#alberta hunter

Alberta Hunter, right (1920s?)

Alberta Hunter was 87 when she recorded her last album. That was in 1983. Her first 78 came out in 1921, more than sixty years earlier.

Hunter hadn't planned on making any more records but she had been forced out of nursing - which she adored - following mandatory retirement at the age of 70. What the authorities didn't know that Hunter was already 82, having lied about her age after enrolling on a three-year nursing course when she was almost 60.

Hunter's remarkable musical journey began in 1911, singing in a Chicago bordello in her mid-to-late teens. She had run away/relocated with her mother (depending on who you believe) to escape a gruelling life in Memphis four to five years earlier. Either way, her mother - with whom she remained close - joined her soon after.

Alberta progressed to bars and clubs, ultimately landing a spot and a road to stardom in the storied Dreamland Cafe, which also hosted King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (including Louis Armstrong and soon-to-be friend Lil Hardin).

Over the following decades, the Sweetheart of Dreamland ended up on stage in Broadway, London and Paris as well as in New York and London recording studios. She also wrote songs, notably including Downhearted Blues, which Bessie Smith turned into a hit.

Alberta Hunter #bornonthisday (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s.

(...) 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.

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. (...)

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. She reduced her age, "invented" a high school diploma, and enrolled in nursing school, embarking on a career in health care, in which she worked for 20 years. (...)

After twenty years of working as a nurse, Hunter resumed her singing career in 1977. via Wikipedia

Alberta Hunter (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 1 April 1895  

RIP: 17 October 1984

Ethnicity: African American

The black gay women

Celebrated jazz artists

Forced to hide true selves