Ultra-Lounge Wild Cool & Swingin' - Artist Series, Vol. 1: Louis Prima & Keely Smith
The back of this two-CD set may say  "File underLounge," but frankly, lounging will be the very last thing on your mind once you put Louis and Keely on. It's simply impossible to stand still while the duo, backed by Sam Butera and the Witnesses, gets going. When Keely sings "Hey boy, I can really cook," there's a tiny chance she's talking about something that takes place in the kitchen, but the galloping bass line behind her says that she really belongs to the dance floor. Whoo-hee! Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things" is taken at a frenetic pace--do these people ever pause to breathe? The bulk of this collection was recorded between 1957 and 1962, and it makes for an explosive document of a now-gone era when men in sharp suits hung out at the Copa, babes with pointy rocket-launcher breasts at their arms. The sheer effortlessness of it all is still supremely exciting.--Elisabeth Vincentelli