Bertha "Chippie" Hill (March 15, 1905 – May 7, 1950), was an American
blues and
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
and dancer, best known for her
recordings with
Louis Armstrong.
Career
Hill was born in
Charleston,
South Carolina
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, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
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, one of sixteen children. The family moved to
New York in 1915. She began her career as a dancer in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
and by 1919 was working with
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her no ...
. At age 14, during a stint at Leroy's, a noted New York
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
, Hill was nicknamed "Chippie" because of her youth. She also performed with
Ma Rainey
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey ( Pridgett; April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was an American blues singer and influential early blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of s ...
as part of the
Rabbit Foot Minstrels
The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit('s) Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long-running minstrel and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and the late 1950s. It was establi ...
. She later established her own song and dance act and toured on the
TOBA Toba may refer to:
Languages
* Toba Sur language, spoken in South America
* Batak Toba, spoken in Indonesia
People
* Toba people, indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco in South America
* Toba Batak people, a sub-ethnic group of Batak people from N ...
circuit in the early 1920s.
About 1925, she settled in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, where she worked at various venues with
King Oliver
Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver (December 19, 1881 – April 8/10, 1938) was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wr ...
's Jazz Band. She first
recorded in November 1925 for
Okeh Records, backed by the
cornet player
Louis Armstrong and the
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
Richard M. Jones, singing such
song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...
s as "Pratt City Blues", "Low Land Blues" and "Kid Man Blues" that year and "Georgia Man" and "
Trouble in Mind" with the same musicians in 1926. She also recorded in 1927, with
Lonnie Johnson on the
vocal duet "Hard Times Blues", plus "Weary Money Blues", "Tell Me Why" and "Speedway Blues". In 1928, she recorded vocal duets with
Tampa Red
Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was a Chicago blues musician.
His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago blues gu ...
, singing "Hard Times Blues", "Christmas Man Blues", and another version of "Trouble in Mind" for
Vocalion
Vocalion Records is an American record company and label.
History
The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...
. In 1929 she recorded "Non-Skid Tread" with
"Scrapper" Blackwell and the Two Roys, with
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Mus ...
on
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
.
[Laird, Ross (1996). ''Moanin' Low: A Discography of Female Popular Vocal Recordings, 1920–1933''. Greenwood Press. p. 263. .] Hill recorded 23 titles between 1925 and 1929.
In the 1930s she retired from singing to raise her seven children.
Hill staged a comeback in 1946 with
Lovie Austin
Cora "Lovie" Austin (September 19, 1887 – July 8, 1972) was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, singer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best ...
's Blues Serenaders, and recorded for
Rudi Blesh
Rudolph Pickett Blesh (January 21, 1899 – August 25, 1985) was an American jazz critic and enthusiast.
Biography
Blesh studied at Dartmouth College and held jobs writing jazz reviews for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and the '' New York ...
's
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...
label
A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed ...
. She began appearing on
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
and in
clubs
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises ...
and
concert
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...
s in New York, including in 1948 the
Carnegie Hall concert with
Kid Ory
Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz.
He was ...
, and she sang at the Paris Jazz Festival,
and worked with
Art Hodes in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
She was back again in 1950, when she was run over by a car and killed in New York at the age of 45. She is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery,
Blue Island, Illinois
Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,55 ...
.
Selected discography
References
External links
*
Allmusic: Bertha "Chippie" Hill biographybr>
Bertha "Chippie" Hill (1905-1950)Red Hot Jazz Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Bertha Chippie
1905 births
1950 deaths
Vaudeville performers
American female dancers
Dancers from South Carolina
Classic female blues singers
Musicians from Charleston, South Carolina
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American dancers