Hutch - A Biography of Leslie Hutchinson | 
 enlarge | Author: Charlotte Breese
Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub
Category: Book
Buy New: $79.95
New (2) Used (3) from $14.99
Sales Rank: 876204
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 364
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 0747545960
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42164092
EAN: 9780747545965
ASIN: 0747545960
Publication Date: October 27, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Hardcover in DJ 1st Edition. BRAND NEW from publisher. Never opened , Never owned , Never marked. Excellent Gift Giving quality. Jacket protected in New, non-stick clear mylar sleeve. With 32 pages glossy B&W photos. This is a hefty book, weighing in at nearly 2 pounds; & handsome. Black cloth over boards, with Copper gilt titles impressed on spine; beautiful multi-color reproductions of original handbills on endpages. The first biography of musical artist Leslie Hutchinson,the West Indian singer-pianist affectionately known as 'Hutch', who achieved international stardom in the 1920s & '30s. He'd come to England in 1927 & became a favorite with society & the Prince of Wales & Mrs. Simpson. He was played regularly on BBC Radio; One of his greatest hits was "These Foolish Things". A great fan of composer Cole Porter, he recorded many Porter songs, including Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) & Begin the Beguine
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Product Description
Born in Grenada in 1900, Leslie Hutchinson, known universally as Hutch, went to America in 1916, ostensibly to study medicine, but soon escaped to Harlem where he witnessed the birth of 'stride' jazz piano. Moving to France in 1923, he became the protegee and lover of Cole Porter and entered the vibrant milieu of Parisian cafe society. In 1926, encouraged by another admirer, Edwina Mountbatten, Hutch came to London where he was soon topping the bills in variety and on radio. Immaculate in white tie and tails, Hutch's enormous sex appeal and charm, his velvet voice and superb improvisation on the piano attracted legions of fans among both the impossibly rich and the slump-struck poor. Hutch's love life was rich and varied. Yet for all his glamour, Hutch was a profoundly insecure man in thrall to insatiable appetites for sex, drink, gambling and social status which precipitated his fall from stardom and fame to a squalid, hand-to-mouth existence by the late 1960s. In her riveting biography, meticulously researched over many years, Charlotte Breese has gathered material from an enormous range of sources and has written a vivid cautionary tale which throws new light on the development of jazz, the decline of music hall, the changing status of blacks in Britain as well as illuminating the life of an extraordinarily talented man.
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