Soultry survivor

>> Geraldine Hunt keeps on keepin' on

by GERARD DEE

It's been 20 years since Montreal's queen of disco Geraldine Hunt had North America on its feet with the number-one dance hit "Can't Fake the Feeling." These days it's all about survival. "Me and my family, we're stuck, stuck, stuck," she says. "We are trying desperately to raise funds. But this is a time when we don't have money."

This isn't the first she's seen of tough times. When Hunt left Chicago near the end of the Vietnam War, to entertain American troops in Greenland, she had no idea she would end up in Montreal. "We had no money, we had to work our way back to Chicago. The agent kept giving us gigs and we stayed around Quebec. That gave me time to know the people and I found them to be just incredible." Relocation was an easy decision, and not just because Montreal was so charming.

"On the weekends, we had to lay down on the floor," she says of her previous living situation in Chicago. "They were shooting through the house. I had been beaten up at gunpoint. And we were living middle class. Where I'm living now, on the South Shore, the police department is closed on Sundays. I can walk at 4 o'clock in the morning. And I don't have to worry about my kids."

But her career? Well, that's another story, and that's why she tried Japan. "It was a good idea. When we first came here, it was like we were in Paris in the '50s. They hadn't become jaded towards us. I can't even get into Place des Arts as a worker, but I did the biggest venue for music in Japan, the Osaka Festival Hall. That was my dream, I was in heaven."

After an off-and-on four-year stint, she returned to Montreal, nearly two years ago. These days she's busy with her latest album, Soultry, Jazzy & Sexy, an ambitious set that also features her son, Freddie James, and her daughter Rosiland, who also scored a big hit in the '80s, "Murphy's Law."

"I realized when I was in Japan what I was worth. Because when you're beaten so badly, 50 bucks looks good, better than cat food. But when I came back--now I'm demanding, and it seems to be working."

With the Arnold Ludvig Trio at Jazzi'z on Friday, Nov. 17, and at Wax Lounge every Wednesday, 10pm