Song for Sunday: Louis Prima
In 1948, he hired a 16 year-old singer named Dorothy Keely Smith, whose clear, mature voice and striking pageboy hairstyle quickly earned a following for the band. Prima and Smith played up the contrast between their ages, sizes, voices, and styles. Although Prima broke up the band in 1949, he stayed with Smith and worked the lounge circuit, marrying her in 1952 (she was his fourth wife). Going nowhere with the lounge act, in late 1954, Prima accepted a booking at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. On their way to Vegas, they appeared outside New Orleans with sax player Sam Butera. Soon after arriving in Vegas, Prima called up Butera and hired him to lead the band backing his act.
- Louis Prima, Space Age Pop Music.
That's Sam Butera as the lead vocalist on this track. One of the great things about Louis Prima and his lounge act was the grand multicultural cross-genre experience it was. I knew nothing of Prima until the film Big Night -- which is a favorite of mine.
Prima was big on my Sunday Morning playlist today so enjoy.
That's Sam Butera as the lead vocalist on this track. One of the great things about Louis Prima and his lounge act was the grand multicultural cross-genre experience it was. I knew nothing of Prima until the film Big Night -- which is a favorite of mine.
Prima was big on my Sunday Morning playlist today so enjoy.
Comments
Even though she never gave me any play I still came away with a love for some different kinds of music.
This is one of my favorites of his (theirs), I love the back and fourth and wise-assedness of the whole thing.
I picked up the Louis Prima collector's edition a couple years ago when it was featured in a record store display. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the music until I saw it on the stand. I'd lost all that Prima music in the break-up.
Good, good stuff.