Bertha "Chippie" Hill

b. March 15, 1905 in Charleston, SC, d. May 7, 1950 in New York City, NY, classic female blues singer and dancer, active in 1920s. Bertha Hill was in showbusiness as a singer and dancer aged 14, when she claimed to have stolen the show from Ethel Waters. Nicknamed for her youth and small stature, she settled in Chicago in the 20s. Her dark, hard voice was especially suited to blues, and good trumpeters seemed to inspire her; her finest recordings are those with King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. She retired in the late 20s after marrying, but was persuaded to return to singing and recording for the growing white jazz audience in the mid-40s. Still a fine singer, she was a success at the 1948 Paris Jazz Festival, but a promising second career was ended by a hit-and-run driver in 1950. She is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois.

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By Scott Yanow

One of the better classic blues singers of the 1920s (and much less vaudeville-oriented than many of her contemporaries), Chippie Hill was one of the few singers of her generation to make a full-fledged comeback in the '40s. One of 16 children, she started working in 1916 as a dancer before she became better known as a singer. She toured with Ma Rainey's Rabbit Foot Minstrels and went on to become a solo performer on vaudeville for a long period. Hill settled in Chicago in 1925 and recorded regularly for a few years. After working steadily in the Chicago area until 1930 (including touring with Lovie Austin), she eventually left music to raise seven children. Hill occasionally sang during the next 15 years (including with Jimmie Noone) but mostly worked outside of music. She was rediscovered by writer Rudi Blesh in 1946, working in a bakery. Appearances on Blesh's This Is Jazz radio series resulted in her coming back to the music scene, performing at the Village Vanguard, Jimmy Ryan's and even appearing at Carnegie Hall in 1948 with Kid Ory. She sang at the Paris Jazz Festival, worked with Art Hodes in Chicago, and was back in prime form in 1950 when she was run over by a car and killed. Chippie Hill, who introduced Richard M. Jones' "Trouble in Mind" in 1926, recorded 23 titles during 1925-1929 with such sidemen as Jones, Louis Armstrong, Shirley Clay, Georgia Tom Dorsey, Tampa Red, and Punch Miller. She also recorded nine selections on two dates in 1946 with Lee Collins, Lovie Austin, Baby Dodds, and Montana Taylor.