Customer Reviews

Nellie Lutcher and Her Rhythm

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One of 15 children, Nellie Lutcher was born in 1912 in Lake Charles, Louisiana and died at the age of 95 in 2007 in Los Angeles, California - having lived long enough to see this wonderful 1996 box set by Bear Family properly celebrate her musical heritage.

BCD 15910 D1 contains 4 CDs housed in a 12" x 12" colour box set with 105 tracks culled from the vaults of Capitol, Epic/Okeh, Liberty, Decca, Imperial and Melic (20 are previously unreleased).

I've posted a full discography in the 'comment' section attached to this review which references all 85 of the released tracks (78s/45s/LPs); the info below details the 20 previously unreleased stuff outside of that discography...

Disc 1, 24 Tracks, 1947 to 1951 (68:13 minutes)
There are no previously unreleased tracks

Disc 2, 26 Tracks, 1948 to 1950 (71:05 minutes)
The following seven are previously unreleased - "With A Song" (1), "Life Is Like That" (3), "My Man (Mon Homme)" (6), "I Used To Be Dull" (7), "The Dog Fight Song" (8), "Darktown Strutter's Ball" (20) and ""April In Paris" (23)

Disc 3, 25 Tracks, 1950 to 1954 (66:47 minutes)
The following five are previously unreleased - "Baby, What's You Alibi" (2), "(I Need) Body And Fender Work" (8), "He Couldn't Care Less" (9), "If You Wanna Get T'Goin' (And Come Out Singin')" (10) and ""When They Ask About You"

Disc 4, 30 Tracks, 1954 to 1963 (77:14 minutes)
The following eight are previously unreleased - "Out Of This World" (1), "It's Been Said" (2), "Let Me Tell You 'Bout The Guy" (22), "If Your Face Was As Beautiful As Your Soul"(23), "He's A Real Gone Guy" [Re-recording of her 1947 Capitol hit] (24), "There's A Reason" (25), "Let Me Tell You 'Bout The Guy (Overdub)" (29) and "If Your Face Was As Beautiful As Your Soul (Overdub)" (30)

The 36-page album-sized booklet has a history of the lady's life and music by noted writer BILL MILLAR of England (she was a smash in the UK - packing out theatres in late 1950), newspaper clippings, Juke Box chart listings, black & white studio photos, trade adverts, a section on her fantastically tight backing band BILLY HADNOTT, ULYSSES LIVINGSTONE and LEE YOUNG - all topped off with a very detailed RICHARD WEISZ Sessions Discography stretching from 1947 to 1963. The individual CDs have the same picture on the back and front (a bit boring actually), but other than that this is the usual high-class product that has made Bear Family beloved by collectors and music fans the world over.

Stylistically, Nellie would scat along with the notes as she played her piano (a noted style of hers), so at times she often sounded like a female Nat King Cole in his early Jazz years (she dueted with him on two great sides in early 1950). And while her combo was clearly Jazz orientated, there was also a delicious touch of Louis Jordan swing to her music and lyrics. Her tunes (many self-written) were great fun and saucy with wittily mischievous words (the title of this review is from "Pa's Not Home - Ma's Upstairs"). The quietly contained quartet also kept her vocals and personality to the fore - which allowed you to `hear' her. Admittedly, some of the bigger band stuff on Disc 3 is too heavy-handed for my taste, but there's still so much more on there to keep you listening...and the unreleased stuff is of a very high standard indeed...

If you wanted to get a lay of the land, try the single Capitol CD from 2000 "Real Gone Gal"- if that grabs you, you'll want to go deeper and this box is where to go. It's not cheap, but then real class and quality always costs.

Nellie Lutcher is up there right now in the Celestial Spheres with LaVern Baker, Nat King Cole and Ma Rainey rehearsing for a date in the "Heavenly Inn" Bar And Grill - word is spreading among the angels who are excitedly queuing up for tickets at "The Garden Of Eden" box office - and God 'herself' is rumored to put in a show at the gig (disguised of course as Ella Fitzgerald)...

God bless you wherever you are Nellie Lutcher - you beautiful woman - and big time kudos to those at Bear Family for keeping her flame alive in this superb box set.

Nellie Lutcher is an almost now unplayed and unknown jazz singer who in many respects brings the well known great, Ella Fitzgerald, to mind. Both are effortless and prominent scat singers, both sing smooth jazz standards, and both sing a more tender lyrical repertoire as well. Their gutsy mezzo vocal timbre is a little bit alike too.
Why Nellie has faded (apart from being perhaps less of a collaborator with the likes of Duke Ellington and others as Ella was) I'll never grasp. She sings the most heartrending songs, such as about "My Little Boy", in such a deliciously tender way that you just know she knows what it is like to rear a child. Even in moments like these, her selections and singing style project such an exuberant joy about life that you just feel like jumping out of your skin - which is quite oddly different from the implied feeling of self-control in the broader jazz style of Ella and much serious jazz.
Joy - in conspicuous quantities - is the most outstanding unique jazz quality Nellie brings to female jazz. Moments like this hit me every single time, say, I hear "Real Gone Guy", and "Fine Brown Frame", latterly where there is a slow song with really a quite tight jazz metre but she just keeps stretching it to its limits...
And there are less, but none the less exciting, big band orchestration moments as well, although I suspect that this wasn't as much to her as more intimate ensemble work was. It's thrilling each time you hear, "All of a sudden ,my heart sings/When I remember little things/The way you hold me tight/..." with the big band sound, and pure sexual energy bouncing around the concert halls. Or the big brass swinging a great beat intro with Nelson Eddy-style tight precision going into "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" and Nellie, whenever needed, can just stride the orchestra with a big voice like a Colossus. At other times her voice can be cut to a little thread like a girl's, or at times waveringly thin like Billie Holliday's.
It's not cheap, but no single CD has her best songs, and I lost my first set but I'm still buying my second.

I WANT THE DISC #1 WITH "MY MOTHER'S EYES" AND "THE SONG IS ENDED BUT THE MELODY LINGERS ON" HOW DO I OBTAIN IT? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEORDERING SYSTEM. IF DISC #1 IS AVAILABLE AND I CAN ORDER IT I NEED TO CANCEOL MY 1ST ORDER THAT I JUST MADE.

I WOULD LIKE BY ONLY THE #4 DISC. IS IT POSSIBLE