Sam Butera

Sam Butera (August 17, 1927 – June 3, 2009) was an American 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.

Sam Butera
Butera in 1961
Background information
Born(1927-08-17)August 17, 1927
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
DiedJune 3, 2009(2009-06-03) (aged 81)
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
GenresJazz, Rock and roll
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsTenor saxophone
Associated acts

Biography

Butera was born and raised in an Italian-American family in New Orleans, where his father, Joe, ran a butcher shop and played guitar in his spare time.[1] 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.[2]

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 1954, 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 more than twenty years. During that time, he performed with Louis Prima and/or Keely Smith on such Prima-associated songs as "That Old Black Magic", "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). Richard and Robert Sherman, composers of the songs for the Disney animated film, agreed to cast Prima, Butera and their band after executives from the Walt Disney Company urged them to travel to Las Vegas to witness the band’s live act in person.[3]

Butera is noted for his raucous playing style, his off-color humor, and the innuendo in his lyrics. The arrangement he made with Prima of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" has been covered by David Lee Roth, Los Lobos, Brian Setzer, The Village People, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. In addition to his accomplishments as a saxophonist and composer, Butera is widely regarded as the inspiration for the vocal style of fellow New Orleans-born jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr.[4]

Later career

Butera had a featured role in the Cinemax TV special Viva Shaf Vegas (1986), which starred Paul Shaffer. In the show, written by Shaffer, Tom Leopold and Harry Shearer, Butera is asked to help Shaffer with his "spiritual crisis". To analyze Shaffer's problem, Butera asks a series of questions, the last of which is, "Are you regular?"

Sam Butera was featured in an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1997).[5] Butera's advice for the host, Space Ghost's evil twin brother Chad Ghostal, on getting "chicks, like a fox [insert purr]" is, "Well, first a little music, a little jive talk. You gotta call her baby, sweetheart, darling, you know all the names that go along with love." When he sang part of "Just a Gigolo," Chad, Zorak, and Moltar found it familiar and Butera began to tell how David Lee Roth stole the song from him. "I wrote that arrangement thirty four years ago, the one that David Lee Roth stole from me. He came in one night to see me, you know, and after the show he walked up to me and said 'Hey Sam!', and I said 'who are you', he said 'I'm David Lee Roth'". "'You know what' I tell him? I said 'give me my money' and he turned right away and walked out."[6] Royalties are paid to songwriters, not arrangers, and the 2 songs making up the arrangement were old standards by the 1950's. Butera's anger towards Roth was equaled by his anger towards journalists, often calling columnists to complain about reviews he didn't like.

Sam Butera appeared in a Joe Piscopo HBO special.

Butera played a part in the movie The Rat Race (1960), starring Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis. He played a scam artist along with Joe Bushkin who fleeced Curtis out of his instruments. The music can be heard on the LP and the CD released by Dot as a soundtrack of The Rat Race.

Butera died of pneumonia in Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 81.[7]

Selected discography
  • "Goin' In" B: "Comin' Out" 1955

Solo albums with The Witnesses:

  • The Big Horn (Capitol Records - 1958)
  • The Big Voice and Big Sax of Sam Butera (Capitol Records - 1959)
  • The Wildest Clan (Dot Records - 1960)
  • Plays Music from "The Rat Race" (Dot Records - 1960)
  • Apache! (Dot Records - 1961)
  • Thinking Man's Sax (Prima One - 1964) • •When The Feeling Hits You (w/Sammy Davis Jr./Reprise -1965)
  • He's Number One! (Prima One - 1974) (Re-released on Butera's label, Poor Boy Records, in 1978)
  • Ultra-Lounge Wild, Cool, and Swingin' Artist Series Volume 6: Sam Butera and The Witnesses (Capitol - 1999; compilation)

With The Wildest:

-LPs

  • By Request (Poor Boy Records PB 1001- 1979)
  • Play It Again, Sam! (Poor Boy Records PB 1002 - 1980)
  • Atlantic City Special (Poor Boy Records PB 1003 -1981)
  • Body and Sax... with a Little Soul (Poor Boy Records PB 1000 - 1984)
  • Love Is In The Air (Poor Boy Records PB 1004 - 198?)
  • Sam Butera and The Wildest Live! (Poor Boy Records PB 1005 - 1987)
  • Tribute to Louis Prima, Part I (Poor Boy Records - 198?)
  • Tribute to Louis Prima, Part II (Poor Boy Records - 198?)
  • On Stage (Get Hip - 1996)

-CDs

  • A Tribute to Louis Prima, Volume 1 (Jasmine Records - 1994)
  • A Tribute to Louis Prima, Volume 2 (Jasmine Records - 1994)
  • By Request (Jasmine Records - 1994)
  • Sheer Energy (Jasmine Records - 1994)
  • On Stage (Get Hip - 1996)
  • The Whole World Loves Italians (USA Records - 1997)
  • Still Cookin' (Poor Boy Records - 2000)

See also

References
  1. Fink, Jerry (3 June 2009). "Jazz saxophonist Sam Butera dies". Las Vegas Sun.
  2. Spera, Keith (3 June 2009). "Sam Butera, former Louis Prima saxophonist, dies in Las Vegas at age 81". The Times-Picayune.
  3. "New 'Jungle Book' Sound Track Thrills Two of Its Composers : Movies: The digitally remastered CD will be out Monday. The Sherman brothers are animated about the recording". LosAngelesTimes.com. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  4. "Sam Butera & The Witnesses – Wild Sax Wailer Supreme". Russ & Gary's The Best Years of Music. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  5. "Hipster". Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Season 4. Episode 17. 7 November 1997. Cartoon Network.
  6. Baird, Kirk (23 April 2000). "Play It Again, Sam". Las Vegas Sun.
  7. Keepnews, Peter (5 June 2009). "Sam Butera, Saxophonist for Louis Prima, Dies at 81". The New York Times. p. B10.
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