Louis Prima, Paperback / softback Book

Louis Prima Paperback / softback

Part of the Music in American Life series

Paperback / softback

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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 protégé 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.

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