“Oh Marie” by Louis Prima

Columbus Day is tomorrow and as I reflect on the complex history of the United States and what this day eventually came to signify, I was drawn to a musical artist who might be best suited to represent it.

Louis Prima was born in 1910 to Italian immigrants and raised in a working-class neighborhood in New Orleans. It was there that he was exposed to Louis Armstrong, and the African American music that would change his life and the face of the recording industry. From 1929 until 1975 he broke stereotypes, crossed cultural lines, and in a time when the record companies frowned upon “ethnic” music, Prima insisted on singing in Italian, ignoring financial pressures. He was also an exemplary musician and performer whose career encompassed Swing, Jump Blues, R&B, Boogie-Woogie, Rock-N-Roll and Folk.
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“Oh Marie” is from his 1956 release The Wildest. It was his first album with Sam Butera and his backing musicians “The Witnesses.” The album also featured his 4th wife and costar Keely Smith, whose deadpan delivery and underrated performances were mainstays on his recordings and on the road. The Wildest embraced Rock-N-Roll and Jump Blues, featuring one of Prima’s signature songs, “Jump, Jive, an' Wail.”
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Prima was a firecracker of a personality and he represented Italian Americans with humor, wit, talent and integrity. He was also a product of this amazing melting pot, or in his case, a gumbo of soul.