38 Vaccaro ⦁ Louis Prima & Tarantella many traditions remained intact among New Orleans’s large community of Sicilian immigrants, including the matriarchal family order and large dinners.14 Another important tradition that the Prima family maintained was the importance of music. Angelina Prima was an accomplished singer, performing throughout New Orleans in churches and minstrel shows. She insisted that all four of her children played an instrument, assigning Louis to the violin and his older brother Leon to play the trumpet. Louis himself began to learn the trumpet after hearing Leon perform at jazz clubs. After entering the local jazz scene, Louis Prima found himself within the same cultural crossroads that other Sicilian musicians in New Orleans like the aforementioned Anthony Maggio and Nick LaRocca had reinforced. Prima biographer Garry Boulard suggests that Prima’s earliest bands (Louis Prima’s Kid Band or the Easton High School Eastonites) likely played “jive street jazz, a sort of raw Dixieland emphasizing Mediterranean and African melody lines that were already incorporated into some of the most popular sounds of New Orleans.”15 Prima himself mentioned in interviews that one of his biggest musical influences was legendary black trumpeter Louis Armstrong, which can be heard in his loud, brash tone and great control over the horn.16 Even in his vocals, Prima takes considerable inspiration from Armstrong, including a preference for a gravelly, raspy voice. Additionally, Prima endured a significant experience within American culture at the time: discrimination. When Prima auditioned at a popular New York club called Leon and Eddie’s, he was turned away because the owner mistook him for being black.17 Prima was also likened to other prominent black musicians at the time, especially Cab Calloway due to his charismatic and energetic stage presence.18 Louis Prima’s New Orleans upbringing ensured that he had a working knowledge of New Orleans jazz, and he maintained that style of jazz throughout his career. He opposed the development of bebop and other progressive jazz styles in the 1940s, seeing such movements as deliberately undermining the entertainment of the music. Prima later 14 Clavin, That Old Black Magic, 20. 15 Boulard, Just a Gigolo, 13. 16 Clavin, That Old Black Magic, 15. 17 Clavin, That Old Black Magic, 18. 18 Boulard, Just a Gigolo, 34.
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