited engagement at his Greenwich Village
club, The Cookery. She accepted and a two-week gig proved a smash when the comeback garnered generous media
attention and people started flocking into The Cookery.
Impressed with the attention paid her by the press, John Hammond
signed Hunter to Columbia 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, (where she sang the Jazz classic "The Darktown Strutters' Ball"), and Look For the Silver Lining, did not do as well as expected, but sales were nevertheless healthy. There were also numerous television
appearances, including on To Tell The Truth
(in which panelist Kitty Carlisle had to recuse herself, the two having known each other in Hunter's heyday). There was also a walk-on role in Remember My Name, a film produced by film director
Robert Altman
, for which he commissioned her to write and to perform the soundtrack
music. As capacity audiences continued to fill The Cookery nightly, concert
offers came from Brazil
to Berlin
, and there was an invitation for her to sing at the White House
. At first, she turned it down, because, she explained, "they wanted me there on my day off," but the White House amended its schedule to suit the veteran artist. During that time, there was also a visit from former First Lady
turned book editor Jackie Onassis, who wanted to sign her up for an autobiography
but was unhappy with the co-author assigned to the project. The book was eventually done for another publisher, with the help of writer Frank Taylor.
The comeback lasted six years, and Hunter toured in Europe and South America
, made more television appearances, and enjoyed her renewed recording career as well as the fact that record catalogs now once again contained her old recordings, going back to her 1921 debut on the Black Swan label.
written by Chris Albertson and narrated by pianist Billy Taylor, and in Cookin' at the Cookery, a biographical
musical by Marion J. Caffey that has toured the United States in recent years with Ernestine Jackson
as Hunter.
Hunter came from a difficult background. Her father left when she was a child and to support the family Hunter’s mother worked as a servant to a whorehouse in Memphis. Although she married again in 1906, Hunter was not happy with her new family. Hunter left for Chicago around the age of eleven, in the hopes of becoming a paid singer; she had heard that it paid ten dollars an hour. 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.
Hunter was a lesbian, though she kept her sexuality relatively private. She began a relationship with Lottie Tyler while living in Harlem, and Tyler traveled to France with Hunter in August 1927. Though their relationship later ended, the two remained friends until Tyler's death.
Hunter finally got her break when she moved to New York City. She performed with Bricktop and Louis Armstrong
. She continued to perform until shortly before her death in October 1984. She is buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale
, Westchester County, New York
(Elmwood section; plot 1411).
Hunter was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame
in 2011, while her album, Amtrack Blues had been previously honored in 2009.
1961: Songs We Taught Your Mother (Bluesville/Original Blues Classics)
1962: Alberta Hunter with Lovie Austin and Her Blues Serenaders (Riverside)
1977: Remember My Name (Columbia)
1978: Amtrak Blues (Columbia)
1981: The Glory of Alberta Hunter (Columbia)
1982: Look for the Silver Lining (Columbia)
1990: Amtrak Blues (Sony)
1996: Complete Recorded Works Vols. I - V (Document)
2001: Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery (Varese)
2001: My Castle's Rockin (VIEW)
2005: Jazz Masters Series: Alberta Hunter (Shanachie)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...
and Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
. In the 1950s, she retired from performing and entered the medical field, only to successfully resume her singing career in her eighties.
1910s – 1940s
Born in MemphisMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, she left home while still in her early teens and settled in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. There, 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 through 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.
She first toured Europe in 1917, performing in Paris and London. The Europeans treated her as an artist, showing her respect and even reverence, which made a great impression on her.
Her career as singer and songwriter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and she appeared in clubs and on stage in musicals in both New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The songs she wrote include the critically acclaimed "Downhearted Blues
Downhearted Blues
"Downhearted Blues" is a blues song composed by Alberta Hunter and Lovie Austin. The first line immediately sets the theme for the song: "Gee but it's hard to love someone when that someone don't love you"....
" (1922). She recorded several records with Perry Bradford
Perry Bradford
Perry Bradford was an African American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer....
from 1922 to 1927.
Hunter recorded prolifically during the 1920's, starting with sessions for Black Swan
Black Swan Records
Black Swan Records was a United States record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. It was the first widely distributed label to be owned and operated by, and marketed to, African Americans....
in 1921, Paramount
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson.-Early years:...
in 1922-1924, Gennett
Gennett Records
Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.-Label history:Gennett records was founded in Richmond, Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett....
in 1924, OKeh
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
in 1925-1926, Victor in 1927 and Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in 1929.
Hunter wrote "Downhearted Blues" while recording for Ink Williams
J. Mayo Williams
Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded blues music. Ink Williams earned his nickname by his ability to get the signatures of talented African-American musicians on recording contracts...
at Paramount Records
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson.-Early years:...
, but she received only $368 in royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. Williams secretly sold the recording rights to Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, in a deal giving the royalties to Williams. The song became a big hit for Columbia, with Bessie Smith as the vocalist. Hunter learned what Williams had done and stopped recording for him.
In 1928, Hunter played "Queenie" opposite Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
in the first London production of Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
. She subsequently performed in nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and appeared for the 1934 winter season with Jack Jackson
Jack Jackson (British radio)
Jack Jackson was a British trumpeter and bandleader who became a highly influential radio disc jockey....
's society orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
at London's Dorchester Hotel
Dorchester Hotel
The Dorchester is a luxury hotel in London, opened on 18 April 1931. It is situated on Park Lane in Mayfair, overlooking Hyde Park.The Dorchester was created by the famous builder Sir Robert McAlpine and the managing director of Gordon Hotels Ltd, Sir Frances Towle, who shared a vision of creating...
. One of her recordings with Jackson is Miss Otis Regrets (she is unable to Lunch Today).
While at the Dorchester, she made several HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
recordings
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
with the orchestra and appeared in Radio Parade of 1935 (1934), the first British theatrical film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
to feature the short-lived Dufaycolor
Dufaycolor
Dufaycolor is an early French and British additive color photographic film process for motion pictures and stills photography. It was based on a four-color screen photographic process invented in 1908 by Frenchman Louis Dufay...
, but only Hunter's segment was in color. She spent the late 1930s fulfilling engagements on both sides of the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and the early 1940s performing at home. In 1944, she took a U.S.O. troupe to Casablanca
Casablanca
Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...
and continued entertaining troops in both theatres of war for the duration of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and into the early postwar period. In the 1950s, she led U.S.O. troupes in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, but her mother's death in 1954 led her to her seek a radical career change. She prudently reduced her age, "invented" a high school diploma
High school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
, and enrolled in nursing school
Nursing school
A nursing school is a type of educational institution, or part thereof, providing education and training to become a fully qualified nurse. The nature of nursing education and nursing qualifications varies considerably across the world.-United Kingdom:...
, embarking on what was apparently a fulfilling career in healthcare.
1970s
Hunter was working at New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Goldwater Memorial Hospital in 1961 when record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Chris Albertson
Chris Albertson
Christiern Gunnar Albertson is a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer.He was born in Reykjavík and educated in Iceland, Denmark and England before studying commercial art in Copenhagen...
asked her to break an 11 year absence from the recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. The result was her participation (four songs) on a Prestige Bluesville Records
Bluesville Records
Bluesville Records is a subsidiary of Prestige Records, launched in the 1960s with the primary purpose of documenting the work of the older classic bluesmen passed over by the changing audience...
album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, entitled Songs We Taught Your Mother. The following month, Albertson recorded her again, this time for the Riverside Records
Riverside Records
Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...
label, reuniting her with Lil Armstrong and Lovie Austin
Lovie Austin
Lovie Austin was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period...
, both of whom she had performed with in the 1920s. Hunter enjoyed these outings, but had no plans to return to singing. She was prepared to devote the rest of her life to nursing, but the hospital retired her in 1977, when they believed her to have reached retirement age (she was aged over 80).
Bored by inactivity, Hunter decided to resume her singing career, because she "never felt better." In 1978, at the suggestion of Charles Bourgeois
Charles Bourgeois
Charles Bourgeois was a politician in the Quebec, Canada. He served as a Member of Parliament and as a Senator.-Early life:He was born on July 29, 1879 in Trois-Rivières, Mauricie. He was an attorney.-Member of Parliament:...
, restaurateur Barney Josephson offered Hunter a limited engagement at his Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
club, The Cookery. She accepted and a two-week gig proved a smash when the comeback garnered generous media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
attention and people started flocking into The Cookery.
Impressed with the attention paid her by the press, John Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
signed Hunter to Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. 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
Café Society
Café society was the collective description for the so-called "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in New York, Paris, and London beginning in the late 19th century...
Uptown and Downtown clubs. Her Columbia albums, The Glory of Alberta Hunter, Amtrak Blues, (where she sang the Jazz classic "The Darktown Strutters' Ball"), and Look For the Silver Lining, did not do as well as expected, but sales were nevertheless healthy. There were also numerous television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
appearances, including on To Tell The Truth
To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth is an American television panel game show created by Bob Stewart and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has aired in various forms since 1956 both on networks and in syndication...
(in which panelist Kitty Carlisle had to recuse herself, the two having known each other in Hunter's heyday). There was also a walk-on role in Remember My Name, a film produced by film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
, for which he commissioned her to write and to perform the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
music. As capacity audiences continued to fill The Cookery nightly, concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
offers came from Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and there was an invitation for her to sing at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. At first, she turned it down, because, she explained, "they wanted me there on my day off," but the White House amended its schedule to suit the veteran artist. During that time, there was also a visit from former First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
turned book editor Jackie Onassis, who wanted to sign her up for an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
but was unhappy with the co-author assigned to the project. The book was eventually done for another publisher, with the help of writer Frank Taylor.
The comeback lasted six years, and Hunter toured in Europe and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, made more television appearances, and enjoyed her renewed recording career as well as the fact that record catalogs now once again contained her old recordings, going back to her 1921 debut on the Black Swan label.
Personal life
Hunter's life was documented in Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin (1998), a documentaryDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
written by Chris Albertson and narrated by pianist Billy Taylor, and in Cookin' at the Cookery, a biographical
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
musical by Marion J. Caffey that has toured the United States in recent years with Ernestine Jackson
Ernestine Jackson
Ernestine Jackson is an African American actress and singer.Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, Jackson made her Broadway debut in 1967 as Irene Molloy in the all-black cast of Hello, Dolly! starring Pearl Bailey....
as Hunter.
Hunter came from a difficult background. Her father left when she was a child and to support the family Hunter’s mother worked as a servant to a whorehouse in Memphis. Although she married again in 1906, Hunter was not happy with her new family. Hunter left for Chicago around the age of eleven, in the hopes of becoming a paid singer; she had heard that it paid ten dollars an hour. 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.
Hunter was a lesbian, though she kept her sexuality relatively private. She began a relationship with Lottie Tyler while living in Harlem, and Tyler traveled to France with Hunter in August 1927. Though their relationship later ended, the two remained friends until Tyler's death.
Hunter finally got her break when she moved to New York City. She performed with Bricktop and Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
. She continued to perform until shortly before her death in October 1984. She is buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....
, Westchester County, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(Elmwood section; plot 1411).
Hunter was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
in 2011, while her album, Amtrack Blues had been previously honored in 2009.
Discography
- 1961:
Filmography
- 1991: