Born and raised in New Orleans,
Louis Prima came up in his hometown gigging steadily in the clubs and doing his best to emulate Afro-American musicians. His number one role model was
Louis Armstrong. After playing Cleveland with
Red Nichols in 1932,
Prima began recording in 1934 and thoroughly established himself on 52nd Street in New York City the following year.
Prima was good looking and sang in a pleasantly hoarse voice. His humor was often heavy-handed, and his bands pushed hard to generate excitement among live audiences and the record-buying public.
Prima's 1934 bands had strong players in
George Brunies,
Claude Thornhill, and
Eddie Miller. "Jamaica Shout" is a rare example of instrumental
Louis Prima: hot jazz with nobody yelling. "Breakin' the Ice" was the first in a series of
Prima interpretations of songs made popular by
Fats Waller.
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson performed a lively version of "I'm Living in a Great Big Way" with
Waller during the last reel of the 1935 RKO motion picture Hooray for Love.
Waller never managed to make an actual phonograph recording of this song.
Prima had fun with it and with every tune he grabbed onto, sometimes maybe too much fun. During "Let's Have a Jubilee," which was recorded twice during November of 1934,
Prima spits out weird nicknames for each bandmember, including "Baboon Face" and "Liver Lips." This sort of talk was not uncommon among Afro-Americans, but it is particularly unsettling coming out of the (big) mouth of a (Southern) white musician. The real gold on this CD lies in the last six tracks, ground out by a band that had
Pee Wee Russell as its artistic nucleus.
Prima was the handsome leader,
Prima sang and blew his trumpet, but
Pee Wee was the light, the emulsion, and the pigment in this picture. "The Lady in Red" just might be the very best record that
Louis Prima ever made, largely because of the magical presence of a gifted clarinetist with poetic sensibilities and a tone like nobody else.