Lo-Flo Records Artists
Harold Battiste Jr.
Legendary Jazz Artist & Producer
Harold Battiste, Jr. was born in New Orleans in October 1931. While he began his career as a saxophonist and pianist, his first high-profile collaborations as a producer came with the major success of Sam Cooke’s 1957 track “You Send Me” and the discovery and introduction of New Orleans artist Mac Rebennack as Dr. John. Battiste is well known for his work as a studio arranger and the co-founder of AFO (All for One) Records with Melvin Lastie in 1961. It was notably the first African-American musician-owned label in the American South, achieving immediate success with Barbara George’s massive hit single, “I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More)"—reaching #1 on Billboard’s R&B single chart, and later covered by Fats Domino, Cher, Ike & Tina Turner, Bonnie Raitt, and others. AFO was also home to Ellis Marsalis' debut album, Monkey Puzzle. Moving his operation to Los Angeles, further achievements included contributions on Ike and Tina Turner’s album River Deep, Mountain High, and on Tom Waits’ Blue Valentine. Battiste’s biggest commercial success developed over the course of 15 years working with Sonny and Cher. As their musical director, he arranged hits like “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.” This is in addition to his work on their television variety show, which inaugurated Battiste as the first Black musical director on an American TV series.
After 30 years in Los Angeles, Battiste moved back to his home state, where he joined the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of New Orleans, and established the AFO Foundation. Battiste received numerous accolades, including the Beau Arts Award, the Mayor’s Arts Award, and the Governor’s Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998, his birthday was declared Harold Battiste Day by the City of New Orleans. In 2010, the Historic New Orleans Collection published his autobiography, Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man. Harold Battiste, Jr. passed away in June 2015.
Alice Kuhns
Theatre Scholar, Playwright & Librettist
While Jane McNealy’s career as a jazz-pop songstress was hitting its stride, she would make another life-changing connection in her mid-twenties that opened up a whole new musical dimension. Another Hollywood Studio Club friend, Donna Bacalla, a theatrical singer/actress (who also sang on some of McNealy’s unreleased work) was close with an actor who was the cousin of a young Vassar-groomed theatre scholar, playwright, and librettist named Alice Kuhns. Kuhns and another writer, William Murray, were working on an updated version of a Gilbert & Sullivan adaptation. They were seeking a composer, so Bacalla thought she and McNealy should meet. The two women hit it off immediately, and McNealy, who absorbed a love of musical theatre from her childhood but had never set out to write a musical, realized that she had found a kindred spirit and potential collaborator in Kuhns.
McNealy shared an idea she’d been contemplating—a musical called Gauguin based on the life of the artist Paul Gauguin. Kuhns was so taken by the idea that she and McNealy began working on their first project together. McNealy had no real experience writing musicals, but Kuhns did. One might say that in similar fashion to Harold Battiste, Jr., with respect to pop music, Alice Kuhns showed McNealy the ropes of musical theatre and helped her hone the tools needed to be successful in that craft too. In Kuhns, McNealy didn’t just find her musical partner in crime; she found a true friend for life. Kuhns passed away in April 2024, read her obituary here.
Marsha Bartenetti
Singer, Voiceover Artist and Actor
Marsha Bartenetti is a singer with the ability to bring authenticity to songs with heartfelt vocals that transport a lyric straight to your heart. She has been known to “cross any genre for a good lyric”. In 2022 Bartenetti was tasked with recording vocals for a collection of songs penned by Jane McNealy and Alice Kuhns that McNealy selected to preserve the songwriting team’s legacy. The album, Marsha Bartenetti sings McNealy & Kuhns, includes music McNealy handpicked from her catalog of jazz, pop, soul, funk and folk tunes and was recorded as she always intended them to sound. Bartenetti was drawn to be “the voice” of the project by the duo’s evocative lyrics that tell resonant stories of longing and hope. The songs on Marsha Bartenetti sings McNealy & Kuhns explore themes such as love on the run (“Running Around”), yearning and desire (“Love”), love to a Latin American and Afro Cuban beat (“One Day at a Time”), an imaginative and fantastical dreamscape of romance (“What Is Today Without You”), unrequited love (“I Never See That Rainbow Anymore”), and an optimistic farewell served with a slice of nostalgia (“Kite in the Clouds”).
Bartenetti, who is also an actor and a prominent voiceover artist, exquisitely renders the emotion apropos of the weighty assignment with aplomb. Surrounding her elegant, inviting and expressive voice are lavish orchestrations and deft arrangements crafted by Mike Watts that were recorded by an orchestra in the famed Studio A at Capitol Records. Marsha Bartenetti sings McNealy & Kuhns is a jazz vocal album capable of standing alongside a collection of contemporary classics and standards culled from the great American songbook.
Lydia Marcelle
New Orleans Pop Star
Growing up singing in the streets of New Orleans, Lydia's vocal abilities brought her to the attention of producer Wardell Quezerque who made her a singing sensation. Moving to Los Angeles, Marcelle was temporarily living at the Hollywood Studio Club when Jane McNealy met her. At that time Marcelle was a teenage popstar who had just been signed with ATCO. “I was so stunned by her 2 1/2 octave range,” McNealy recalls. “Many people compared her to Judy Garland. The music ideas started percolating in my head immediately. I’d never heard anyone sing like her.”
The unifying connection that tied Marcelle and McNealy together was jazz producer/arranger, Harold Battiste, Jr. Having moved to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher, he signed McNealy as a composer to his publishing company, At Last Publishing, and they began to produce and record a series of songs with Marcelle on vocals. McNealy reflects. “In those days you never put down your tracks and added vocals later, we did everything live. Lydia was a true professional. She could do a song in one or two takes.”
Tami Lynn
Northern Soul Legend
Tami Lynn grew up singing in church choirs where she perfected her voice. She began performing in local R&B clubs in New Orleans after she was discovered by a local musician on a local gospel radio station. This is where she came to meet Harold Battiste and Allen Toussaint who subsequently signed her to their label AFO. Lynn opened for Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ella Fitzgerald. Soon after, Jerry Wexler heard her sing and recorded songs with her for Atco Records. In 1971, "I'm Gonna Run Away From You" was released as a single, which became a hit in the UK among fans of Northern Soul. Lynn became a back up singer for many prominent musicians such as Dr. John, The Rolling Stones, and Sonny and Cher.
On Songs from the Vault: Reel #2—Lo-Flo Records second installment of its ongoing archival series—Lynn’s incredible vocal performances are featured on three compositions from Jane McNealy’s catalog: “Where Are You Now,” the opener, “Make It Happen,” and the jazz standard “One Day At A Time.” With Songs from the Vault, Reel: #2, McNealy truly showcases the power of love and longing as captured by song, and Tami Lynn’s performances glide effortlessly from passionate and assured to searching and heavy heartbreak.
Joyce Dunn
Enigmatic Vocalist
Joyce Dunn came into the fold through Harold Battiste Jr. under his publishing company at the time, Marzique Music. Dunn sang on one of Jane McNealy’s most beloved tracks, “Turn Away From Darkness” the first single off of McNealy’s debut album, Running Around. According to a quote from Carlos Santana’s memoir The Universal Tone (2014) “The school used to hold open auditions for their Friday night dance parties, and we would win again and again. […] We never really had a singer. […] I met Joyce Dunn at a jam in late ’64—she was a singer singer, with a real blues energy to her voice. […] It was definitely a new thing at the time—a black singer backed by Mexican Americans and a Mexican guitar player. Michael Carabello would tell me that the first time he ever saw me play was during the few weeks we played with Joyce.”
Diane Baker
Actress and Collaborator
Diane Baker is an internationally known actress, film and television producer, who has worked on many well-respected films and TV shows. As a long time friend and supporter of Jane McNealy, Baker was influential early in her filmscoring career. McNealy was hired by Baker’s company, Artemis Productions for the television pilot, ”Catch Us If You Can”. Some of McNealy’s most noteworthy scoring credits were on Baker-produced films, and include “Fly Away,” the theme song to the feature film Never Never Land, sung by Petula Clark; and the score for CBS schoolbreak special, "Malcom takes a shot."
“It has been a creative challenge working for Diane. For this I will always be grateful.” - Jane McNealy
Musicians of Note
Lo-Flo Records
Jane McNealy has developed a successful career as a songwriter, publishing and recording over 300 songs in the span of five decades. McNealy's compositions feature notable musicians such as Dr. John (Mac Rebennack), Melvin Lastie, Henry Butler, Andy Simpkins, Roy McCurdy, and of course Harold Battiste Jr., among others. Many singers have recorded or performed McNealy’s work including Sarah Vaughan, Petula Clark, Mel Carter, Donna Bacalla, Henry Butler, Sona Lee, Veronika Scheyving, Mana Contractor, Emmanuelle Raoul-Duval, Judy Karp, Julie Flogeac, and others.
