Alberta Hunter

Alberta Hunter was one of the first generation of classic blues recording artists and one of the most remarkable comeback stories in entertainment history. She ran away from Memphis to Chicago at age eleven and was singing in clubs on the South Side by her mid-teens. She recorded for Black Swan, Paramount, Victor, and other labels in the 1920s and 1930s, and performed in the original London cast of 'Show Boat.' She served as a nurse for 20 years after retiring from music in the 1950s, then launched an astonishing second career at age 82 when she began a residency at The Cookery in Greenwich Village in 1977 that lasted until her death in 1984. Her recordings from this final period, made for Columbia Records, revealed a voice that had actually improved with age: deeper, wiser, and more rhythmically assured than ever.