Lurlean Hunter
Singer Lurlean Hunter made five albums on her own during the second half of the '50s, starting out as a Lonesome Gal on RCA and winding up still feeling Blue & Sentimental for Atlantic. She was discovered in Chicago where she had been singing in many clubs, including a collaboration with drummer Red Saunders that held forth at the Club DeLisa. Hunter's move to New York City in 1955 was prompted by RCA's interest in recording her. The singer's recording career actually began before she left the Windy City at the behest of indie jazz labels, some of them quite short-lived -- such as Seymour, with a catalog topping out at four releases. The press described Hunter as a "blues thrush" in announcing her interpretations of three numbers actually written by the label's owner, producer and record store owner Seymour Schwartz.
The latter promotional blurb inevitably told some truth about Hunter's stylistic traits, if not her relation to winged fauna. Her recordings were more about rhythm & blues and pop than jazz, yet were done in an era when such sessions often involved fine mainstream jazz players in the accompaniment. The 1956 Night Life, for example, featured pianist Hank Jones and tenor saxophonist Al Cohn. Blue & Sentimental -- with arrangements by the progressive Jimmy Giuffre -- was reissued in 2000 as a split CD also including an album by fellow singer Betty Bennett, a former wife of pianist André Previn. Hunter's final recordings were done in 1964, at which point she was still well under 40 years old. She is known to have died young, although details of this tragedy are murky. In one version of the story she was knocked off by a mobster lover, yet whether anybody was really that mean to Lurlean cannot be completely confirmed.
© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo
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Blue & Sentimental
Jazz - Released by Rhino Atlantic on 8 Mar 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Night Life (with Many Albam and His Orchestra) [featuring Joe Newman, Al Cohn & Barry Galbraith]
Vocal Jazz - Released by Moon Beams Records on 1 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Night Life
Lurlean Hunter, Manny Albam & His Orchestra
Jazz - Released by RCA - Legacy on 1 Jan 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lonesome Gal
Pop - Released by Vintage Masters Inc. on 1 Nov 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blue & Sentimental (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by AVID Entertainment on 12 Feb 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Night Life (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 11 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Vocal & Jazz Essentials
Vocal Jazz - Released by Stardust Records on 1 Jun 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blue & Sentimental
Vocal Jazz - Released by Music Manager on 12 Sep 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lurlean Hunter
Vocal Jazz - Released by Vintage 2015 on 20 Jan 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Velvet Voice of Lurlean Hunter
Jazz - Released by Fresh Sound Records on 14 Jun 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best Of
Pop - Released by Vintage Masters Inc. on 1 Dec 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lonesome Gal (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 11 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Four Classic Albums (Night Life / Blue & Sentimental / Lonesome Gal / Stepping Out) [Remastered]
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 4 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It Never Entered My Mind
Pop - Released by Music Parlament on 25 Feb 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It Could Happen to You
Pop - Released by Matchless Music on 20 Mar 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
If You Could See Me Now
Pop - Released by Music Parlament on 25 Feb 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Stepping Out (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 11 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo