Sam Butera
| Sam Butera | |
|---|---|
Butera in 1961
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| Background information | |
| Born |
August 17, 1927 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | June 3, 2009 (aged 81) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Tenor saxophone |
| Associated acts |
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Sam Butera (August 17, 1927 – June 3, 2009) was a tenor saxophonist best noted for his collaborations with Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Butera is frequently regarded as a crossover artist who performed with equal ease in both R & B and the post-big band pop style of jazz that permeated the early Vegas nightclub scene.
Butera was born and raised in New Orleans, where his father, Joe, ran a butcher shop and played guitar in his spare time. He heard the saxophone for the first time at a wedding when he was seven years old, and, with his father's encouragement, he began to play.
Butera's professional career blossomed early, beginning with a stint in big band drummer Ray McKinley's orchestra directly after high school. Butera was named one of America's top upcoming jazzmen by Look magazine when he was only eighteen years old, and, by his early twenties, he had landed positions in the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Joe Reichman, and Paul Gayten.
As the big band era wound down and heavy touring became less common among jazz musicians, Butera re-settled in New Orleans, where he played regularly at the 500 Club for four years. The 500 Club was owned by Louis Prima's brother, Leon, and it was this connection that led him to his much-heralded Vegas-based collaborations with Prima and Smith.
Prima transitioned from big band to Vegas somewhat hastily, having signed a contract with the Sahara without having first assembled a back-up band. From his Vegas hotel room, Prima phoned Butera in New Orleans and had him assemble a band posthaste. Butera and the band drove from New Orleans to Las Vegas in such a hurry that they had not taken time to give their act a name. On opening night in 1956, Prima asked Butera before a live audience what the name of his band was. Butera responded extemporaneously, "The Witnesses", and the name stuck.
Butera remained the bandleader of The Witnesses for the better part of the next twenty years. During that time, he performed with Louis Prima and/or Keely Smith on such Prima-associated classics as "That Old Black Magic", "Dig That Crazy Chick", "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody," "Come on-a My House," and "I Wan'na Be Like You" (from Disney's The Jungle Book).
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