Biography: Alberta Hunter

Biography: Alberta Hunter
Folk's I ain't got a crying penny, my poor feet on the ground,
And if I ever want to be somebody I sho'got to leave this town

Alberta Hunter was a self confident youngster who loved to sing and recieved encouraging comments from family and friends. She learned the songs her grandmother sang, or those she heard on the popular piano rolls found in many stores. One day on her way to the store with 15 cents to purchase bread, she meet her school teacher, Mrs. Florida Cummings-Elgerton. As they walked and talked the older woman invited Alberta to go with her to Chicago, Hunter's eyes lit up and the wheels began spinning in her head. I got a mind to ramble but I don't know where to go.
She had a destination! She had heard her mother mention that singers could earn 10.00 a week in Chicago. After covincing her mother, the trip began. She arrived a the home of a friend of her mothers, and found a job peeling potatoes earning six dollars a week plus room and board. Her family did not locate her for about two years, but then decided to let her stay.
At age 15 Alberta tried to find a job as a singer often giving her age as 18, but Chicago was plagued with problems arising from very young girls being hired to sing and play in brothels and sleazy clubs, she had little success.
Finally she caught a break, Dago Frank's was reportly seeking a singer, she got a tryout and was hired. Hunter was much in demand on the cabaret scene in Chicago. The luxurious Dreamland Cafe became a mecca for the moneyed crowd and a show piece for black talent. She was the featured soloist there for nearly 5 years, no longer a brash ambitious kid, but a sophisticated, ambitious woman.
Paramount picked her up in July 1922 and issued more than thirty-five sides in less than two years, many of which were her own compositions. In addition to "Down-Hearted Blues", "You Shall Reap What You Sow," and "Chirping The Blues." "Chirping" was the standard twelve-bar blues which also incorporated some lines from traditional country blues, to which Hunter added her own twist with the resolution in the third line.
Well, I'm worried now but I won't be worried long.
Well, I'm worried now but I won't be worried long.
It takes a worried woman to chirp this worried song.

Typical of her early recordings, there is not a build up in intensity, but a relaxed lilt. Style and beat were as important as lyrics to her performances.
Her genius flowed from a mixture of musical talent and the powerful, complex experiences she had had as a young black woman. In late 1925 Hunter signed with the Okeh label and recorded sixteen sides most accompanied by Btradford's Mean Four, with Bradford at the piano. In 1927 she traveled to Europe with engagements in Nice, Monte Carlo and London. Work was tough to get because of problems obtaining labor permits, offers were far and few between.
She endured the delays by attending concerts, sightseeing and studing the language. Roy de Coverly, overseas reporter for the Chicago Defender, wrote these lines from Copenhagen: ....later that evening came her premiere. She was nervous. She has been told, and truthfully, that Copenhagen critics were the most stringent in Europe. I was with her....before her first appearance and she was frantic about her pianist. He did not have that swing. She was to appear first in the bar...Her entrance caused a murmur of admiration. You know a brown girl does look wonderful in white satin, if she can wear cloths. And Albeta can.... "Two Tickets To Georgia!" Dark Brown voice with velvet overtone. Rhythm. Brown eyes flashing, dark red mouth smiling. White satin body swaying to the beat....White faces...softening...as the magic of a singing negro girl and her music take possession of them. Applause. She had done it.
Alberta appeared in the 1940 Worlds fair with such people as W.C. Handy, Margaret Bonds, Benny Carter and Maxine Sullivan to name a few.
Alberta withdrew from the glamour and glitter of that world after Word War II to care for her ailing mother in Harlem. After her mothers death, the fiesty little woman enrolled, at age 59 in a practical nursing course and for the next 20 years worked in a NYC hospital. She had lied about her age as a youngster, now she lied about it for reverse reasons, and began a new career at an age when most people retire. Many times during that period friends urged her to perform again but she stoutly refused, saying her life was dedicated to helping others.
In spring 1977, Ms Hunter was retiring again this time from nursing at 81. Sharp witted as ever she was busily trying to get better royalties for her early blues. She fought hard for everything with an inner drive that aimed towards success. In 1977 she returned to performing and in a short span of six years, wrote the sound track for the film "Remember My Name", record an album of new and old blues, supervised reissues of earlier work while maintaing a long running engagement at the "Cookery." Her "Amtrak Blues" is a fitting update to the theme of one she had written sixty years earlier, "Iv'e Got A Mind To Ramble." Her blues sound was fine and mellow or low-down and gutsy, demonstrating her versatility. The stage and spotlight brought her back to renewed fame and glory, her love, her life. If she ever had the blues (and who has not), she sang them right into the ground and kept on moving until her death in the summer of 1984.
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