[Dixielandjazz] Nellie Lutcher

[TBW504 at aol.com]

I'm new to the DJML so forgive me if I comment on something that has  already 
been dealt with
Nellie Lutcher was born Oct. 15, 1912 in Lake Charles, La. She played  with 
Bunk Johnson in the Imperial Band in 1931 and her father, Isaac "Skinner"  
Lutcher (from St. Joseph, LA.) played bass in the same band. She toured  Louisiana 
and Texas with the Southern Rhythm Boys as a teenager, and worked  again with 
Bunk in Polo Barnes' band touring Louisiana in 1932 and 1933. Nellie  
remembered Bunk playing on a borrowed trumpet and tuba, despite reports that he  gave 
up playing after the Evan Thomas murder in 1932 when his horn was  smashed.   
She left for Los Angeles in the mid-thirties. In 1945 she  had a trio in 
which the vocalist was Roberta Dudley who recorded with Kid Ory in  1922. It was 
not until she started singing herself in 1947 that she found fame  as a solo 
recording artist, being immediately signed by Dave Dexter for the  Capitol label 
after featuring on a "March of Dimes" show. Toured Britain in  1950. Nellie 
was not to make her New Orleans debut until 1977.  She  appeared at the 1993 
New Orleans Jazz Fest where she was said to have been the  star of the show. 
Would you believe that the day of her appearance it absolutely  poured with rain 
and I decided to give it a miss .......… In order to seem  younger than she 
really was Nellie originally claimed to have been born in 1915.  Her brother, 
Joe Woodman Lutcher, was a very capable sax player and vocalist,  who recorded 
in the modern idiom on Capitol in California, but gave up music  when he became 
a Mormon. Nellie is also the aunt of Latin jazz percussionist  Daryl 
"Munyungo" Jackson. It is said by Balliett that Nellie's hit recording of  "Fine Brown 
Frame" referred to drummer Big Sid Catlett with whom "she stepped  out in the 
forties."
(Extract from The Song for Me)
Brian Wood