Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1902, pianist and singer Julia Lee grew up singing and playing in the musical hotbed of that city’s jazz scene in the ‘20s and ‘30s.

Celebrated for her husky voice, straightforward piano style, and the easy, but heartfelt way she sang, Lee developed a unique style that featured “the songs my mother taught me not to sing” – risqué material with unsubtle double entendre. In 1944 signed to the fledgling, but already successful, Capitol label and this 72-track collection comprises early recordings with the orchestra of her brother George Lee and then with Jay McShann, followed by most of her A & B sides on Premier/Mercury and Capitol from this era.

It features all her career hits, including her R&B No.1s Snatch It And Grab It and King Size Papa, and her Top 10 hits Gotta Gimme Watcha Got, I’ll Get Long Somehow, Tell Me Daddy, That’s What I Like, You Ain’t Git It No More and I Didn’t Like It The First Time. Dave Dexter Jr., who went on to work with Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, produced her records for Capitol said later that if Lee were able to get on the records sooner, she would have turned into one of the most popular American singers.

Although her hits dried up after 1949, she continued as one of the most popular performers in Kansas City until her death in Kansas City, at the age of 56, from a heart attack She was a highly distinctive performer, and hugely entertaining, and this collection, as well as being a substantial and reasonably comprehensive overview of the primary era of her recording career, is a thoroughly enjoyable showcase for her very personal brand of R&B.

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