Alberta Adams
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Alberta Adams (July 26, 1917 – December 25, 2014) was an American blues singer. Raised in
Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
,
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
, she began performing as a
tap dance Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...
r and
nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...
in the 1930s. In 1952, she signed a
recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
with
Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock an ...
and recorded with Red Saunders for the
label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...
. She toured with
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
,
Eddie Vinson Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (born Edward L. Vinson Jr.; December 18, 1917 – July 2, 1988) was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and rhythm and blues, R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed "Cleanhead" after an incident in wh ...
,
Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...
,
Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...
, and
T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
, among others. In her solo career, she secured a recording contract with the now-defunct Cannonball Records and recorded two albums for them: ''Born with the Blues'' (1999) and ''Say Baby Say'' (2000). Her 2004 album, ''I'm on the Move'', was released by Eastlawn Records. In 2006 she released the EP ''Detroit's Queen of the Blues'', which was named Outstanding Blues/R&B Recording at the 2006
Detroit Music Awards The Detroit Music Awards Foundation is a Michigan 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to recognize Detroit area musicians working on national, regional, and local levels. The Foundation supports and nurtures the musical community in Detroit ...
. At age 91 she recorded ''Detroit Is My Home'', with Ann Rabson and Thornetta Davis.


Early life

Adams was born as Roberta Louise Osborn on July 26, 1917, in
Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...
. She was raised in Detroit by family members, initially an aunt. From an early age she wanted to be an entertainer. Escaping a difficult home life at age fourteen, she began living on her own, getting a small apartment near Woodward, where she stayed for five or six years. She began performing as a
tap dancer Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...
in Detroit's Hastings Street clubs in Detroit and began singing shortly after. In the 1940s, she appeared at the B&C club as a tap dancer, among artists such as
John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...
. When headliner Kitty Stevenson was too ill to perform one night, Adams gave an impromptu two-song performance, as a result of which the club hired her as a vocalist for a five-year stint. Among her contemporaries and musical teachers on Hastings Street were Hooker,
Big Maceo Merriweather Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather (March 31, 1905 – February 23, 1953) was an American pianist and blues singer. He was mainly active in Chicago through the 1940s. Career Born in Newnan, Georgia, he was a self-taught pianist. In the 1920s, he m ...
, Eddie "Guitar" Burns, and Eddie Kirkland.


Music career


Early years

Phil Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * Phil (film), ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as ...
and
Leonard Chess Leonard Samuel Chess (born Lejzor Szmuel Czyż; March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969) was a Polish-American record company executive and the founder of Chess Records alongside his brother Phil. He was influential in the development of the recor ...
, of
Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock an ...
, heard Adams performing on Hastings Street and signed her as a vocalist in the 1950s. With Chess she recorded with Red Saunders's band, among other artists. Several of her recordings were included on Chess compilations in the 1990s. For a time she was a member of the Bluesettes, a vocal group that toured as part of
Tiny Bradshaw Myron Carlton "Tiny" Bradshaw (September 23, 1907 – November 26, 1958) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer. His biggest hit was "Well Oh Well" in 1950, and the following year he record ...
's big band. She also recorded for
Savoy Records Savoy Records is an American record company and label established by Herman Lubinsky in 1942 in Newark, New Jersey. Savoy specialized in jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel music. In September 2017, Savoy was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music. ...
in
Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...
, releasing the single "Say Baby Say", with the T.J. Fowler Band. Adams toured with
Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...
,
T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
,
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
,
Eddie Vinson Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (born Edward L. Vinson Jr.; December 18, 1917 – July 2, 1988) was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and rhythm and blues, R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed "Cleanhead" after an incident in wh ...
, and
Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...
, among others. After a hiatus from heavy performing and recording, she began touring with the guitarist
Johnnie Bassett Johnnie Alexander Bassett (October 9, 1935 – August 4, 2012) was a Detroit-based American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Working for decades primarily as a session musician, by the 1990s Bassett had his own backing band. H ...
in the 1990s. In 1997 she contributed to the Detroit edition of ''Blues Across America''. AllMusic stated that, "Chanteuse Alberta Adams, a long time fixture on the scene, closes things out with four wonderful sides using a core band that revolves around Johnnie Bassett. With this entry in this important series, it's obvious that Detroit blues is alive, well and thriving." According to AllMusic, the album gave her career a boost and led to a recording contract for her upcoming solo albums.


Solo albums

;Cannonball Records In her solo career, Adams secured a
recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
with the now-defunct Cannonball Records and recorded two albums for them: ''Born with the Blues'' (1999) and ''Say Baby Say'' (2000). According to AllMusic, "Both albums were well received by blues critics and blues DJs, and they helped relaunch her touring career, as she frequented festivals around the U.S. and Canada in the late '90s and in 2000." Her debut solo album, ''Born with the Blues'', was released on February 16, 1999. She composed most of the songs and recorded them with a band featuring the guitarist
Johnnie Bassett Johnnie Alexander Bassett (October 9, 1935 – August 4, 2012) was a Detroit-based American electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Working for decades primarily as a session musician, by the 1990s Bassett had his own backing band. H ...
and the pianist Bill Heid. ''Born with the Blues'' made ''Living Blues'' magazine's Top 25 Albums for 1999. It received a positive review from AllMusic: "Adams runs through a batch of tunes ranging from
jump blues Jump blues is an uptempo style of blues, jazz, and boogie woogie usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues wa ...
, New Orleans R&B, smoky ballads and jazzy slow blues. A seasoned performer, Adams still has a sizable amount of honey in her voice...just solid singing by a true American music treasure." Her second solo album, ''Say Baby Say'', released on June 6, 2000, was recorded in October 1999. She again composed many of the songs. Bill Heid, the pianist from her previous release, produced the album and contributed to the composition of some songs. The drummer R.J. Spangler was a co-producer.
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
praised the backing band, saying they offered "tasteful support" and stating that "the main attraction here is the forcefully husky-voiced Adams. Emphasizing her candid attitude and masterful timing helps overcome the occasional moments where her expressive voice has been thinned by age." According to MTV, Adams "stared down considerable challenges and wastes no time with pity or tact on her new album ''Say Baby Say: Life’s Trials and Tribulations According to Miss Alberta Adams.''" The album received four out of five stars from
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, which stated that in the album "Adams looked back on a life raising three children and three stepchildren, four marriages, and decades of blues performance. Such a life has its contrasts of ups and downs reflected in the album." ;Eastlawn Records According to JP Blues, "her solo career enjoyed a resurgence starting in the 1990s with her association with manager and musician R.J. Spangler f Eastlawn Records" Her 2004 album, ''I'm on the Move'', was released by Eastlawn Records, a Detroit label operated by Spangler. Backing musicians on the album, billed as the Rhythm Rockers, included Paul Carey (guitarist and co-producer) and Spangler (bandleader, drummer, and co-producer). The album was recorded in July 2003 and released in 2004. AllMusic gave it a glowing review and 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating the album "finds Adams at the top of her game and seeming to enjoy herself." The review also praised the production team, stating that Carey and Spangler "add an electric R&B aesthetic to the proceedings riding nicely between gutbucket shouters, mid-tempo swing and funky urban blues." In 2006 her EP ''Detroit's Queen of the Blues'' with the Rhythm Rockers was released by Eastlawn. It was named Outstanding Blues/R&B Recording at the 2006
Detroit Music Awards The Detroit Music Awards Foundation is a Michigan 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to recognize Detroit area musicians working on national, regional, and local levels. The Foundation supports and nurtures the musical community in Detroit ...
. At age 91, Adams recorded ''Detroit Is My Home'', released by Eastlawn in 2008. She composed many of the songs. Background vocals were contributed by CeeCee Collins and Thornetta Davis. Among the band members were Shawn McDonald (organ), Ann Rabson (piano and composition), and Spangler (drums and production).


Final years and death

Adams was active as a performer and recording artist in her final years. In 2009 she contributed vocals and composition to the album ''Local Boys'', by the Motor City Horns, and in 2010 she was a composer and guest artist on ''Blowin' Away the Blues'', by Planet D Nonet. The following year she was a primary artist on the compilation album ''The Eternal Myth Revealed Vol. 1'', featuring her older tracks with Red Saunders on Chess Records, and in 2013 she was a primary artist on the compilation album ''Definitive Detroit Blues'', released by Not Now Music. In February 2014, the singers Thornetta Davis and Tosha Owens were featured in the concert "To Alberta with Love", a tribute to Adams, who was then 96 years old. Adams died on December 25, 2014, at the age of 97, in
Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...
. A tribute concert was given by her niece, singer Lily Delois Adams, in Detroit in July 2016.


Style

AllMusic has called her "the personification of the
Detroit blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple n ...
scene," stating that "the undisputed, unrivaled, peerless Detroit Queen of the Blues is Alberta Adams." Mostly a self-taught vocalist, Adams mentioned the
blues shouter A blues shouter is a blues singer, capable of singing unamplified with a band. Notable blues shouters include: *Big Maybelle *Big Mama Thornton *Piney Brown *Walter Brown (singer), Walter Brown, of the Jay McShann orchestra *Beulah Bryant *H-Bomb F ...
Big Joe Turner Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him". Turner's greatest fa ...
and the singer-songwriters
Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (; born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a ...
,
Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (, March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "List of nicknames of jazz musicians, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
, and
LaVern Baker Delores LaVern Baker (born Delores Evans; November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997) was an American rhythm and blues singer who had several hit records on the pop charts in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were " Tweedle Dee" ...
as some of her earliest musical influences.


Discography


Solo recordings


Studio albums


EPs


Singles (incomplete list)


Composition and performance credits


See also

*
Detroit blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple n ...


References


External links


Alberta Adams profile
EastlawnRecords.com; accessed December 25, 2014. * *
Alberta Adams
at
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Alberta Adams
at
Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Alberta 1917 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American women singers 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers American blues singers Chess Records artists Chicago blues musicians Detroit blues musicians Eastlawn Records artists Jump blues musicians Singers from Detroit