Louis Prima Biography and Album Guide Video

Classic Rock and Roots

Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American trumpeter, singer, entertainer, and bandleader. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans–style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s.  From the 1940s through the 1960s, his music further encompassed early R&B and rock 'n' roll, boogie-woogie, and Italian folk music, such as the tarantella. Prima made prominent use of Italian music and language in his songs, blending elements of his Italian and Sicilian identity with jazz and swing music.

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00:00Louis Prima was a jazz swing vocalist and trumpeter who enjoyed a lengthy recording

00:09career that lasted for around 40 years. Prima was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1910.

00:17As a child growing up in New Orleans, Prima was exposed to the music of the city and even heard

00:26on occasion the cornet playing of Louis Armstrong wafting into the city streets. Prima started his

00:35own Dixieland jazz band as well. Prima headed to New York City in the early 1930s and organized a

00:44band called Louis Prima and his New Orleans gang, which included Pee Wee Russell on clarinet. The

00:52band played Dixieland and swing music and recorded for the Brunswick label in 1934, producing the classic

01:01sides, That's Where the South Begins and Stardust, among other fine tunes. In 1935, Prima had a nationwide

01:14hit with the song, The Lady in Red. Due to a knee injury, Prima was freed from duty in World War II and was

01:26able to continue performing. He scored several big hits in the 1940s, including My Dreams Are Getting

01:34Bigger All the Time and Bell Bottom Trousers, and what would become his signature tune, Just a Gigolo.

01:47Prima recorded a classic album in 1956 with The Wildest, an album of standards including

01:55Just a Gigolo, I Ain't Got Nobody and You Rascal You.

02:00Other essential Prima albums are The Call of the Wildest from 1957, The Wildest Show at Tahoe from 1957,

02:15The Las Vegas Prima Style from 1958. Prima's earlier sides can be found on compilations such as the

02:23Chronological Classics, Louis Prima and his New Orleans Gang, 1937-1939 from 2001,

02:32and the Chronological Classics, Louis Prima and his Orchestra, 1940-1944, also from 2001.

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