Before the Beatles, before he put on that first Little Richard record and saw a whole new world open up before him, Paul McCartney listened to this kind of music.

Lena Prima centered this project with a pair of songs by her father, Louis Prima. But she didn’t settle for the simple goal of glowing tribute, either to this legendary New Orleans-born purveyor of post-war jump blues or to his era’s great American songbook.

A friend of mine, who I just recently turned on to the pleasures of the LP (he’s hooked for sure now), picked up a copy of 2:00 A.M. Paradise Cafe at the Goodwill store. He might have paid a buck for it.

Many a jazz singer has stumbled through the Great American Songbook, slowed by imitative missteps or the inability to keep pace with a swinging quartet surrounding him. David Paul Mesler is not that singer.