[Dixielandjazz] Louis Prima

[Stephen G Barbone]

 >Bill Haesler wrote:(polite snip)

 >Youse blokes . . . are interfering with my mouldi-oldie one-eyed  
reputation and >tempting me into buying even more of Prima's 50's  
material.

Dear Bill:

Get some DVDs if any are available. To see Prima and Keely Smith is to  
see where Sonny and Cher came (or stole) from.

Don't overlook his 60s and 70s material with his 5th wife either. When  
Prima and Smith split, he married Gia Maione (1962?) and the show  
continued. I don't think they had any huge recording hits and some say  
it wasn't the same, but their shows in Vegas were superb and mostly  
SRO till Prima died in the mid 1970s. Maione was from New Jersey  
originally and is still living. I believe she is managing Prima's  
musical estate, (she won a series of lawsuits with Keely Smith and  
others over the rights)

Those in the USA should remember Prima if only for the music backing  
the advertisements for "The Gap" clothing stores in the 1990s. "Jump  
Jive and Wail" for example. I think that's what got the swing dancers  
going for his music. I remember playing a Swing Dance back about 1993  
or so where the kids specifically requested "Gap Music".

The one-eyes like Bill remember Prima for his marvelous work as a New  
Orleans Jazz trumpet player gigging with the likes of Irving Fazola,  
Eddie Miller, Pee Wee Russell, George Brunis et al.

Yet incredibly, his home town of New Orleans just about totally  
ignores him. What's up with that?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband