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Known For

Louis Prima is known for:

  • The Jungle Book
    The boy Mowgli makes his way to the man-village with Bagheera, the wise panther. Along the way he meets jazzy King Louie, the hypnotic snake Kaa and the lovable, happy-go-lucky bear Baloo, who teaches Mowgli "The Bare Necessities" of life and the true meaning of friendship.
  • Swing It
    Louis Prima, between song numbers, tells how he happened to get a job in a Hollywood cafe playing music while a couple, unrelated to anything else, play a slot machine in the background. This short was reissued in 1944 and again in 1952. Lucille Ball has a bit part. Song numbers include; "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "Up a Lazy River", "Dinah","Basin Street Blues" and "Johnny Get Your Gun."
  • Swing Cat's Jamboree
    "Swing cat" Louis Prima and his jazz quartette play songs and accompany featured singers and dancers.

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Biography

Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s. Prima is also known for providing the voice for the orangutan King Louie in the 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book.