Alberta Hunter was a leading diva during the first wave of classic blues recording in the early 1920s and astonished the world with a remarkable singing comeback in 1977 when at the age of 82. Born in Memphis on April 1, 1895, Hunter took a trip to Chicago with her schoolteacher when she was eleven and decided not to go back home. She soon found a job singing at a sporting house she called Dago Frank’s and eventually became a regular attraction at the Dreamland Café before moving to New York City in 1923. She began an extensive recording career in 1921, and in 1922 waxed one of her most famous tunes, “Down Hearted Blues,” later a hit for Bessie Smith. Hunter spent most of his career in New York and made the first of several transatlantic voyages in 1927 to perform in Europe, where she became a popular cabaret singer. She came home to work with USO shows in the 1940s and ’50s, but in 1957 her professional course changed when her mother became ill and Hunter became a practical nurse. Although she did do two recording sessions in 1961, she put her singing career on hold until she retired from nursing. Her return to performing, at Café Society and then at the Cookery in New York, brought renewed glory to one of the grand ladies of the blues, and she recorded four albums for Columbia as well as a live album at the Cookery during her final years. She died in Roosevelt Island, N.Y., on Oct, 17, 1984.
