Mattie Hite

Mattie Hite (sometimes spelled Matie Hite; c.1890 – c.1935) was an African-American blues singer in the classic female blues style.

Life and career

Little is known about her family background except that she may have been a niece of bandleader and saxophonist Les Hite.[1] Her birthplace is unknown, but New York City has been suggested.[2] Around 1915 she moved to Chicago, where she sang at the Panama Club, often with such performers as Alberta Hunter and Florence Mills.[2] In 1919 she returned to New York City, where she worked in cabarets,[2] singing at many nightspots including Barron Wilkin's Astoria Cafe and Pod's and Jerry's.[3] Hite recorded in 1921 for Victor Records but the result was unissued; she recorded again in 1923 with Fletcher Henderson for the Pathé label, in 1923-4 for the Bell label, and in 1930 with Cliff Jackson for the Columbia label.[2] From 1928 to 1932 she appeared in various revues at the Lafayette Theater in New York City. She is thought to have died in New York City in about 1935.[2]

Blues writer Derrick Stewart-Baxter wrote in 1970 that "according to Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon, [Mattie Hite] was a long, tall woman, who flavored her act with some extremely risqué songs".[4] James P. Johnson considered Hite "one of the greatest cabaret singers of all time".[2] She was known especially for her version of "St. James' Infirmary".[5]

Mattie Hite's complete recordings were reissued in CD format by Document Records on Female Blues Singers, Volume 9: H2 (1923–1930) Complete Recorded Works & Supplements (DODC-5513).

Nellie Hite

The singer Nellie Hite, who recorded two sides in 1923 for Bell label may be Mattie Hite, or her sister.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Hite, Mattie", in Henry Louis Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (eds), Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 263.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Harris 1994, p. 231.
  3. ↑ Paul Oliver, Broadcasting the Blues: Black Blues in the Segregation Era, Routledge, 2006, p. 62.
  4. ↑ Stewart-Baxter 1970, p. 94.
  5. ↑ Stewart-Baxter 1970, p. 96.

References

External links

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