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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZHILL, Bertha(b 15 March '05, Charleston SC; d 7 May '50 NYC, after hit-and-run auto accident) Blues singer. One of 16 children; had seven of her own. Sang in church age 9; left home as dancer with Ethel Waters bill at LeRoy's NYC '19, nicknamed "Chippie' there because of her youth; worked with Rabbit Foot Minstrels as singer /dancer, as single on TOBA circuit of black theatres. First records were four sides with Louis Armstrong, Richard M. Jones on piano in Chicago '25-6. She made 29 sides in '20s, all in Chicago, often with Jones; other accompaniment such as Scrapper Blackwell ("Non-Skid Tread'), Lonnie Johnson, Georgia Tom (see Thomas A. Dorsey), etc: "One of the best accompanied, biggest toned, most swinging blues singers of the twenties' (Barry Ulanov). No records in Depression; worked outside music mid-'40s; returned to music in Chicago when discovered by jazz scholar Rudi Blesh working in a bakery '46. Residencies in NYC late '40s, recorded '46-7 on Circle label incl. radio show This Is Jazz, broadcast to Europe by State Dept; appeared at jazz festival in France '48 with pianist Claude Bolling. |