"Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses featuring Sarah Spiegel blew the lid off the Malibu Inn nightclub Saturday night, Sept. 29.
Jamming the postage-stamp-sized stage, the nine-piece band... performed even harder, tighter and wilder for the… loudly appreciative crowd than they had the previous night for a much larger and just as appreciative audience on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” outdoor stage headlining the Italian Feast (Galbani Italian Feast of San Gennaro) in Hollywood.
In Malibu, the group had nothing to prove; it was a pure display of their love of performing the music and the joy of pleasing a crowd."
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STEPHEN K. PEEPLES, Peeple's Place
"I’m constantly amazed by the breadth of quality artists that make up the Fresh Face class of emerging... stars. It seems that a week doesn’t go by that I don’t hear someone on the radio that sends me scrambling for a pen to jot down their name. Just this summer it started with... Louis Prima Jr. …"
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scox, vocalstandards.com
"The apple may not fall far from the tree but every once in a while it bounces a little. Louis Prima Jr. has just released his debut album, which would have made his famous dad proud.
He does not just reproduce the music note for note but instead updates it. While the brass is still present, the bass, drum, keyboards, and guitar add a rock element to the mix. It all adds up to a modernized Prima sound."
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David Bowling, BlogCritics.org
"Prima Jr.’s “Return of the Wildest!”... blew my hair back when I heard an advance a couple of months ago... a powerful update to the exuberant, horn-driven swing-jump sound mastered by Prima Sr... The album captures the buoyant, roof-raising celebration of good times the band presents onstage, and I highly recommend it."
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Stephen K. Peeples, Peeples Place
"Return of the Wildest!" is an astounding album by Louis Prima Jr. and his huge band. He recreates the classics of his dad, and breathes the simple truth about real life.”
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John Shelton Ivany, John Shelton Ivany's Top 21
"(Louis Jr.) 'Cements his place as Crown Prince of Swing'... This CD will blow the roof off of any party once you hit play and turn up the volume.
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j. poet, iTunes
"Louis Prima, Jr., turns up the heat a few notches while adding a few blisters here and there along the way... The musicianship of the performers is high caliber"
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Dawn Laureen, LABest.com
"Louis Prima Jr. commingles the punch and energy of his rock band heritage... Accompanied by his brasstastic band — “The Witnesses” — and the lovely and talented Sarah Spiegel, LPjr does an excellent job evoking the Crescent City jazz styled swing of his dad’s original material... But Jr. and The Witnesses also weave rock-forward elements into the mix and drive an intensity level that might even exhaust the old man … it’s wild and fun stuff."
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Steve Cox, VocalStandards.com
"Louis Prima Jr….has a wicked band backing him up.
….the fact that he has his Father’s blood running through his veins pretty much had me sold as far as his taking on his Father’s work and giving us something new. It’s an absolutely fantastic album that will bring Prima Sr. fans back to some pretty awesome memories as well as help create new ones for both the Father and the son."
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AJ Garcia, Shakefire.com
"Prima Jr. is the crown prince of swing... every track on Return of the Wildest!... snares listeners with an appealing mix of unbridled enthusiasm and self control... His high energy band seems bursting at the seams... I cannot remember the last time that every track on a CD made me smile as it began. You do it in spite of yourself."
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Chip Etier, Examiner.com
“Louis Prima Jr. and a sizzling eight-member band took fans back to the era when his father was the hottest act in America.... the life, times and music of Louis Prima lives on in... his son and the sensational present-day “witnesses"”
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L. Pierce Carson, Napa Valley Register
“Louis Jr. and the Witnesses, do music that, if it were tooling down I-80, would come straight at you like a ten-ton truck: no slowing down and always rendered in an absolute full-bore performance. No prisoners taken..... spilling joyous music all over our clean, pretty sidewalks.... everybody probably had way too much fun.”
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Gary Chew, Sacramento Press
“Louis Prima Jr. ... (has) serious swing chops and dynamite entertainment value, just like his old man without a doubt.... a New Orleans jazz-soaked trumpeter like his dad... Louis Jr. takes the Prima family lineage into the 21st century. ”
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A.D. Amorosi, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“What a tribute…. Louis Jr. is keeping his dad’s OUTSTANDING musical legacy vibrantly alive. ”
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Renee Gold, Ageless With Auntie .com
“A rip-roaring, jump-jiving time....... The 45-year-old swingster is more than just an entertainer. He plays a mean trumpet, as well as piano and drums, and emulates his father to a tee.”
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Lisa Rich, NJ.com
“Louis Prima, Jr. shook the crowd up with the same kind of infectious fun and stagecraft that had been his father's trademarks.”
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Tom Clavin, That Old Black Magic (book)
“Junior's... energy level and live mannerisms are certainly cut from the same cloth.”
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Michael Roberts, JAZZIZ
“Junior has re-created Dad's sounds and wild antics — with an occasional slip into modernity.”
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Phil Roura, NY Daily News
“Louis Prima Jr... revived some of (Prima Sr's) hits in a high-powered show... people were literally dancing in the streets”
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Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene - Jazz Around Town
“Louis Prima Jr... keeping his father’s flame burning with a hard-swinging show reminiscent of his father’s.”
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Jazziz.com
“Prima Jr's...set was pure homage to Prima Sr., ...you'd think Vine Street (Hollywood) had morphed into Bourbon Street... ”
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Stephen K Peeples, The-Signal.com
“The unabashed spirit of Prima shook the (Hollywood) pavement as the late jazz singer’s son, Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses - and the lovely Sarah Spiegel dazzled the crowd”
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Margie Anne Clark, CityLifeCommunications.com
"It’s a show with an infectious energy... there was never any part of it that felt old, or stuffy."
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Jason Scavone, dailyfiasco.com
"Louis Prima Jr. performs the music of his father with a fresh youthful energy, while keeping true to the roots of the music -- it's vibrant, energetic and makes you just want to get up and dance."
