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Sam Butera dies at 81; 1950s-'60s tenor saxophonist
Los Angeles Times ^ | June 5, 2009 | Adam Bernstein

Posted on 06/05/2009 2:11:15 PM PDT by scott says

Sam Butera, a hard-swinging tenor saxophonist who formed a rowdy and successful onstage partnership with entertainers Louis Prima and Keely Smith in the 1950s, died Wednesday at a hospital in Las Vegas. He was 81.

He had Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the Las Vegas Sun.

Prima, nearly 20 years older than Butera, was a composer ("Sing, Sing, Sing"), trumpeter, singer and irrepressible stage performer, a combination of Louis Armstrong and Jerry Lewis. His career was on the wane when he teamed in 1954 with Butera, who a few years earlier had been named the country's outstanding teenage jazz musician by Look magazine. Both men were New Orleans natives of Italian heritage.

Butera was enjoying a long engagement at a New Orleans club owned by Prima's brother before he and Louis Prima began a musical union in 1954 that lasted nearly two decades. They recorded hit albums for Capitol Records, became nightclub fixtures from Las Vegas to New York and appeared in movies and on television.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: iaintgotnobody; justagigalo; lasvegas; louisprima; sambutera; singsingsing
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To: justapicker

I always thought Sonny Bono copped their act. The only difference was that Prima and Smith had talent.


21 posted on 06/05/2009 3:28:48 PM PDT by stop_fascism (Georgism is Capitalism perfected)
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To: scott says
It was Jan of 1999 believe it or not

Goes by fast doesn't it?

I saw one of the shows at the Masonic, and only then found out about the shows at Bimbo's you were lucky to get the tickets.

22 posted on 06/05/2009 3:31:49 PM PDT by Michael.SF. ("They're not Americans. They're liberals! "-- Ann Coulter, May 15, 2008)
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To: a fool in paradise

Last of the great rock’n’roll sax players!


23 posted on 06/05/2009 3:57:07 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: gorush

“He was the Gato Barbieri of his day.”

They weren’t all that many years apart in age. Barbieri is 74, Butera just passed at 81.


24 posted on 06/05/2009 5:42:41 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: scott says
ungh, what a huge loss to the music world. ;)

I'm sure he passed it on.

How did he sound in '04 at, what 75 years young?

25 posted on 06/05/2009 7:46:28 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (Death to Databases.)
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To: scott says
Remembering Sam Butera- A Music Legend
26 posted on 06/05/2009 7:52:57 PM PDT by LucyJo ("Yep, son, we've met the enemy and he is us.")
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To: scott says

RIP.


27 posted on 06/05/2009 8:55:02 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: the invisib1e hand
He was awesome—spot on perfect. I can honestly say one of the best shows I ever saw. I was blown away by the perfection and intensity he and his band displayed.....absolutely magnificent.
28 posted on 06/05/2009 9:16:23 PM PDT by scott says (Barack ODRAMA--the politics of Fear and Loathing)
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