The grand dame of Detroit blues, Alberta Adams has been performing since the late 1930's. Born in the early 1920's in Indianapolis, Roberta Louise Osborne was raised by her aunt in Detroit. Growing up during the depression was not easy but Alberta gained a foothold in the booming Detroit entertainment industry as a dancer through her former husband Billy Adams. During one of her early shows she asked the manager of the club she was performing at if she could sing. He said "OK, but keep the dancing in." After she sang the only two songs she knew, the manager, impressed with her strong voice, told her to learn some more tunes and she has been singing ever since. Adams repertoire consisted of jazz standards and the blues. "I was hot, baby," Adams says with a laugh. "They'd bring in big name acts that couldn't follow me." Word of her vocal prowess spread, and since 1945 Adams has performed with Duke Ellington, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and T-Bone Walker as well as with the premier jazz, R&B and blues groups in Detroit during that era. Adams admits to no single influence on either her singing or dancing styles although Big Joe Turner holds a special place in her heart. "Big Joe Turner was it," she says, "and Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and LaVern Baker, those were my girls. But Nobody taught me nothin' about singing. I taught myself." Like the singers she admires, Adams has a strong, rich voice with a tone and expressive quality that grabs a listener by the heart and won't let go. Her new recording in on Cannonball Records "Blues Across America: The Detroit Scene."

Photo by Micheal Mendelson
http://www.sfblues.com/portfolio/artist/2000-alberta-adams.shtml

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