Although this first volume in the Classics
Julia Lee chronology is ostensibly part of the label's
Blues & Rhythm vintage R&B series, it begins with eight valuable early jazz recordings made in the notoriously wide-open nonstop party town of Kansas City during the years 1927 and 1928. On the opening track, lifted up off of a dusty old platter that bore the obscure Meritt record label, 25-year-old
Julia Lee is heard singing "Down Home Syncopated Blues" with her big brother
George E. Lee & His Novelty Singing Orchestra. For the flip side, a stomp named after the record company, the band conjures up something similar to
Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-O." A series of Brunswick sides cut during November of 1929 features both
George E. Lee and a young
Albert "Budd" Johnson in the reed section.
George Lee sings
James P. Johnson's "If I Could Be with You" and
Joe Primrose's "St. James Infirmary Blues" in a rather shrill voice not unlike that of the young
Cab Calloway. Two instrumentals, "Paseo Street" and "Ruff Scufflin'," provide a piquant taste of
Bennie Moten-era Kansas City hot jazz. The pianist on all of these early sides is said to have been
Julia Lee and/or legendary Kansas City bandleader and future R&B composer
Jesse Stone. All of this serves as a wonderful prelude to the records actually featuring
Julia Lee the vocalist. She chortles "He's Tall, Dark and Handsome" in a powerful voice edged with ringing vibrato similar to that which
Alberta Hunter would use during the 1930s. In a neat maneuver,
Julia Lee's "Won't You Come Over to My House?" of 1929 segues smoothly into her 1944 recording "Come on Over to My House," a jump tune that clearly inspired
Nellie Lutcher's 1947 hit record "Hurry On Down." What happened to
Julia Lee during those missing 15 years? She is said to have remained in Kansas City working as pianist in her brother's band, gigging steadily but apparently not preserving any of her performances on phonograph records. Her Capitol recordings, which began to materialize in the mid-'40s, show listeners a mature woman who had gradually perfected her casual mannerisms in the 24-hour nightclubs of Kansas City. This is best demonstrated when she belts out the words to
Richard M. Jones' "Trouble in Mind" with a band anchored by the world's toughest rhythm section of
Jay McShann,
Walter Page, and
Sam "Baby" Lovett.