LOUIS PRIMA AND HIS NEW ORLEANS GANG – 1935-1936 | The Chronogical Classics – 1077 (1999) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Here's Louis from his first flush of success at the Famous Door in New York City. Backed by his New Orleans gang, Prima's distinctive style was already emerging on material like "How'm I Doin'," "Plain Old Me," "Sweet Sue," "Lazy River," "Dinah," and the original version of "Sing Sing Sing." Although the backing is strictly New Orleans (and thus a long way stylistically from his later Capitol sides with Sam Butera & the Witnesses), most of the tunes boast the highly inventive clarinet work of Pee Wee Russell, and Prima's horn is well to the fore on these sides. One for hardcore Prima fans. Cub Koda
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LOUIS PRIMA AND HIS NEW ORLEANS GANG – 1937-1939 | The Chronogical Classics – 1146 (2000) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

During the late 1930s Louis Prima evolved ever so slightly beyond the New Orleans revival and hot novelty formulas that he'd milked so relentlessly from 1934-1936. Almost everything he recorded during the years 1937-1939 followed the same pattern of small group swing lathered over with Prima's showy vocals. These records didn't sell very well, and neither Vocalion nor Decca felt obligated to keep him on their rosters. The only two instrumentals heard here are a vigorous "Tin Roof Blues" and a neck-snapping "Jitterbugs on Parade" which is played so fast that the band sounds almost tortured rather than enthused. Poor Louis was desperate, his vocals were overbearing, the public wasn't interested, so it seems he figured the only thing left to do was to play so fast that it hurt. On each of the vocal tracks his frantic humor seems rather forced. It's good to have access to these recordings in order to satisfy one's curiosity and get a glimpse of an overview of the man's recording career, but they are certainly not the best of Louis Prima. Greater enjoyment will be derived from the work of the men he so closely imitated during the 1930s: Louis Armstrong and Wingy Manone. arwulf arwulf  
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