Alfa Anderson was a singer best known for her work with the disco icons Chic, who created enduring dance hits with songs like “Le Freak” and “Good Times.”
- Died: December 17, 2024 (Who else died on December 17?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 78.
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Alfa Anderson’s legacy
Dance floors were never the same after Anderson and the now-classic disco act Chic unleashed songs like “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” and “I Want Your Love” onto the world, led in part by her soaring vocals.
Anderson was an educator with a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University when she made her professional stage debut. She performed in a tribute to jazz great Cannonball Adderley, which led to other gigs and quickly blossomed into regular work as a background vocalist for artists like Dionne Warwick.
In 1977, singer Luther Vandross (1951–2005) introduced Anderson to Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, the musicians-producers forming a new group called Chic. She began as a background singer for the band, performing on hits like “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Everybody Dance,” as did Vandross. When singer Norma Jean Wright left Chic the following year, Anderson became its co-lead singer.
Her tenure at the top came just as the band had a string of major hits. They include the enduring classics “Le Freak” and “Good Times” – the latter of which gave hip-hop an early boost when it was sampled in the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” – as well as chart hits like “I Want Your Love” and “My Forbidden Lover.” She and Chic have since become icons of the disco era. “Le Freak,” on which Anderson is featured on lead vocals, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
When Chic broke up in 1983, Anderson continued to perform. She toured with Vandross as he became a major star in the mid-1980s, plus appeared on albums by the likes of singers including Bryan Adams, Gregory Hines (1946–2003), Mick Jagger, Billy Squier, Sheena Easton, and Jody Watley.
Anderson also returned to her first career: education. She earned a second master’s degree and in the 1990s served as principal at Brooklyn’s El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice High School. She and her bass-player husband, Tinkr Barfield, paired and created the group Voices of Shalom, releasing the albums, “Messages” and “Daily Bread” in 1999 and 2002 respectively. Anderson also had a solo LP, “Music from My Heart,” in 2017.
Tributes to Alfa Anderson
Full obituary: Soul Tracks
