The Wildest!

WHAT NYMITH SAYS

Louis Prima (1910 - 1978), the son of Italian immigrants and a popular entertainer in the 1950s, is one of the weirder artists you can acquire a taste for. With big bands diminishing since the 40s, he'd switched to a small ensemble that combined the brassy energy of jump blues with the corny glitz of showbiz. Every song that came his way would get a comic interpretation, though unlike Louis Jordan most of his material wasn't written to be humorous per say. In live shows he'd clown around on stage, backed by a woman (most famously Keely Smith) who would play into the joke by steadfastly ignoring his idiocy, keeping still and deadpan as he mugged for the audience. So The Wildest! is a Vegasy comic romp and yet it does deliver what the title so excitedly promises: revved-up, rocking jump blues, with Prima's trumpet and Sam Butera's saxophone in the spotlight. Eccentric, charming, occasionally abominable - and watching a couple of video performances before you invest in the album wouldn't hurt.

The Wildest! does get off to a slow start. Leadoff track 'Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody' is Prima's signature song, a medley (though as medley's go, it's almost seamless) and a tune where Prima leaves himself just enough room to maneuver between a little silliness and a little melancholy as the musical energy builds up to more than one crescendo. It's really something special.

Unfortunately, the album takes a nosedive immediately afterwards - '(Nothing's Too Good) for My Baby' is a novelty number, 'The Lip' is an obnoxious, tuneless, stupidly catchy novelty number and 'Body and Soul' is a good instrumental that for some reason decides to morph into 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' at the end, spoiling the whole thing. Luckily, it picks up from there. On 'Oh Marie' he calls on Sam to parrot his Italianized scat singing, speeding through it so the poor fellow has no chance of keeping up and joking "come on boy, what's the matter with you?" to general laughter. The song then skyrockets into a rave-up instrumental coda and the record's back on track.

The first half of the 'Basin Street Blues/When It's Sleepy Time Down South' medley gives Prima a minute to pay tribute to his hometown of New Orleans and blow some fine trumpet (just as Louis Armstrong did with his version). 'Buona Sera' lays on the Italian clichés, setting the serenade to a tango rhythm only to hilariously throw the whole thing out the window in favour of a faster approach. I've never been a big fan of the Prima-penned 'Jump, Jive an' Wail' because although it does jive marvellously on the instrumental breaks, the lyrical quest to find rhymes for "wail" never gets good results. The swanky adaptation of 'Night Train' is a big success as it preserves the requisite bluesy feel and the band don't try to turn it into a joke like they did with 'Body and Soul.' And of course a song like '(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You' is tailor-made for a man of Prima's disposition, and the lyrics are altered to make it sound like the rascal in question was more interested in stealing some find Italian cooking than in making off with the wife. "When you're dead and in your grave / no more ravioli will you crave..." I don't think that's how the original went.

The CD reissue comes with a set of bonus tracks, several of which I'd have preferred to see on the album in place of the weaker material on side A, including 'Five Months, Two Weeks, Five Days' (whose only real difference from the era's pop-rockers is instrumental). Other little highlights are the charming and quaint 'Whistle Stop' and the bouncing barbershop tune 'Be Mine (Little Baby).' Really, if you give Louis Prima a chance he'll grow on you. The man was a lifelong entertainer and put out a record that you could dance to in 1956 - something which most others of his generation had long since given up.

WHAT TICHARU SAYS

Raucous, amusing and fabulous! At the top of his game? Quite possibly. Why wouldn't you love this record? Well let me think... I can't come up with anything. It's great!

Why is it great? The band cooks for one thing. When I first heard the term "bop jazz" I thought this was the kind of thing they were talking about. A small group with a sax, piano, drums, madman, playing at a break neck speed. A more accurate term for that kind of music would be Louis Prima!

A precursor to stuff like "Absolutely Free" by The Mothers and "Gorilla" by The Bonzos, humour and presentation from a well crafted stage show make this pretty slick while still sounding spontaneous. The only thing Prima might do a little too often is the call and response shtick but the band certainly does it well and it adds to the madness.

Great stuff!