Alberta Hunter =Sustained Excellence=Don't Call It A Comeback, I was here for years

Alberta Hunter via last.fm

Last week( April 29th,2010), I had the pleasure of being a part of the wonderfully talented singer/actress, and writer Queen Esther's tribute to the incomparable Alberta Hunter( Harlem Stage/Jazzmobile sponsored). My role was to narrate/ through storytelling within the spaces in the music the life of this legend. In order to do this I not only had to know the songs, but I also had to really know the her-story of the journey. Queen Esther was very generous in terms of the execution of the delivery. She did suggest to me that I watch the excellent documentary called Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin' (1998), a documentary written by Chris Albertson and narrated by pianist Billy Taylor.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364775/ I was able to to both enjoy her voice, and to get a strong sense of the story from the archival footage. And what a story it was:

From Wikipedia
"Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984)[1] 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

This Lady did it all with such excellence for a long tine. From songwriting Downhearted Blues( a major hit for Bessie Smith) and many others, to Showboat with Paul Robeson. Singing in 7 different languages and USO tours during WWII and The Korean conflict, lying about her age to become a nurse in her late fifties-she said that she was 43-retiring after 20 years, and then making a comeback at 79!
Queen Esther and I haven taken on the joyous act of telling this story. She through the music and her incredible band-and me through interwoven storytelling and rhyme. We plan to put this show back up( so stay tuned) Meanwhile here is a piece(not from the show) that I wrote from the fictional voice of a piano player who was at The Dreamland Cafe hoping to play for her:
Brothel piano player in Chicago 1915

So this pretty little thing walks into a bar where there were more bullet holes in the walls then notes on the piano and she says like she is a woman ten years older , stronger and wiser than she probally was “ I’m a singer”. Now I knew who she was cause I always wanted to play for her. Something about her was bigger , tougher and sweeter then all of the dark clouds of gloom disguised as cigarette smoke in this promised land called Chicago. Why do I say it like that that? I aint got to tell nobody about the gangsters , pimps, and whores that love nothing more than to see somebody elses’ throat not they own after a night of good timing in these buckets of blood. Hell, I even knew who she was cause of where she used to sing- Dago Frank’s. That was around 1911 , so she must have been around 16 years old when she first started out. Don’t nobody ask to many questions about these things when somebody got talent if you know what I mean. And Alberta had it for sure. It’s a shame that the coppers shut that place down cause of one more murder that they couldn’t overlook. Sporting men piano players like myself hear about who’s got the goods when it comes to music, so I wasn’t surprised when she got that gig at the Elite Café on State Street with that Ragtime Sissy out of New Orleans Tony Jackson . He sure got a hit with her singing his songs like “Pretty Baby” Now I see why they got on so good. See she had a husband that nobody ever seen her kissing and hugging on. Hell after a while nobody seen him at all . Seen her plenty with her( sarcastically) “friend Lottie , Bert Willams niece. And Lord Knows who Pretty Baby was meant for. We still talking about Chicago in about 1915 or so by then, which means them shootings and carrying ons was still closing the even the best of joints down. Alberta couldn’t even get away from it when she was playing clubs that was just for White folks like The Panama , Deluxe Café or even Dreamland Café. Now the Dreamland Café was so special that King Oliver’ Creole Jazz band would have them waiting on lines down the block just to get in. They started calling her “ The Sweetheart of Dreamland.” She was getting real big, but one more time this is Chicago . You already know what I’m about to say . The piano player was shot and killed while they was on stage. This was my chance. I know how to duck. But before I could play one note she upped and moved to New York City. Damn