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For 16 consecutive years I’ve been making annual trips to New Orleans at Jazz & Heritage Festival time. Looking back at those visits, it occurs to me that most were marked by a special event or discovery. So 1978 was the year I experienced for the very first time the enormous emotional impact of a New Orleans funeral. In 1979 I saw for the first time the musical One Mo’ Time, the show that with one big bang provided New Orleans with a bunch of fine traditional singers again. In 1980 was the year I heard for the first time a young black clarinet player called Michael White. 1985 was marked by the dance at Confectioners’ Hall, a truly historical event, organized by Barry Martyn and Chris Burke, that made it possible to hear veterans like Percy Humphrey, Louis Nelson and Chester Zardis in their natural surroundings, playing for people to dance. I could go on like this for a while, but these notes are supposed to be about Lee Gunness. Well, 1992 was definitely marked by singer’s first visit to New Orleans. She took the city by storm!

A couple of weeks before my departure for New Orleans I received a letter from my old friend Jack McLaughlin, an Australian clarinet player who is regular visitor to the city and completely devoted to traditinal New Orleans jazz. He wrote that he would bring a gospel and blues singer with him. Quite honestly, my first reaction was: “Oh no, not another one!”, my second reaction was to forget it completely. Why bring a singet to a city that has already Thais Clark, Topsy Chapman and Barbara Shorts, to name but a few. And Lillian Boutté was going to be there too ...

Then one late night I walked into Fritzel’s Bar on Bourbon - it is on my way home anyway - to see what was going on there. And something WAS going on! Backed by three Aussies and a couple of locals, this young girl was singing “Freight Train Blues” like I never had hoped to hear it again live. That voice hit me like a bullet. When she started to sing “His eye is on the Sparrow” - she did the verse a capella - that noisy bar suddenly became silent. Next came “Barrelhouse Blues” that confirmed my first impression. This girl could really wail the blues in the old fashion. The ghosts of Bessie, Ma and Victoria were haunting this old German bar that night. “Lord, Lord, Lord” was a miracle of uninhibited joy and “In the Garden” was a deeply moving experience. Lee stopped singing all too soon. I could have listened to her all night and was even prepared to throw my last dollar bills on the floor like Bix did to keep Bessie Smith singing, but Lee was exhausted by the long flight from Sidney and it was already long after midnight. Nevertheless we started talking about music and my first meeting with Lee Gunness from Sidney, Australia, left me with the conviction I had met an exceptionally talented singer, who happenedf to be a lovely and intelligent young lady as well. I am definitely a night person. Even in New Orleans my mornings are a little gloomy. So the next day I kept wondering: “Is she really that goog or did I fall in love with the rare combination of a pretty face, an average voice and an intelligent conversation?”. Later that day I met my dear old buddy Don Marquis and the first thing he asked me was if I had heard Lee Gunness already and was she really as good as he remembered her from his recent trip to Australia with an exhibit on New Orleans jazz. In fact he was struggling with the same afterthoughts I had. Australia has given traditional jazz some remarkable talents like Geoff Bull, Barry Wratten, the Yarra Yarra Jazz Band but singers ...? After all, blues and gospel singing has been hitherto, with a few exceptions, an American and - let’s face it - mostly black art form. Lee Gunness was lily white and Australian. Was it possible that she mastered the art of blues and gospel (AND jazz!) singing to such a degree that two old stalwarts like Don and me were both completely knocked out? Could that deep, black voice come out of that five feet four blonde girl from Sydney? We heard Lee again and again and the answer was an unconditional YES.

Lee Gunness was born on January 15, 1966 in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. She has been singing as long as she can remember. The earliest influences came from her parents’ country and western albums, mostly Patsy Cline. Other formative influences centered mostly around rock and roll, rhythm and blues, folk and soul music. Some names: Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard and a number of girl groups from the 50’s and 60’s. When she was sixteen she wanted to become a professional singer but she listened to her parents’ advice and went to a college instead but kept on singing (mainly folk music) neverthless. After finishing college she started working in management for a big bank in Sydney, which she still does.

While she supported herself through university she met Jack McLaughlin’s Preservation of New Orleans Jazz Band in Newcastle, did a couple of songs with the band and was hooked on this kind of music. She listened to casettes Jack gave her and soon was working on a regular basis with the band and this for three years. Simultaneously she was working with the Maryville Jazz Band whilst in Newcastle. She then moved to Sydney where she joined Bill Dudley’s New Zenith Jazz Band. She is still working with the Zenith after approximately four years. In that time the band has played at a number of local and international festivals including the Edingburgh Jazz Festival in Scotland (1991) where they were invited to open the festival with a gospel service.

After her first contact with the music of the Crescent City, Lee became convinced that she HAD to visit New Orleans. The story of that visit goes like a fairy tale. One night she was at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church to listen to Wallace Davenport Gospel Singers and was completely knocked out by their performance. We convinced her to sing a couple of songs after the concert (she was very relucant to do so!). Jack and the two other Australians who came with him (John Van Buuren on banjo and Dick Edser on bass) hurried home in a cab to get their instruments. While everybody was enjoying the traditional cake and coffee at the church, I introduced Lee to a completely unprepared audience. In that audience was the great old gospelsinger Aline White. After Aline had heard Lee sing and did a couple of songs with her, she invited her on the spot to be a guest at her coming performance at the Gospel Tent together with the band. There Lee got a standing ovation from a predominantly black audience.

Although New Orleans is a big city, rumor spreads quickly in the jazz community and soon Lee was singing on a regular basis at Fritzel’s and at Molly’s in the Market on Decatur Street accompanied by her Australian friends and guests from different countries. She sat in with Kid Bastien from Canada, with Chris Burke (who overcame his double allergy for Australians and girl singers!), with Barry Wratten’s Pelican Jazz Band, with Michael White and Gregg Stafford and several others including the perennial Willie Humphrey. Lee had been sitting in front of the stage at the Palm Court Cafe, were Willie was doing a late night concert, listening in awe to the ninety-one year old wizard on the clarinet. I walked to her and asked her if she would like to sing a number with Willie. She nodded but I could see that she didn’t believe it would actually happen. I approached Willie and told him there was a fine singer sitting there and could she do a number with the band. I could read on the old veteran’s face the same reaction I had when I received Jack’s letter: “Oh no, not another one!”, but Willie is a fine gentleman and so he grumbled: “What does she sing?” “Blues and gospel” I told him. “Let her do a blues” Willie said, visibly prepared for the worst. The song was “Freight Train Blues”. Willie played one chorus, then nodded to Lee and she started to sing. I’ll never forget the look on the old musician’s face: disbelief first, then admiration. It must have brought back precious memories to him, from times long ago when singers of this caliber were not as rare as today.

That was also the night that George Buck heard Lee sing for the first time. This of course was our next move: making George hear her. Everybody who knows this man will agree that it is not easy to make him listen to someone or something. Being active in the world of traditional jazz for more than forty years and having recordede some of the greatest musicians in that field for his label, George has developed a strong skepticism towards so-called new talent. He have heard it all and he delights in making fun of someone who thinks he has made a discovery in music, especially if that someone is me. Although he had heard about her (George hears everything!) and had told me he wanted to hear her sing, the first time I manageed to get Lee on the stage to the Palm Court Cafe while George was present, was a complete misser. After she had sung two songs I worked to his table and said: “Well, what about it?” He looked at me with deep surprise: “What about what?” “What about the singer?” “Which singer? I wasn’t listening, I was talking!” Yes, George IS a big talker. Several days later, the night with Willie Humphrey, it did happen: George was listening. I didn’t need to ask him now. I could see from the look on his face that he liked what he heard. I don’t know how old George is and, considering his years in music, he must be at least somewhat older than I am, lest started his record label at eight. However, when he is listening to something he really loves he produces that ageless boyish smile. That night he had that smile on his face. When I got to him, he said: “She is magnificent!” I’m sure that already that night George decided that he would record Lee. He told me a couple of days later that he was working on it. He had already made a reservation for the studio and now was trying to put a band together of musicians active in New Orleans, which was not easy considering the short time that was left. Lee was leaving New Orleans a couple of days from then, but when George has put his mind to something he MAKES it work.
George had invited me as a guest on his daily radio program and had agreed that I brought someone with me. After he had heard Lee sing that one blues, he insisted that she would be that someone, which of course was MY idea too. We played the four traks on which Lee sings on a cassette by the New Zenith Jazz Band and Lee sang along live with a recording by the Belgian Roof Jazzmen and George was delighted. I had to leave the day after the broadcasting, so I missed the recording session which took place the next day, the day before Lee was leaving the city. I had to wait several weeks to find out that it actually took place. Several month later a cassette arrived containing the music on this CD with a laconic note asking me to write the liner notes. The rest is up to you who reads this. Waste no time and put this little disc in your CD-player. You’re in for a pleasant surprise.

This is a fine record as possible for a first acquaintance, A lot, however, remains to be discovered of Lee’s talent: she could do at least a double CD of New Orleans gospel songs (she sings them ALL!) and is no slouch either in New Orleans rhythm and blues. This little young lady has a bright future in music. This CD on the world’s most important traditional jazz label is a wonderful start.

One more thing: when: Lee and I visited George’s office he played us, in all his wisdom, a record by Claire Austin. This white housewife from Sacramento recorded this wonderful blues album with Kid Ory and his regular rhythm section in 1954. Now it’s 1993 and here comes a young graduate in management from Sydney, Australia singing the blues with a deep, black voice. There is still hope for this world ...