The Double Entendre — A Dish Best Served Old

The late-blooming blues great, Alberta Hunter

“Selections from My Jazz Album Collection” by flickr4jazz is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Casual listeners might list Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Etta James when asked to name some seminal female blues singers. Memphis Music Hall of Famer, Alberta Hunter (1895–1984) was a top-tier talent but is lesser-known only because of a large gap in her musical career. I became aware of…