Spivey, Victoria (Regina; aka “Queen Victoria”)

Spivey, Victoria (Regina; aka “Queen Victoria”), blues vocalist, pianist, organist, ukulele player, songwriter; b. Houston, Tex., Oct. 15, 1906; d. N.Y., Oct. 3, 1976. Raised in Dallas; one of eight children. Spivey played piano at a local theatre from the age of 12, then made her record debut in St. Louis in 1926 (singing her own composition, “Black Snake Blues”). During the following year, she was featured at the Lincoln Theatre, N.Y, then gained an important role in the film Hallelujah. She made many recordings during the 1920s and 1930s, accompanied by Louis Armstrong, Henry Allen, Lee Collins, Lonnie Johnson, and other jazz musicians. During the early 1930s, she directed Lloyd Hunter’s Serenaders and was featured for a while with Jap Allen’s Band, then worked as a solo artist before forming a successful duo with dancer Billy Adams (who was at that time her husband; Spivey had previously been married to trumpeter Reuben Floyd). They toured with Olsen and Johnson’s “Hellzapoppin”’ show in the late 1940s, and also guested with Henry Allen at The Stuyvesant Casino in 1950. In 1952 she left full-time music and worked for a while as a church administrator. She returned to prominence in the late 1950s, recording and performing mostly on the foLK/“blues revival” circuit. She formed her own Spivey Records Company, and issued many albums featuring herself and her contemporaries (and even used a young Bob Dylan as a session harmonica player on some tracks; a photo of the two together appeared on the back of Dylan’s New Morning album). She continued to perform until shortly before her death.

—John Chilton , Who’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter