Saxophonist Sam Butera dead at 81

NEW YORK, June 5 (UPI) -- Famed New Orleans-born jazz and R&B musician Sam Butera has died in Las Vegas his family said. He was 81.

Butera, who played saxophone with singer-songwriter-musician Louis Prima for more than 20 years and later became a successful bandleader, died Wednesday, The New York Times reported.

Butera began playing the saxophone when he was 7, became a professional musician at 14 when he was hired to perform in a strip club on Bourbon Street and won a talent contest sponsored by Look magazine when he was 19.

Having worked with the big bands of Ray McKinley, Tommy Dorsey and others, he formed his own group, which had a four-year residency at the 500 Club in New Orleans, the Times noted.

Prima hired Butera in December 1954 and he assembled a band, the Witnesses, who backed up Prima until he died in 1978. Afterward, Butera continued to lead a band, sing and play sax.

He retired from full-time performing in 2004.

Butera is survived by his wife, Vera; two daughters, Cheryl and Diane; two sons, Sam Jr. and Nick; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild, the Times said.