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Hans Victor von Maltzahn

About Me

My Jazz Story

I enjoy Jazz, when they don't let the trumpets get too wild, but I love the intimacy that a jazz performance can have that a concert hall can never give. Also, I can't deny that the music is addictive, especially the Smooth Jazz. Anyway, one of my main reasons for joining, is to contact you jazz enthusiasts, especially Marc Myers, because I wanted to thank him for his article entitled, "The Curious Case of Marcy Lutes." I discovered, after an Ancestry DNA test in 2019, that I am Marcy's nephew (via her older brother Wendell Ralph Lutes). It's a long story as to why I, my mother, and my brother never knew my father's real family, but suffice it to say, that after Wendell Ralph's death in 1977 (he was using a different name and identity then) , I vowed that one day I would find out who he really was, and who his family was. I finally got that opportunity in 2019. Since then, I've been learning as much as I can about his extended family, his siblings - Marcy Lutes included. In researching Marcy Lutes' career, 1945 until the late 1950's, as a big band and jazz singer, and radio and television personality, it was especially heartbreaking to see how little people knew of her today. She is such an unknown today, that many seem to think that she is already dead, which is NOT true, she lives quietly in the heart of New York City. Anyway, it was Marc's article that started me on my effort to put as much of aunt Marcy's story on paper as possible. I have just finished her mini-biography and it can be found at this link on the 'Internet Archive' website: https://ia801400.us.archive.org/3/items/marcy-lutes-ancestry-lifestory-to-present-day-2021./Marcy%20Lutes%20-%20A%20Biography.pdf I would love to know more about my aunt, and what happened to her career after 1960 (not a good year for the Lutes clan!). You'd think that I could just phone or email her, but, in contacting other family members, I've found that Marcy Lutes is no longer interested in speaking with any of her extended Lutes family (she ignored my email to her). My father, especially, probably holds a special place in her disdain for what he did to the Lutes clan in the early 1960's. My guess is that it probably derailed her career too, so talking to his son would not be her first choice in family reunion tasks. Well, I've babbled on long enough. I hope, Marc, and any other fans of big band and jazz, that maybe you folks might be able to resurrect an unfairly extinguished legacy by, maybe, being able to remind the listening public that there was this wonderful singer, who still happens to be alive, that once entranced the public way back in the late 1940's and through the 1950's. My bio on her career-years is pretty thorough, since I scoured all the news articles I could get my hands on, as well as online information that was available (very little). Best wishes, Hans