Louis Prima (1910-1978) represents, for me, the epitome of the joyful fun side of jazz and swing. If Prima and the other musicians in the band weren’t so accomplished and the standard of musicianship wasn’t so high then many of these arrangements would risk sounding seriously cheesy.

Because the actual sound and swing of these guys is so huge, the music itself doesn’t need to be complicated in order to work. I suppose you could call Prima’s musical entourage a ‘working’ band as they were constantly doing gigs and residencies in places like Las Vegas.