25 May 2021
(Until 25 May)Louis Prima The Re-Inventor – Phantom Dancer 25 May 2021
Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Louis Prima, band leader, composer and trumpeter is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. Prima, the re-inventor, formed a seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band group in the 1940s, helped popularise jump blues in the late 1940s and was a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s. In the 1960s, his music included early R&B and rock ‘n’ roll, boogie-woogie, and Italian folk music.
Every week I bring you, The Phantom Dancer. It’s your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted.
There’s a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now for you to enjoy at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.
This Phantom Dancer mix will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 25 May, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/
LOUIS
Louis Leo Prima formed his first band in 1924 with his childhood home of New Orleans with his friends “Candy” Candido (bass), Irving Fazola (clarinet) and Johnny Viviano (drums). He played in his high school band, after which he gigged around New Orleans before heading to New York City.
While performing at Club Shim Sham in NYC in 1934, Prima met Guy Lombardo who would become an earlier booster for Prima’s career. In received enough attention in New York that he made some records for Brunswick in September 1934 with his New Orleans Gang. His band included Pee Wee Russell on clarinet and in May 1935, Prima and Russell had a juke box hit with, “The Lady in Red”.
He was a guest on Rudy Vallee’s network radio show, “The Fleischman Hour” and in March 1936, Prima recorded “Sing Sing Sing“, a swing anthem after it was later recorded by Benny Goodman.
PRIMA
With the help of Guy Lombardo, Prima introduced his new big swing band at the Blackhawk in Chicago in October 1936. The new format was unsuccessful. So, the next year, Prima reformed his smaller group and returned to the Famous Door in New York.He also appeared at Billy Rose‘s Casa Mañana club in May 1938. He earned nearly a quarter million dollars throughout seven weeks at Casa Mañana.
In 1939 first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt formally invited Prima to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday celebration. He appeared in photographs with the President which boosted his publicity. Deemed unfit for military service in World War II because of a knee injury, by the mid-1940s, Prima was experiencing great success. He had several big hits in the summer of 1945, including “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” and “Bell-Bottom Trousers”.
By 1947, the popularity of big band music was waning and Prima was playing more jazzy versions of his music.
While fans knew Prima as a genial and patient celebrity: he always signed autographs or posed for pictures with a smile. To the record companies and big corporations, however, Prima showed little deference, and he was uncompromising in seeking maximum compensation for his work.
KEELY SMITH
Keely Smith, has most famous singer, was 20 when she met Prima in August 1948 at a gig at the Surf Club in Virginia Beach. Prima was looking for a new female vocalist and after a try-out her hired her.During Keely’s time, and to suit her voice, Prima, went rock ‘n’ roll. In 1954 Prima was offered a stay at The Sahara in Las Vegas to open his new act with Keely Smith. He enlisted New Orleans saxophonist Sam Butera and his backing musicians, “The Witnesses”, performing regularly in Las Vegas for the rest of the decade.
Keely received a Grammy in 1958, and was Billboard and Variety’s number one female vocalist award in 1958–59, and the Playboy Jazz Award in 1959.
Prima and Keely recorded “That Old Black Magic“, which was a Top 40 hit for two months and won a Grammy. In January 1961, Prima was invited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the inaugural gala for President John F. Kennedy; the two played “Old Black Magic” together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJ7DQojzIY
GIA MAIONE
Married and then divorced from Keely, he replaced Keely in 1962 with Gia Maione, a waitress who was 21 years old. He did his best to make her famous by producing her first album “This Is … Gia.” They married and had a daughter, Lena, later a New Orleans-based singer and and a son, Louis Prima Jr., the last of his six children. In 1967, Prima landed a role in Walt Disney‘s animated feature The Jungle Book, as the raucous orangutan King Louie. He performed the hit song “I Wanna Be like You” on the soundtrack, leading to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, and covering MC duties and singing the theme song “Winnie the Pooh”, for the 1967 album entitled Happy Birthday Winnie the Pooh, all of these on Disneyland Records.
He can be heard on the soundtrack of another cartoon feature, The Man Called Flintstone. One of Prima’s final television appearances was as a “mystery guest” on What’s My Line? in 1970.
25 MAY PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #492 | ||
107.3 2SER Tuesday 25 MAY 2021 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm 4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm | ||
Set 1 | 1950 One Night Stand Radio | |
Theme + All My Love | Guy Lombardo Orchestra (voc) Bill Flanagan | ‘One Night Stand’ Grill Room Hotel Roosevelt NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 25 Oct 1950 |
Melody of the Breeze | Ralph Flanagan Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 26 Sep 1950 |
Sposin’ + Sentimental Journey | Ray Anthony Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’ Cafe Rouge Hotel Statler NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 12 Dec 1950 |
Set 2 | Chamber Music Society | |
Opinion | Prof. Chotzinoff (Samuel Chotzinoff, music critic of the New York World, conceded in 1924 that Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue had “made an honest woman out of jazz.”) | ‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941 |
George Blues | Henry Levine Orch. (tb) Miff Mole arr. Red Bone | ‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941 |
Swing Low Sweet Chariot | Diane Courtney | ‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941 |
Solveig’s Song (Grieg) + Close | Burt Shaefta | ‘The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NYC 11 Aug 1941 |
Set 3 | This is Jazz | |
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (theme) + Sweet Georgia Brown | Muggsy Spanier | This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 5 Apr 1947 |
When The Saints Go Marching In + 2:19 Blues | Louis Armstrong | This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 5 Apr 1947 |
When The Saints Go Marching In + Close | Muggsy Spanier | This is Jazz WOR Mutual NYC 12 Apr 1947 |
Set 4 | Louis Prima | |
Theme + St Louis Blues | Louis Prima Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’ Terrace Room Newark NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 6 Jan 1945 |
You’ve Got Me Crying Again | Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Sandy Bishop | ‘One Night Stand’ Casino Gardens Ocean Park Ca. AFRS Re-broadcast 3 Jul 1946 |
Don’t Ever Change | Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Lily Ann Carol | ‘Spotlight Bands’ Mitchell Field NY WJZ Blue Network 15 Jan 1945 |
Should I? + Close | Louis Prima Orchestra (voc) Louis Prima | Hickory House NYC WJSV CBS Washington DC 22 Sep 1939 |
Set 5 | 1933-34 Radio Transcriptions | |
Maniacs Ball | Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra | Radio Transcription 1934 |
Forty Second Street | Dorsey Brothers Orchestra | Radio Transcription 1933 |
Loveless Love | Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra | Radio Transcription 1934 |
Love Is The Sweetest Thing | Dorsey Brothers Orchestra | Radio Transcription 1933 |
Set 6 | Blackhawk Bands | |
Theme + Boogie Woogie Maxixe | Bob Crosby Orchestra | Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 29 Apr 1940 |
Poor Girl | Ozzie Nelson Orchestra | Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 24 Mar 1940 |
Reminiscing Time | Bob Crosby Orchestra | Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 29 Apr 1940 |
Flying Home + Theme | Duke Ellington Orchestra | Blackhawk Restaurant WMAQ NBC Chicago 13 Aug 1952 |
Set 7 | Esquire Jazz | |
Tea for Two + Close | Roy Eldridge | First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House WJZ Blue NYC 18 Jan 1944 |
Back o’ Town | Roy Eldridge | First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House 18 Jan 1944 |
Muskrat Ramble | Roy Eldridge | First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House 18 Jan 1944 |
Buck Jumpin’ | Roy Eldridge | First Esquire Jazz Concert Metropolitan Opera House 18 Jan 1944 |
Set 8 | 1950s-60s Pop Jazz | |
After You’ve Gone | Roy Eldridge | ‘Tonight Show’ WRCA TV NBC NY 21 Jul 1956 |
Every Tub | Count Basie Orchestra | ‘Stars in Jazz’ Birdland WNBC NBC NY 14 Jan 1953 |
Hello Dolly | Duke Ellington Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’ Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRTS Re-broadcast Jul 1964 |
Tangerine | Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra | Birdland WCBS CBS NY Jun 1956 |
