[Dixielandjazz] Louis Prima

[J. D. Bryce]

Prima's band with Butera and Keely Smith was a major influence on nightclub,
or so-clled show bands,  in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Every band was
doing some version of Prima's show in Las Vegas.  This was true up until the
Beetles became a major influence.

Louis and Keely did a running bit where he'd say things and she'd throw
zingers at him.  This put-down routine was filched by Sonny and Cher in
their nightclub show and their TV show.  Donnie and Marie Osmond used the
same routine in their TV show.

Musically, their stuff was a mix of Rock and Rock, standards and some trad
jazz.  Their version of Ciella Luna(sp?) starts off as a tarantella, then
segues into a swing tempo, and then ends with what can only be called a trad
jazz chorus with trumpet, trombone and tenor sax as a front line.

They put on a whale of a show.

Jack Bryce


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EDWIN COLTRIN" <boreda at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Jack Bryce" <brycejd at comcast.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 11:33 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Louis Prima


> Thanks Steve, I had't recalled the year that I sat ringside in Vegas for
several nights, courtesy of  the Frontier Hotel , watching Sam Butera and
the Witnesses  with  Louis Prima.. What an entertainer. I have one CD with
he and Keely doing most of his most popular tunes.
>
>   Thanks for putting  that time in it's place, writting a bio and several
mental gaps that need to be filled. I remember the year, but what happened
???
>
>
>   Slainte
>
>   Ye Olde MOuldy Fygge
>
>   Ed Coltrin
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