Louis Prima
Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978)[1] 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.
For his son, the entertainer born in 1965, see Louis Prima Jr.
Louis Prima
Louis Leo Prima
The King of Swing
December 7, 1910
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
August 24, 1978 (aged 67)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
- Musician
- entertainer
- bandleader
- Vocals
- trumpet
1929–1975
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. At a time when ethnic musicians were discouraged from openly stressing their ethnicity, Prima's conspicuous embrace of his Sicilian ethnicity opened the doors for other Italian-American and ethnic American musicians to display their ethnic roots.[1][2]
Prima is also known for providing the voice for the orangutan King Louie in the 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book.
Early life[edit]
Louis Leo Prima[3] was from a musical Italian American family in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Anthony Prima, was the son of Leonardo Di Prima, a Sicilian immigrant from Salaparuta, while his mother, Angelina Caravella, had emigrated from the island of Ustica north of Sicily as a baby.[4] Prima was the second child of four; his older brother, Leon, was born in 1907, while his sisters Elizabeth and Marguerite were younger. Marguerite died when she was three years old. Leon, Louis, and Elizabeth were all baptized at St. Ann's Parish. They lived in a house at 1812 St. Peter Street in New Orleans.[5]
Prima's mother was a music lover, and she made sure that each child played an instrument. Louis was assigned the violin and started out playing at St. Ann's Parish.[5] He became interested in jazz when he heard black musicians, including Louis Armstrong. Italian immigrants, Italian-Americans, and African-Americans in New Orleans at the time frequently socialized together in the same clubs and bars. Local clubs tailored to the ostracized Italian community, such as Matranga's, Joe Segrettas, Tonti's Social Club, and Lala's Big 25, were all Italian-American clubs owned and operated by Italians; African Americans were always welcomed in these clubs and often played music and fraternized with Italians and Italian-Americans. Prima's interest in jazz was sparked while frequenting these clubs and observing black and Italian jazz artists playing together.[5]
According to author Garry Boulard in his book Louis Prima, Prima paid attention to the music coming from clubs and watched his older brother Leon play the cornet.[5] When Leon left the house to spend one summer in Texas, Prima practiced continuously on his worn-down cornet. He formed a band in 1924 with his childhood friends "Candy" Candido (bass), Irving Fazola (clarinet) and Johnny Viviano (drums).[5]
Prima attended Jesuit High School but transferred to Warren Easton High, then a boys' school, in the fall of 1926.[5] At Warren Easton, he played with the "Eastonites", the school band. In 1927, he partnered with fellow musician Frank Federico and the pair played at "The Whip", a run-down French Quarter nightclub. By the spring of 1928, Prima decided he would become a professional musician.[5]
Personal life[edit]
Prima was married five times and had six children.[11] Prima was married to Louise Polizzi from 1929 to 1936; Alma Ross from 1936 to 1945; Tracelene Barrett from 1945 to 1952; Keely Smith from 1953 to 1961; and Gia Maione in 1963. All but his marriage to Maione ended in divorce.
Among his children are musical performers Lena Prima and Louis Prima Jr., both born to Maione.
Prima suffered a heart attack in 1973. Two years later, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, he sought medical attention, and was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and went into a coma following surgery. He never recovered, and died three years later, in 1978, having been moved back to New Orleans. He was buried in Metairie Cemetery in a gray marble crypt topped by a figure of Gabriel, the trumpeter-angel, sculpted in 1997 by Russian-born sculptor Alexei Kazantsev. The inscription on the crypt's door quotes the lyrics from one of his hits: "When the end comes, I know, they'll say, 'just a gigolo' as life goes on without me…"[12]
Legacy[edit]
Prima's expected visit to a small Italian restaurant drives the plot of the critically acclaimed 1996 film Big Night.
On July 25, 2010, the centenary year of his birth, Prima received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[13][14]
In 2018, Prima's 1936 single "What Will Santa Claus Say (When He Finds Everybody Swingin')" was sampled by Kids See Ghosts on the song "4th Dimension", which appeared on their album Kids See Ghosts.[15]
Prima's New Orleans-based daughter, Lena Prima, performs throughout the nation.[16] His son, Louis Prima Jr. leads his own band, performing music composed and played by his father and popular music of many genres.