[Dixielandjazz] R.I.P. - Georgia Lee

[Robert Ringwald]

R.I.P. - Georgia Lee

Jazz Singer Georgia Lee Dies
fby Andra Jackson
Melbourne Age, April 27, 2010

Georgia Lee, who was Australia's first indigenous jazz singer and won acclaim in
London in the 1950s, has died, aged 89.
Aunty Dulcie Pitt, aka Georgia Lee, died in her sleep on Friday at a Cairns nursing
home.
Her death came just weeks after an ABC radio documentary recalled her remarkable
forgotten career that took the daughter of a Cairns lugger boat owner to London's
Royal Festival Hall.
As a teenager, Ms Lee formed the Harmony Sisters with two sisters and brother Wally
on guitar. They performed around Cairns. When war broke out, she packed parachutes
for the US forces and performed for them.
The arrival of the US troops, with their enthusiasm for jazz and blues, led her to
take up this new idiom. After the war, she moved to Sydney to perform in clubs and
changed her name.
Along with fellow indigenous singer Harold Blair, she took part in the first Moomba
celebration, launched as an Aboriginal show in 1951.
In London in the 1950s, she was the celebrated singer with the Geraldo Dance Band.
Back home, she toured with Nat King Cole and his trio in the late '50s. She sang
with the Graeme Bell Jazz Band and appeared on television's "Bandstand" and "In Melbourne
Tonight".
The National Film and Sound Archives described her as only the second female artist
to release an album in Australia. Her 1962 album "Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down
Under" was reissued last year. It was added to the prestigious Sounds of Australia
register that celebrates historically important Australian recordings.
Bell recalled recently: "She had a really good jazz style and she could sing the
blues."
Aunty Dulcie will be buried on Thursday in Cairns.


--Bob Ringwald
Amateur (ham) Radio call sign K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/806-9551

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