[Dixielandjazz] Nellie Lutcher dies in LA at age 94

[Norman Vickers]

To: DJML

From: Norman Vickers, Pensacola

 

Here's an item about Nellie Lutcher's death-at age 94 in Los Angeles.

 

Jazz great Nellie Lutcher, a native of LC ( Lake Charles, LA), dies at 94
(9/6)

 

By BRETT <mailto:bdowner at americanpress.com>  DOWNER

AMERICAN PRESS

 

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.

 

.

 

Additional reporting by Eric Cormier in Los Angeles. Additional biographical
information from the American Press Archives.

 

                                    --end--