December, 7 1910 - August 24, 1978Born into a musical family of Sicilian descent in New Orleans. He studied violin for several years as a child. His older brother Leon Prima was a well regarded local bandleader. Prima was proud of his heritage, and made a point of letting the audience know at every performance that he was Italian-American and from New Orleans. His singing and playing showed that he absorbed many of the same influences as his fellow Crescent City musician, Louis Armstrong, particularly.In his youth in New Orleans Prima played trumpet with Irving Fazola, his brother's band, and the pit band of the Saenger Theater before forming his own group, Louis Prima's New Orleans Gang. He moved to New York in 1934, working regularly on 52nd Street with old New Orleans friends like Eddie Miller (tenor sax and clarinet) and George Brunies (trombone), and also new acquaintances like Pee Wee Russell (clarinet). Prima's 1936 composition “Sing, Sing, Sing’ became one of the biggest hits and most covered standards of the swing era, famously being performed in Carnegie Hall by Benny Goodman with a featured performance by Gene Krupa on drums.
He moved to Los Angeles to headline at the Famous Door nightclub. He appeared in several Hollywood movies, including a featured performance with Bing Crosby in the 1936 film Rhythm on the Range. In the late 1940s he added young singer Keely Smith (who was to become Prima's 4th wife) and later, saxophonist/arranger Sam Butera to lead his band, called Sam Butera and the Witnesses.The act, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, was very much the model for Sonny and Cher, the exuberant Italian musician and the serious exotic female singer. (Smith was of Cherokee descent; Cher was Armenian.) Prima, Smith, and Butera put on a live show that rocked as hard as anyone's.In 1967, Prima made a memorable contribution to the Walt Disney film The Jungle Book, as the voice of the raucous orangutan King Louie. "I Wan'na Be Like You" was a hit song from the movie that led to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, on Disneyland Records. He can also be heard on the soundtrack to The Man Called Flintstone. plain layout @ HOT FreeLayouts.com love / music / movies / frazy
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