Dixieland Music

The material on this album has been around the block several times; it's a re-release of the 1956 Scepter album Bechet and Blues. Bechet recorded it in Paris, playing with the Claude Luter Orchestra, his backing band at the time. At the beginning of "Blues from the Cave," he calls out trumpeters Pierre Merlin and Claude Rabanit, trombonist Guy Longnon, bassist Roland Bianchini, pianist Christian Azzi, and drummer "Mustache" Galepides, all members of the Luter band in the mid-1950s.

As was so often the case in his Paris years, Bechet's playing dominates every track, far outshining the other band members. Particular standout tracks, to my ear, are "I Had it But It's All Gone Now," "Soprano Blues," and "Blues in the Cave." After hearing this, a next good purchase would be some of Bechet's incandescent work with Louis Armstrong.

Al Hirt loved Bourbon Street and this CD is proof . However, this CD would be for someone who just wants a taste of the French Quarter music and/or for collectors like me who wants to add to your ever growing collection of the Trumpet Virtuoso's massive library of albums.
Still in all, not a bad little CD for the price...
Tommy Gee
hometown.aol.com/alhirt2002

This is a compilation of a couple of hits and some of his Dixieland hits. I see lately they have started releasing some of Big Al's best albums two for one on one CD. See Honey in the Horn/ that Honey In the Horn Sound and the New Cotton Candy/Sugar Lips combos. We lost Big Al in April of 1999 and we lost a very great talent. I hope they will continue to rerelease his albums in twofers. I hope to see Horn and Strings/ The Horn meets The Boston Pops, and many more of his soft Jazz, Honey In The Horn sounds. I have never been able to get enough of the King. His LPS are very hard to find in good shape and most of the King's work has never been released yet on CD. Yet most will agree with Playboy that Al Hirt was the best trumpeter in the world during all of the 60's and most of the seventies. Please keep 'em coming!! If you don't know Al Hirt, it's time to try Honey In The Horn! Pass on this one though.

Similar to the Louis Prima "Say It with a Slap" album, "Breaking It Up!" presents Prima from the early 1950s (post-Dixieland Gang but pre-Vegas). At this time Prima was fronting a big, brassy band and specializing in novelty tunes. This CD captures 15 representative sides from this under-recorded part of Prima's career. Keely Smith joins Louis in several of the vocals.

If you know Louis Prima from his later nightclub-act recordings, these ain't them. The closest this album gets to Prima's familiar, super-charged style is "Oooh-Dahdily-Dah," a frenetic jive dance tune performed with verve by Prima, Smith, and the band. Most of the album features more moderate tempos, like the blues swinger "One Mint Julep" and the bright seasonal perennial "Shake Hands with Santa Claus."

The oppressively "commercial" hand of Columbia Records producer Mitch Miller is felt at least a couple of times. Miller somehow takes all the life out of the Prima favorite "Oh Marie," forcing the band to play it in a super-square, community-sing tempo, and reducing Prima to merely prompting the listener with spoken lyrics. (Miller of course used this same device years later on television, in "Sing Along with Mitch.")

Fortunately for listeners, Miller liked novelty tunes and left Prima alone to have fun with them. That's the long suit here, so if you like Prima's comic flair with novelty numbers, grab this CD. "The Bigger the Figure" is a very funny operatic pastiche that's one of his best. "It's as Good as New (I Painted It Blue)" is in the same vein as Phil Harris's monster hit "The Thing," and "Paul Revere" is reminiscent of Prima's "Robin Hood." There's also plenty of Prima's ethnic humor ("Eleanor," "Luigi," "Basta").

There isn't much recorded material available on Prima's big band, so this CD is a welcome find for Prima fans and big-band collectors. Fidelity is excellent throughout, and the liner notes by Will Friedwald are perceptive.

Pre Sam Butera era. Some tracks feature Keely Smith. "One Mint Julep" was a big R&B hit (Count Basie, The Clovers), "Oooh-Dahdilly-Dah" is probably the best song and it is goddamn hot jump blues, "Chili Sauce" reminds me of Peggy Lee's "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)", "Oh Marie" has different arrangement than the one that he recorded later with Sam Butera. It's slow! And of course there are novelty tunes like "Boney Bones", "It's Good As New (I Painted It Blue)".

This set was masterminded by evil-genious Mitch Miller(who unfortionately produced middle of the road muzak for artists as diverse as Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett). He could take a great artist like Louis Prima and make him sing terrible songs backed by an all white "not swingin'" choir. However Louis Prima & Keely Smith got by(just as Rosemary Clooney did on many a session)even with Miller's middle of the road arrangements. Louis Prima is so influenced by Louis Armstrong(he's like an Italian Satchmo) that jazz collectors like myself can't help but buy his records, and Keely Smith(though not as comprehensive as Ella Fitzgerald) has a highly appealing sweet and always swinging voice. This CD re-issue of the original LP "Breakin' It Up" has informative liner notes by jazz critic Will Friedwald author of "Jazz Singing." Although some of the Mitch Miller-ish arrangements may be a tad dated Louis & Keely shine through, and come out winners in this overall enjoyable set, although one wishes Mitch Miller had stuck to playing the obo, rather then have chosen to cheapen american pop music during the 50's. Still this set comes recommended. Also try the more swingin' sets on Capital "The Wildest" and "Call Of The Wildest." Both re-issued on CD.

Any Louis Prima music is great music and if you collect Prima and/or are a fan of big band/swing music you'll love this CD. But there really needs to be a BUYER BEWARE posted on it.
This is similar to the Frank Sinatra collections issued by Columbia. Sinatra was not exactly..ahem...delighted by working with Columbia's Mitch Miller, who liked novelty numbers and a more traditional sound. It was only when he switched to Capitol and Nelson Riddle that his career was reborn. If someone bought a CD with the very early Sinatra they get great music, but NOT the later Sinatra sound...not Sinatra at his peak.
The same thing applies to Prima. This CD's recordings are from an earlier era, again under Miller. And while they are not bad (many are quite good) they are NOT the same Prima sound that emerged years later when Sam Butera joined Prima and created the increasingly popular (I had a teen clerk at a CD store recently go on and on about Prima) sound that Prima created with Butera.
Don't expect the rock-in-disguise sax, the sudden beat changes, etc. This CD music is more akin to music of the late to mid 40s than the Prima music that is used now in movies and commercials as he FINALLY gains the respect and adoration that he was denied during his lifetime.
So this is a good collection...but NOT the Louis Prima sound that has appealed to young people today. Even the novelty numbers don't have the pizazz of later recordings and it all sounds very studio-like. It's like watching a 50s t.v. western with a painted mountain backdrop versus a movie filed on location. The later Prima recordings were alive and reflected the beginnings of the rock revolution; the recordings in this CD look back to the 40s. Nothing wrong with that...but if you're looking for the later sound look elsewhere.

I thought I had all the Louis Prima music I needed....and I love it, but....then I heard this album and knew I needed this too! It's different enough to need but reliably Prima, so of course it's an instant mood lifter! I catch myself singing Basta and The Bigger The Better all the time!