Customer Reviews

Louis Prima (Music in American Life)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As one of millions who continues to worship Louis Prima, I was glad to see that there is at the very least one book available on him. Well-written and packed with information, I learned things about Prima that I did not know before (how Eleanor Roosevelt helped his career) and would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand Prima, Keely Smith, Sam Butera and the music they so wonderfully created in the late l950s.

A very good, easy reading, informative book. With my renewed interest in Louis Prima I was wondering about his early life, who the wives were bk(before Keely) and if he had children and how many. This book answered all my questions. It is definitely an in depth biography and well worh reading. For all of his critics(if they're still living) I would just like to say that 27 years after his death his music is still thrilling old fans and gathering new ones. Kudos Mr. Boulard!

As a newcomer to the music of Louis Prima, I found this book informing and useful. Boulard's writing moves along at a fast pace; though I consider myself a neophyte in the world of jazz history, Just a Gigolo gave me all the essential information I needed to have a well grounded understanding of the man behind the music. I would recommend this book as a welcome addition to any music enthusiast.

The ONLY biography of a legend--Louis Prima!
His life before and after his fantastic
years with Keely Smith.A must read for fans.

Louis Prima may well have been one of the most underrated entertainers of the 20th century, and his life story certainly warrants a biography. And this is a good beginning. This volume, part of the "Music in American Life" series published by the University of Illinois Press, explores the Prima phenomena, but author Boulard relies too heavily on secondary sources. (The Keely Smith interviews offer some insight.) Prima was a wild man, but the wild streak is so ... tame. The photos are rather appealing (especially the ones with Smith), but to publish this tome without an index is unforgivable.

Look, it's a shame there's nothing from Butera but there's so much great insight from others who aren't as readily considered when a person thinks of Prima, you don't think of the omission as often as you'd think.

Mostly I think this is a fantastic illustration of early century New Orleans and the journeys a lot of musicians took to become the staples we know today. Also, and this is even though most sources agree, I appreciate the stark treatment of Prima's love-life, and the way he treated the women in it.

This book is more a collection of other resources (interviews, newpaper articles, etc) than an in-depth look at the man "behind the music". If you are a Prima fan, and have any of his music now available on CD, (especially the Capitol Collector series) then you already know most of the infomation contained within this book.

It details Prima's start in New Orleans, through his big band triumphs and failures, his partnership with Keely, and his attempts to regain his audience after their divorce, but contains little information from Louis himself (he MUST have conducted some interviews throughout his career, but very few direct quotes are used).

The book takes about 4 hours to read, and may fill in some holes in Prima trivia, but it wasn't as fact filled as I had hoped.

This book should be read by any Prima fan, not because it's such a great read, but because so very little has been written about this versatile performer. A scant few pages were devoted to Prima in Nick Tosches's "Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll" and a brilliant profile by David Kamp appeared in the December, 1999, issue of Vanity Fair. While volumes have been written about Sinatra and the Rat Pack, the life of Louis Prima has been sadly neglected. "Just a Gigolo," as far as I can determine, is the only full-length biography of this charismatic entertainer, whose career spanned five decades. Make no mistake about it, Prima was much more than a wisecracking showbiz personality. He wrote, or co-wrote, a number of hits, including "Sunday Kind of Love" and "Sing, Sing, Sing," immortalized as the quintessential swing classic by Benny Goodman during a rauceous Carnegie Hall concert which had hordes of young fans dancing in the aisles. An insatiable womanizer, Prima was married no less than five times, in addition to the countless assignations he enjoyed with everyone from star-struck groupies, dubbed the "Prima Donnas" by the press, to such established actresses as Lucille Ball, Jean Harlow, and Martha Raye. After a slump which lasted several years, Prima launched a major comeback in the Fifties when, accompanied by his then-wife, Keely Smith, and backed by the super-charged Sam Butera and the Witnesses, he appeared as the lounge act in the Casbar Hotel in Las Vegas. What was supposed to be a two-week engagement lasted five years, with Prima reemerging as a major player in the entertainment industry. Their performances soon became the talk of the town, known for their energy, spontaneity, and Prima's witty ad libs. "I must have seen a thousand shows," one fan recalled, "and no two were ever alike." Sadly, in large part due to his philandering, Louis and Keely divorced in 1961. But that didn't stop Prima. The following year, at the age of fifty-two, he met, married, and professionally teamed up with a twenty-year-old aspiring singer named Gia Maione. All of this could have been woven into a great book. Unfortunately, while it is well-researched and informative, Mr. Boulard's narrative, in my opinion, is quite bland. This book is not half as exciting as its subject or his music.