Sam Butera
Encyclopedia
Sam Butera was a tenor saxophone player 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'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 lead 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
).
He is noted for his raucous playing style, his off-color humor, and the innuendo in his lyrics. The arrangements he made with Prima have been covered by David Lee Roth
, Los Lobos
, Brian Setzer
, 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.
.
. 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
. Sam's advice for the host 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," the hosts found it familiar and he 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." 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 played a part in the movie The Rat Race
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, who had Alzheimer's disease
, died on June 3, 2009 in hospital in Las Vegas at age 81.
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
and Keely Smith
Keely Smith
Keely Smith is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
. Butera is frequently regarded as a crossover artist who performed with equal ease in both R & B and the post-big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
pop style of jazz that permeated the early Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
scene.
Biography
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
Ray McKinley
Ray McKinley was an American jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader.McKinley got his start working with local bands in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, before joining Smith Ballew in 1929, when he met Glenn Miller. The two formed a friendship which lasted from 1929 until Miller's death in 1944....
's orchestra directly after high school. Butera was named one of America's top upcoming jazzmen by Look magazine
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
when he was only eighteen years old, and, by his early twenties, he had landed positions in the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
, Joe Reichman, and Paul Gayten
Paul Gayten
Paul Gayten was an American R&B bandleader, pianist, songwriter, producer and record company executive.-Career:Gayten was born in Kentwood, Louisiana, the nephew of blues pianist Little Brother Montgomery...
.
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
Leon Prima
Leon Prima was an American jazz trumpeter.Prima was the older brother of the singer Louis Prima, and began on piano before picking up trumpet. He played early in his life with Leon Roppolo, Ray Bauduc, Jack Teagarden, and Peck Kelley...
, and it was this connection that lead 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
Come on-a My House
"Come on-a My House" is a song performed by Rosemary Clooney on her album Come On-A My House, released on June 6, 1951. The song was written by Ross Bagdasarian and noted Armenian American writer William Saroyan in the summer of 1939 but did not become a hit until the release of Clooney's recording...
," and "I Wan'na Be Like You
I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)
"I Wan'na Be Like You " is a song from Walt Disney's 1967 film, The Jungle Book. The song was sung by Louis Prima and written by songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman....
" (from Disney's The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
).
He is noted for his raucous playing style, his off-color humor, and the innuendo in his lyrics. The arrangements he made with Prima have been covered by David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
, Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
, Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...
, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight ", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played the Super Bowl XXXIII half-time show in 1999.The band was originally formed in Ventura,...
. 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.
Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
.
Later career
Butera had a featured role in the Cinemax TV special Viva Shaf Vegas, which starred Paul ShafferPaul Shaffer
Paul Allen Wood Shaffer, CM is a Canadian musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer who has been David Letterman's sidekick since 1982.-Early years:...
. In the show, written by Shaffer, Tom Leopold
Tom Leopold
Tom Leopold is an American comedy writer, performer and novelist. He has written episodes of Seinfeld and Cheers and several books. He has often been associated with Chevy Chase, Harry Shearer and Paul Shaffer in various projects...
and Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
, 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
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is an American animated parody talk show hosted by the 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. The show premiered on April 15, 1994 on Cartoon Network...
. Sam's advice for the host 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," the hosts found it familiar and he 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." 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 played a part in the movie The Rat Race
The Rat Race
The Rat Race is a 1960 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds as struggling young entertainment professionals in New York City. Filming took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.- Plot :...
starring Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
and Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
. He played a scam artist along with Joe Bushkin
Joe Bushkin
Joe Bushkin was an American jazz pianist.He began his career by playing trumpet and piano with New York City dance bands. He joined Bunny Berigan's band in 1935, then left to join Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band in 1939. From the late 1930s through to the late 1940s he also worked with Eddie Condon...
who fleeced Curtis out of his instruments. The music can be heard on the LP and the CD released by Dot
Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...
as a soundtrack of The Rat Race.
Butera, who had Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, died on June 3, 2009 in hospital in Las Vegas at age 81.