She was a singer-songwriter from Augusta, Georgia who later moved to New York where she worked with several successful artists and was featured singer at Carnegie Hall in 1976 in Cannonball Adderley’s Big Man. She also featured in “Hannibal” Marvin Peterson’s Children of Fire which as a Lincoln Center production and on the soundtrack of 1978’s The Wiz.
In the late 1970’s she was asked to sing in a session for the new group Chic, put together by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, after an invitation from Luther Vandross, who she had worked regularly with in the studio and on tour. She was a background singer on the dance chart topping single “Everybody Dance” and from 1978 to 1983 held the position of lead vocalist, which she shared with the singer Luci Martin.
Chic went on to become a huge national and international success and Alfa was the soloist on the hit single “I Want Your Love” and “At Last I Am Free”. She was also a singer on the group’s most successful hit “Le Freak” which topped the charts and was Atlantic Records most successful hit for over 30 years,
She performed with Chic until they disbanded but continued her career as a session and touring singer. Also during the 1980s she returned to education and earned her second master’s degree. Over the next 20 years she became a teacher in the school system in New York and was a principal at a school in Brooklyn.
She did not abandon music however, and in the late 1990s she and her husband, Tinkr Barfield put together the group Voices of Shalom and released the two albums Messages and Daily Bread. The group also released the single “What a Spirit” in 2005.
Working in a trio with her former Chic bandmates Luci Martin and Norman Jean Wright, she sang on “My Lover’s Arms” which appeared on the 2011 album It Is What It Is by Tinkr B. and Lu-Fuki. This led to Alfa releasing her first solo single “Former Lady of Chic” in 2013.
She went on to work with Luci Martin and Norma Jean Wright again in the trio Next Step and with the addition of the featured artist Kathy Sledge they recorded the single “Get On Up” which reached No. 8 on the Billboard Dance Chart in 2016.
In 2015 she and Luci Martin were invited by Nile Rodgers to sing on Chic’s first single for 23 years, “I’ll Be There”. The song became a chart topper in the UK.
In 2017, she released her own album Music From My Heart.
During her career she worked with a wide array of artists and musicians that include Bryan Adams, Nat Adderley, Al Anderson, Ray Barretto, Jonathan Butler. Sheena Easton, Gang of Four, Valerie Ghent, Major Harris, Gregory Hines, Mick Jagger, Jellybean, Eddie Murphy, Odyssey, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Squier and Jody Watley and many others.
Just a few of the hundreds of albums she worked on during her career include C’Est Chic, Risque, Take It Off and Real People by Chic, Glad to Be Here by Bernard Edwards, Boys and Girls by Bryan Ferry, King of the Blues: 1989 by B.B. King, I Love My Lady by Johnny Mathis, Diana by Diana Ross, We Are Family and Love Somebody Today by Sister Sledge, Busy Body and Give Me the Reason by Luther Vandross, How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye by Dionne Warwick and countless compilations and soundtrack.
She died in December 2024 when she was 78 years old.
Diana Ross recordings
Give Up (Bernard Edwards/Nile Rodgers)
Motown (M 1491F) (US 45)
Sources:
- https://www.officialalfaanderson.com/bio
- https://www.popmatters.com/176317-at-last-she-is-free-an-interview-with-alfa-anderson-2495710232.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chic_(band)
- https://spokesman-recorder.com/2017/06/28/alfa-anderson-chic-reflects-education-career-new-music/
- https://luthervandross.com/news/alfa-anderson-luther-vandross/
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/alfa-anderson-mn0000001254/credits
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/302654-Alfa-Anderson?type=Credits&filter_anv=0