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Lena Prima will pay tribute to her late, great father, Louie
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Lena Prima is looking forward to her return to the Greater Youngstown Italian Festival.
It has been at least five years since the daughter of legendary band leader Louis Prima last sang at the festival.
“I’m so excited to be coming back,” she told The Vindicator in a phone interview. “It’s the 25th anniversary of the festival and I feel it’s going to be special.”
The jazzy voiced singer is backed by a seven-piece band, which will travel with her to Youngstown.
Prima’s act is a tribute to her late father, although she also sings some of her own songs. She works almost exclusively in Las Vegas these days, with a few trips to New Orleans — her father’s hometown — each year.
“This will be my third time in Youngstown,” she said. “I started going there in 2000, when I was doing a lot of festivals, and it was one of my favorite places.
“It’s the people there,” she continued. “They are passionate about being Italian, and about my dad’s music. They loved my dad, and I heard wonderful stories about him from people [in Youngstown] who were fans of my father.”
Prima also enjoys the festival atmosphere in downtown Youngstown. “At theaters, people are reserved, but they are excited there,” she said.
Some children of musical icons struggle to get out from the shadow and distance themselves musically from their forebears. But Prima is quite comfortable singing her father’s songs.
“I really don’t mind being known as Louie Prima’s daughter,” she said. “I feel grateful to do this and for the family that I was born into ... singing my dad’s songs and the legacy I’ve been left.”
Still, she veers a little bit in her own musical direction on her new album, “Since the Storm,” which was released earlier this year.
“My new CD is all about where I am right now, the music that’s inside me,” she said.
“There’s some swing, jazz and New Orleans stuff. It’s the first CD I’ve done that I didn’t attribute to my father.”
The new album’s title refers to post-Katrina New Orleans. Prima visited the city in April to perform at the Jazz and Heritage Festival. “They honored my father,” she said. “It was really great. I played in the French Quarter at two venues my dad played at. The city was festive and it wasn’t long after the Super Bowl [which was won by the New Orleans Saints].”
Louis Prima, who died in 1978, will be honored posthumously today with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Both Lena and her brother, Louis Jr., will be present to accept the award. Louis Jr. leads a band that also plays his father’s music.