Lurlean Hunter - Night Life

180g virgin vinyl pressing, limited edition of 1000 copies only - the complete album + 3 bonus tracks. Lurlean Hunter's recording career ran for fifteen years, and then unexpectedly ended in the mid-1960s. Hunter (1919-1983) was working with the George Shearing Quintet in 1951 and in the mid-1950s recorded four amazing albums surrounded by the creme de la cremeof the jazz world at that time. On Night Life, she is heard with an all-star band conducted by Manny Albam featuring Al Cohn, Joe Newman, Barry Galbraith, and Hank Jones.

I couldn't believe I'd never heard either her name or that flawless voice before, so I Googled her. It was a brief career, during which she successfully sued RCA Records for infringement of trade name (and on several other grounds). I wonder if that contributed to her relative obscurity. That voice deserved to be far better known. - Robert Taylor