[Dixielandjazz] Sam Butera & The Wildest (after the Witnesses)

[Stephen G Barbone]

> Harry Callaghan <meetmrcallaghan at gmail.com> wrote (polite snip)
>
> I was pleased to read here that Louis Prima Jr. is keeping alive the  
> memory
> of Sam Butera by calling his band the Witnesses.
>
> Back in '86 when I saw Sam & the Witnesses here in Houston, one of his
> sidemen told me that Sam and Keely had a falling out and she had a  
> court
> order issued restraining him from using "The WIldest": in the title  
> of his
> show, which he was just doing to carry on the Prima tradition.
>
> I understand that Sam & Keely patched things up prior to his death  
> last year
> although I don't know if they ever performed together.again.

Dear Harry:

Perhaps you saw Sam Butera and The Wildest in Houston. I believe "The  
Witnesses" was the band Sam formed when he joined Prima and Keely  
Smith in the 1950s., and was still the name of the band after Prima  
divorced Smith and married Gia Maione. I think Prima had the rights to  
the name "Witnesses".

As I recall, after Prima's  coma, and death in the 1970s, Gia Maione,  
his wife (5th) after Keely, prevented Sam from calling his band The  
Witnesses. I believe he then renamed his band "The Wildest"  worked  
with Keely Smith many times. I could be wrong, but that's the way I  
remember it.

There is today, a tribute band to Butera called "The Wildest."

Cheers,
Steve (lounge lizard Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband