After letting the backup run overnight two nights ago (then into the day yesterday, then into last night) I finally got to pull the Capitol Series collection of Louis Prima (with lots of Keely Smith and Sam Butera as well!) onto the computer.

I get my love for Louis Prima from my grandfather. He told me as a kid that while most Italians listen to Frank Sinatra, all REAL Italians listen to Louis Prima. My grandpa was also on a quest for a live album of Louis Prima live in Lake Tahoe that featured a performance of Tony Bennet’s ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’ that wasn’t really sung, but was spoken in a thick Italian accent with confused lyrics. And I think a performance like that really shows the difference between Ol’ Blue Eyes and The Lip… there was always a deep sense of humor that Prima brought to his show. Actually – Prima saw his performances (even on disc) as a show, filled with humor and sight-gags in addition to some great playing. The sight-gags often included Prima’s ‘straight-man’ (and wife) Keely Smith, or him and Sam Butera (his long time saxophone player) battling it out with musical jabs.

The ‘Capitol Collector’s Series’ disc is a great one disc set of studio recordings mostly made in the 50s and 60s. There are songs about Sputnik. There are a number of standards that turn into the signature Prima Jumpin’ Jive (‘Lazy River’, ‘I’ve Got The World On A String’), remakes of some Prima standards from his earlier days as a swing band leader (most notable ‘Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)’) and some early mash-ups (‘Just A Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody’ and ‘Angelina / Zooma Zooma’).

When Tamiko and I would throw dinner parties in our older apartment living days, I would throw Louis Prima on if we were making Italian food … while the red sauce was simmering and the bottle of wine had already been opened. And I finally did find a disc of the live Tahoe show for my grandpa… it was a riot to hear, and he had the biggest smile on his face while listening to ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’. I could tell he was remembering the performances he saw back in the 60s. Just hearing it was lots of fun for me… I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see this group play live.