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Category:    Home > Reviews > Jazz Music Compilation > Louis Prima & Keely Smith - That Old Magic

Louis Prima & Keely Smith – That Old Magic

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C     Music: B

 

 

Louis Prima is one of the seminal Jazz music performers and a celebrated Italian American in music to boot, something that has kept interest in him outside of the genre he is so famous for.  Keely Smith is one of the great Big Band/Swing front lady singers, so Passport has brought out a film collaboration of theirs.  That Old Magic is one of the best vintage releases in content from the company, if not offering restored and preserved copies of the following:

 

1)     [That] Old Black Magic

2)     Porgy

3)     Get On Board Little Chillen (with The Pied Pipers)

4)     Sing, Sing, Sing (with Buddy Rich on drums)

5)     Flip, Flop & Fly (with Charlton Heston introduction)

6)     Robin Hood

7)     Oh Marie

8)     Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man

9)     [When The] Saints Go Marching In

10)  Whoa Baby

11)  Up A Lazy River

12)  Be My Love

13)  Personality

14)  I’m Confessin’

15)  MEDLEY: Robin Hood, Josephina, Hey Baba Re Bop

16)  I’d Climb The Highest Mountain

17)  And The Angels Sing

 

 

Rich really was one of the great drummers, and his performance here propels the classic Sing, Sing, Sing into a brilliant frenzy that is as much a Rock precursor as anything.  Prima does some comic moments with Smith and as you watch, you realize why this music was so phenomenally popular.  It was really good, they were extremely talented and it was fun.  Few DVDs to date have shown that.  Personality may be rushed through a bit, missing the great callback backup form the hit version, but this is amusing in its own way.  Some of the moments could be considered some of the earliest precursors to music video.

 

The 1.33 X 1 black and white images and dull Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono are par for the course on these discs, but they are more tolerable than usual due to the content.  Unlike most discs in this series of compilation releases, three Gene Krupa performances are included.  Be Bop Boogie has an unidentified guest vocalist.  Sabre Dance is the first time in history I have seen the music accompany actual fencers going at it while the music plays.  Something about that still is not right.  Disc Jockey Jump is another good drumming frenzy moment, with a drummer giving it his all.  That Old Magic is a must-see and hear for any serious music fan at least once.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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