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.
Hunter finally stepped out of the limelight (or so she thought) after her mother died in 1957. Little did she know that a musical renaissance, and even greater fame, were yet to come.
