Arts > Music > Jazz > USA > Nellie Lutcher    1912 or 1915-2007

Nightclub Singers

Singer Nellie Letcher

singing and accompanying herself on the piano

with appreciative audience in background

at Cafe Society Downtown.

Location: New York, NY, US

Date taken: 1947

Photographer: Gjon Mili

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=4e917505f0968e88

Nellie Lutcher    1912 or 1915-2007

singer and pianist

who had a string

of rhythm-and-blues hits

in the late 1940s

and continued performing

into the early 1990s

(...)

Ms. Lutcher’s career was a classic case

of seemingly overnight success

that actually took years to achieve.

She had been performing

in the Los Angeles area

for more than a decade

when a Capitol Records

talent scout, Dave Dexter,

heard her on a radio broadcast

of a charity concert in 1947

and quickly signed her.

Over the next two years

she went from obscurity to stardom,

with four records reaching

the Billboard R & B Top 10.

Her distinctively lively, lighthearted,

mildly risqué approach,

exemplified by her original compositions

“He’s a Real Gone Guy”

and “Hurry On Down,”

earned her an international

following and a booking

at the New York nightclub Café Society.

But by 1952

a more rough-hewn brand

of rhythm and blues

was catching on,

her sales were declining

and Capitol released her.

(...)

Nellie Lutcher was born

in Lake Charles, La.,

on Oct. 15, 1912.

Her father was a jazz bassist,

and her mother

was a church organist.

By the age of 11,

she was accomplished enough

as a pianist

to be pressed into service

accompanying

the blues singer Ma Rainey,

whose regular pianist was ill.

Within a few years

she was playing

and singing professionally,

often in a band led

by her father.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/arts/15lutcher.html

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/jul/21/
cult-heroes-nellie-lutcher-could-be-saucy-to-the-core-and-radiate-innocence

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/arts/15lutcher.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/jun/14/guardianobituaries.musicnews

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/nellie-lutcher-452644.html

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