Al Porcino 1943 with Louis Prima Orchestra

Louis Prima Orchestra 1943
New Orleans Blues
Al Porcino: "I was 19 years old and so it happens:"

The Adams Theatre in Newark, New Jersey and Louis Prima is doing a whole week there and he’s panicking because he needs two trumpet players this time. So my high school buddy who played trumpet and we played together in the different bands. His name was Harry Haas, but this guy was a musician already at his age. He had a (Vincent) Bach trumpet, a Bach mouthpiece. He could sight read anything. He could play jazz. He couldn’t play high notes like me but he could do all that other stuff. Anyhow, we go down there and we’re backstage between shows and thinking that I did a little bit better sight reading. Anyhow, they were desperate for some players and they said “O.K.”, we’re gonna take you two kids.