Music
Alberta Adams
1917–2014 · blues singer
“Detroit's Queen of the Blues,” who began as a tap dancer in the Hastings Street clubs of the 1930s and was still recording in her nineties.
- Born
Indianapolis, Indiana- Died
Dearborn, Michigan
aged 97- Also known as
- Detroit's Queen of the Blues
- Detroit years
- 1920s–2014
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Alberta Adams was born in Indianapolis and raised in Detroit by relatives. Escaping a difficult home life, she was living on her own near Woodward Avenue by 14, and she began performing as a tap dancer in the clubs of Hastings Street, the heart of the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley entertainment district. One night at the B&C Club she filled in for an ailing headliner with two songs, and the club hired her as a singer for five years. She became a favorite at the Flame Show Bar and other Detroit blues rooms, recorded for Chess Records in 1952 with Red Saunders, and toured with Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, Lionel Hampton and T-Bone Walker. Her career revived in the late 1990s with Detroit-made albums on the Cannonball and Eastlawn labels, including Detroit's Queen of the Blues (2006) and, at 91, Detroit Is My Home. She died in Dearborn on Christmas Day 2014, aged 97.
Highlights
- Started as a tap dancer in the Hastings Street clubs
- Recorded for Chess Records in 1952
- Toured with Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker
- Detroit Music Award for Detroit's Queen of the Blues (2006)
- Recorded Detroit Is My Home at age 91
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1930s–1940s
Hastings Street entertainment district (former)
Demolished
The main street of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, lined with blues and jazz clubs such as the B&C Club, where she danced and then sang. It was erased in the 1950s–1960s by urban renewal and the Chrysler Freeway.
Performed here · 1950s
Flame Show Bar
Closed
Detroit's leading Black-and-tan nightclub of the 1950s, where she was a popular performer.