Born in New Orleans, Lillian Boutté became not only one of the city’s best-known vocalists, but was appointed Official Jazz Ambassador for the town in the 1990s. She started young, joining the Golden Voices Choir, and went on to study music at Xavier University. Already catching the ear of fellow musicians, she toured with Allen Toussaint and worked as a studio player in her early twenties.

What brought her first to national, and then international, fame was joining the cast of the musical play One Mo’ Time in 1979. After lengthy seasons in New Orleans, and then New York City, she toured with the production to Sweden and Brazil, finally leaving the show in 1983. Even before that, in her time off from the play she sang in Europe, mainly in Scandinavia, and in late 1983 formed a European band with clarinetist (and her future husband) Thomas L’Etienne. Their “Music Friends” toured internationally for many years, working both in Europe and back in the USA. Lillian’s talent was to connect immediately with an audience, whether in a tiny club or a vast concert hall. 

She could belt out a vaudeville number with everyone clapping along, and, next moment, hush the crowd to silence with a ballad or spiritual. I was fortunate to experience both those aspects of her talent from the stage (see above), when she sang with pianist Sammy Price’s small group in an intimate studio theatre in 1989, and a year or so later at the Barbican, with US pianist Butch Thompson. The Price event was at the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where from 1985-89 she was known as the “Queen of Ascona”, playing to some of the festival’s biggest crowds.

Audiences loved her. UK musicians in her line-up included bassists Brian Turnock, Dave Green and Andy Crowdy, plus, for many years, guitarist Denny Ilett. She was a popular guest vocalist with Humphrey Lyttelton from the late 1980s. She continued performing until 2017, when she began suffering from Alzheimer’s.