Louis Prima

By Garry Boulard

Louis Prima infused the grit and grace of Dixieland jazz with swing and big band sounds, the first whiffs of rock 'n' roll, and a vaudevillian stage presence. Garry Boulard pens the biography of the underrated jazz musician, Las Vegas mainstay, and popular entertainer.

A native of New Orleans, Prima was a Guy Lombardo prot g known as "The Italian Satchmo" who became the country's new jazz sensation at New York's Famous Door in the 1930s. He went on to success as a big band leader before virtually creating the lounge act as a Las Vegas nightclub staple. Employing and later marrying singer Keely Smith, Prima rode high with a series of hit songs and smash albums in the Fifties. But Boulard also looks past the over-the-top stage antics to restore Prima's legacy as an overlooked jazz musician and vocalist, and as a bandleader with an uncanny ability to fuse disparate styles into music that kept audiences cheering and dancing for decades.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252070909
• ISBN13: 9780252070907
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.0"