Nellie Lutcher RIP

[Stereojack]

THis obit claims she was 94. According to most sources, she was born October 15, 1915, which makes her 91.

http://www.americanpress.com/index.php?opt...&Itemid=105

Lake Charles-born Nellie Lutcher, a stylish jazz vocalist and pianist who was a top-selling recording artist in the 1940s and '50s, died Friday in Los Angeles. She was 94.

Lutcher's hits included "Hurry on Down," "He's a Real Gone Guy" and "Fine Brown Frame." She sang a duet with Nat King Cole, "Can I Come in for a Second."

Lutcher also had a novelty song she wrote about her hometown. It was "Lake Charles Boogie," and the lyrics included: "This little ditty / is a song about the city / where I was born."

She performed well into her 70s.

"My mom was a fighter," her son, Talmidge Lewis of Concord, Calif., told the American Press. "The things she believed in most were loyalty and family."

Local rediscovery

Lutcher's death comes at the same time her hometown had already begun a series of events saluting her life in music.

The Imperial Calcasieu Museum, in conjunction with the American Press and others, has been organizing exhibits and tribute to Lutcher for this fall - timed to coincide with what would have been Lutcher's 95th

birthday.

Last month, rising artists Wendy Colonna, Eleisha Eagle and Breanna Fye appeared in a joint concert to raise money for the exhibit.

Family tributes

American Press Staff Writer Eric Cormier, who arrived in Los Angeles the day before her death in order to interview her, was with a Lutcher family member Friday when the news came by telephone.

"My Aunt Nellie just died," jazz musician Daryl Jackson Munyungo, her nephew, told the American Press after hanging up.

He got the call from another Lutcher nephew, Gene Jackson, who had been managing the ailing jazz great's affairs.

Lutcher had been in failing health, battling pneumonia and other ailments before entering hospice care.

"She was a fighter to the end," Jackson said. "She had told the family, 'I'm going to go when I'm ready to go.'"

Of her renewed local recognition in Lake Charles - events which now double as tributes, he said, "We are very happy that Lake Charles is going to recognize her. This is an opportunity for all her fans, young

and old, to honor her."

Lutcher's life

Nellie Lutcher was the oldest child of Isaac "Skinner" Lutcher, a bass player who worked for a packing company on the lakefront, and Susie Lutcher, who lost five of her 15 children to death during infancy.

At age 8, she was as assistant pianist at New Sunlight Baptist Church in Lake Charles under pastor was M.T. Jackson.

Lutcher attended Second Ward School and performed in the school orchestra. As a teenager, she played the piano briefly with the Imperial Orchestra, then the Southern Rhythm Boys, a local group of

musicians from Texas and Louisiana.

At 11, she played piano for blues singer Ma Rainey.

In 1935, Lutcher moved to Los Angeles. She played piano with small groups.

She signed with Capitol Records in 1947. over the next several years, her songs ranked on the pop, jazz and R&B charts.

She also recorded with the Decca, Epic and Liberty labels.

In 1952, she was honored on Ralph Edwards' NBC-TV show "This Is Your Life."

Lutcher was only African American woman to serve on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Musicians Union. She had been a member since 1947.

By BRETT DOWNER

AMERICAN PRESS

[Christiern]

One of my favorites since 1948, when I bought my first Lutcher record. Had to take a ferry over to Sweden (from Copenhagen) to get it. She had a truly distinct approach to singing and piano playing, and she always had great sidemen.

It's good that she stayed around for so long, I'm sorry that her last years were not good for her.

Edited June 9, 2007 by Christiern

[AllenLowe]

amazing performer, truly the best pop-jazz fusion I've ever heard. Time, feeling, chops, soul -

[ghost of miles]

Wow--I had just pulled out the Bear Family box a couple of weeks ago for another listen, and you're exactly right, Allen. Anybody who has an appreciation for such music should really seek out the BF set... RIP.

[BruceH]

I'll have to put on that "Real Gone Gal" vinyl comp I got back in the 80's. Always liked her. I'm glad that she lived so long and seemed to have such a successful life. RIP

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've got the compilation Blue Note issued a few years ago - love it!

Sorry she's gone. RIP

MG

[mmilovan]

R.I.P. Nellie.

It was your voice on "The Lady is in Love with You" I discovered few years ago on some obscure compliation, and it was magic.

You've get me forever!

Edited June 11, 2007 by mmilovan

[Big Beat Steve]

BTW, is her brother - R&B saxophonist JOE LUTCHER - still around?

He retired from wordly music to become a minister LONG ago but his early 50s small-band R&B recordings are among the finest of their kind.

[Stereojack]

BTW, is her brother - R&B saxophonist JOE LUTCHER - still around?

I don't have an exact date, but I believe Joe passed within the last year or two.

[Adam]

LA Times obit today:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries

Nellie Lutcher, 94; jazz piano player, songwriter and R&B recording artist

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Times Staff Writer

June 12, 2007

At the age of 11, Nellie Lutcher was playing piano for Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer. By the time Lutcher arrived in Los Angeles 12 years later, her impressive resume included gigs with the band of trumpeter Bunk Johnson.

But at the Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue, where Lutcher earned $2 a night performing in 1935, people wanted to hear more than her piano; they begged her to sing. Lutcher resisted, finally gave in and went on to make a string of hit records in the 1940s and '50s that won her acclaim for both her swinging piano and her playful vocals.

Of the artist behind "He's a Real Gone Guy" and "Hurry On Down," the late jazz critic Leonard Feather once wrote: "Nellie Lutcher's name stands for much woman, much music and much heart."

Lutcher died Friday from complications of old age at a nursing home in Los Angeles. She was believed to be 94, though some biographical accounts list her age as 91.

Often described as a jazz singer, Lutcher's vocal and piano sound did not lend itself to easy classification.

She belonged to a group of musicians whose recordings, one critic said, "were among the foundation stones of rock."

Lutcher begged to differ.

"I'm a little bit of jazz, a little rhythm and blues. I do pop things and I like ballads," she told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1993. "But I don't consider myself anything of rock. Whatever I did I made sure it was something I could restyle, because my whole thing was to give everything a creative, individual touch."

Born in Lake Charles, La., on Oct. 15, 1912, Lutcher was one of 10 surviving children born to bass player Isaac Lutcher, who supported his family with a job at a packinghouse, and Susie Lutcher, who had aspired to be a pianist. Nellie Lutcher's brother Joe was a saxophonist who also had hit records in the 1940s.

Lutcher began studying piano when she was 6 and played piano at her church in Lake Charles when she was 8.

She moved to Los Angeles to hone her skills as a composer and arranger. But at the Dunbar Hotel, fans placed a glass on her piano to hold tips and filled it handsomely whenever she sang.

"I didn't consider myself a vocalist; I called myself a song designer," she said, but fans thought otherwise.

In the late 1940s, Lutcher was part of a group of African American women, including Hadda Brooks, Mabel Scott, and Paula Watson, who made names for themselves as pianist-singers, said Jim Dawson, author of several books on rock 'n' roll.

"These were all very accomplished women," Dawson said. "But Nellie Lutcher was really the leader of the pack. She set the standard and she was the one having the big hits."

As a writer Lutcher mastered the double entendre; there was a sly and clever element to her lyrics. She enjoyed her craft and infused performances with joy, said her son, Talmadge Lewis.

"She was very comical," he said, "very lively, very bubbly, very expressive."

Over the years, Lutcher's career blossomed. She played the Club Bali on the Sunset Strip and Club Royale at Florence Avenue and Broadway. A pivotal moment came in 1947, when Frank Bull, a deejay on radio station KFWB-AM, gave her a chance to perform live on a benefit show. Dave Dexter Jr. of Capitol Records heard her, and signed her.

"She had eight top 10 R&B records between 1947 and 1950," said Tom Reed, author of "The Black Music History of Los Angeles — Its Roots." "She did it all. She was an entertainer, composer, arranger, writer, pianist, singer."

Lutcher's fame extended across the continent at the height of her success.

She was so beloved in England that police officers escorted her to her hotel after a performance to prevent fans from mobbing her. Lutcher recorded two duets with Nat King Cole, "Can I Come in for a Second?" and "For You, My Love," both in 1950. Two years later, she was the subject of an episode of "This Is Your Life" on television.

But opportunities dried up with the emergence of rock 'n' roll, and difficult business experiences made her hesitant to record again.

"Like a lot of other people, I was shortchanged regarding my royalties so I really have not had a desire to do any recording," she said in the Times-Picayune article. "For some reason I can't forget what happened."

In the late 1980s through the 1990s she emerged from what she called semiretirement to perform at the Cinegrill in Hollywood.

In 1992 music critic Don Heckman, writing in the Los Angeles Times, noted that Lutcher had lost "none of her exuberance, charm, enthusiasm and sheer, quirky musicality…. Her buoyant sense of swing and the joy which she invests [in] everything she sings, should be part of a required observation course for anyone hoping to become a musical performer."

Her marriage to Leonel "Buddy" Lewis ended in divorce. In addition to her son, she is survived by a granddaughter, Kira Lewis, of Concord, Calif.; and a sister, Margie Lutcher Levy, of Los Angeles.

[ghost of miles]

Going through the Bear Family box yet again, as I'm going to do a Night Lights tribute show to her this weekend, and I'm newly impressed by the distinctly Lutcheresque feeling she put into American songbook tunes... that 1956 Liberty LP of such material, OUR NEW NELLIE, is quite good (it's on disc 4 of the Bear box, but it's also available on a Collectables CD).

[Ken Dryden]

Nellie Lutcher made a guest appearance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz in the late 1980s. She still had plenty of chops and there was a charm to the senior citizen singing her hit "Hurry on Down."

[BruceH]

I think I have a Charlie comp of Joe Lutcher singles.