Nearly three years after New Orleans police broke into Our Lady of Good Counsel Church to handcuff and evict parishioners trying to save it from closure, the 117-year-old church reopened on December 7, 2011.  The arcdiocese of New Orleans announced that the Center of Jesus the Lord, a community of charismatic Catholics, would move there from its home on North Rampart Street.

Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., born in New Orleans on November 14, 1934, is the son of Florence Robertson and Ellis Marsalis, Sr. (who was a businessman, hotel owner,  and social activist) and the father of musicians Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason.  Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and '90s as the patriarch of a musical family, with sons Branford Marsalis and Wynton Marsalis rising to international acclaim.  He played with fellow modernists including Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, and Al Hirt, becoming one of the most respected pianists in jazz. He has recorded almost twenty of his own albums.  As a leading educator at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana, Ellis has influenced the careers of countless musicians, including Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick Jr., Nicholas Payton; as well as his four musician sons.  In May, 2007, Marsalis received an honorary doctorate from Tulane University for his contributions to jazz and musical education. On December 7, 2008, Ellis Marsalis was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music at Musicians' Village in New Orleans is named in honor of Ellis Marsalis. In 2010, The Marsalis Family released a live album titled Music Redeems which was recorded at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC as part of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. All proceeds from the sale of the album go directly to the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.  Marsalis and his sons are group recipients of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award.

Happy Birthday, Louis Prima
Born on December 7, 1910

Leon Prima was a trained pianist who became a trumpet player and band leader.  As a young man Leon played with early jazz greats Leon Roppolo, Ray Bauduc, Jack Teagarden in New Orleans as well as with Peck Kelley's Bad Boys in Texas. He led the Melody Masters in New Orleans during the late 1920s.   From 1940--1946, Leon played with Louis' big band in New York.  After returning to New Orleans, Leon headed his own combo until retiring from music in 1955.  He also operated the 500 Club (441 Bourbon Street) whose house band was led by Sam Butera until 1954 when Butera joined Louis' band in Las Vegas.  Pictured is the Prima-Skarkey Orchestra in 1930 at the at the Little Club in New Orleans -- Front row: Charlie Hartmann (trombone), Sharkey Bonano (trumpet), Leon Prima (trumpet), Irving "Fazzola" Prestnoptik (clarinet and sax), Dave Winstein (sax and clarinet), Nina Picone (sax); back row: Augie Schellang (drums), Louie Mass.

 

Louis Leo Prima (1910--1978) Born in the French Quarter of Sicilian immigrants Angelina and Anthony Prima, Louis played at the Shim Sham Club four decades later.  A violinist (until 15) turned trumpeter (when he picked up older brother Leon's horn) as a young man played with Irving Fazola, with his brother Leon's band, and in the house band at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans (1931).   In this 1924 photograph (above we see (left to right) Leon Roppolo (playing the quitar), Louis Prima, Peck Kelly, Don (unknown). The Inscription reads: "Ropp hitting a few cords for the boys." The image was likely shot at the New Orleans lakefront. From the photo collection of Dr. Edmond Souchon.   During 1930s Prima worked with Red Nichols, before forming  a seven-piece jazz band called "Louis Prima's New Orleans Gang" which he formed in New York City  in 1934 where he played with fellow New Orleans musicians Eddie Miller (tenor sax and clarinet) and George Brunies (trombone).  Prima composed "Sing Sing Sing" (now in the Grammy Hall of Fame) in 1936 before it became one of Benny Goodman's most popular swing era tune.  Twenty years later Prima recorded "Jump, Jive and Wail" (1956). 

 

 

Pictured is Louis Prima's band in 1927 which included (left to right) Irving Fazola (clarinet/sax), John Miller (piano), Bob Jeffers (bass), George Hartman (trumpet), Louis Prima (trumpet), Cliff LeBlanc (trombone), Leonart Albersted (banjo), Jacob Sciambra (clarient/sax), Burt Andrus (clarinet/sax), John Vivano (drums). 

 

During the 1950s Louis performed with New Orleans saxophonist Sam Butera and the Witnesses (beginning in 1954) and  a 16 year old Keely Smith (later his fourth wife).  Hits included "Just a Gigolo - I Ain't Got Nobody (1956)," "Buona Sera," (1956) "Black Magic (1958)," "Zooma, Zooma," "When You're Smilin',"  In 1967 his was the voice of King Louis the oragnutan in Walt Disney's animated film The Jungle Book.  During the early '70s he and Butera returned to New Orleans to  play in the French Quarter.  Louis never fully recovered from a 1975 surgery for a brain tumor.  He died in New Orleans August 24, 1978 and is buried in Metairie Cemetery in a tomb with a statue of Gabriel the trumpeter-angel which is inscribed "When the end comes, I know, they'll all say 'just a gigolo' as life goes on without me..."  Photos from the Louisiana Digital Library.