Alberta Adams (July 26, 1917 – December 25, 2014) was an American blues singer.
Raised in Detroit, Michigan, she began performing as a tap dancer and nightclub singer in the 1930s. In 1952, she signed a recording contract with Chess Records and recorded with Red Saunders for the label. She toured with Duke Ellington, Eddie Vinson, Louis Jordan, Lionel Hampton, and T-Bone Walker, 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. 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. 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 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. 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, Eddie "Guitar" Burns, and Eddie Kirkland.
Music career
Early years
Phil and Leonard Chess, of Chess Records, 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's big band. She also recorded for Savoy Records in Newark, New Jersey, releasing the single "Say Baby Say", with the T.J. Fowler Band.
Adams toured with Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, Duke Ellington, Eddie Vinson, and Lionel Hampton, among others. After a hiatus from heavy performing and recording, she began touring with the guitarist Johnnie Bassett 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 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 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, 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."