Dixieland Jazz - Pete Fountain Discography

Dixieland Essentials - Stardust Records

2011-11-24T12:03:00.005-05:00

Dixieland Essentials

2011 - Stardust Records

01. Jazz Me Blues
02. Basin Street Blues
03. Struttin' With Some Barbecue
04. Muskrat Ramble
05. When The Saints Go Marching In
06. St. James Infirmary
07. Bourbon Street Parade
08. Farewell Blues
09. At The Jazz Band Ball
10. Tin Roof Blues
11. South Rampart Street Parade
12. Milenberg Joys
13. Washboard Blues
14. Wabash Blues
15. Someday Sweetheart
16. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
17. Beale Street Blues
18. Ballin' The Jack
19. I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues
20. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
21. That's A Plenty
22. Dipper Mouth Blues
23. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
24. St. Louis Blues
25. I've Found A New Baby
26. Panama
27. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
28. Black And Blue
29. Careless Love
30. Wang Wang Blues

Liner Notes:

Dixieland from New Orleans: Naturally that's where it all started, back before the turn of the century. New Orleans - where the old time marching jazz came into being: Where Ragtime: Barrel House, old and present day Dixieland all originated: And the best Dixieland is still coming from this famous bend in the Mississippi.

This is yet another MP3 only download compilation from various times in Pete's long career. 30 tracks, great sound quality .

Crazy - Classic Records

2011-11-24T11:55:00.003-05:00

Crazy

2011 - Classic Records

01. Muskrat Ramble
02. Paradise
03. Running Wild
04. Wolverine Blues
05. Your Cheatin' Heart
06. Amazing Grace
07. Basin Street Blues
08. Crazy
09. Georgia
10. I Can't Stop Loving You
11. It Had to Be You
12. Jazz Me Blues
13. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
14. Lazy River
15. Marie

Liner Notes:

Dixieland from New Orleans: Naturally that's where it all started, back before the turn of the century. New Orleans - where the old time marching jazz came into being: Where Ragtime: Barrel House, old and present day Dixieland all originated: And the best Dixieland is still coming from this famous bend in the Mississippi.

This is yet another MP3 only download compilation from various times in Pete's long career. Great sound quality .

Pete Fountain Birthday News - Memorabilia

2011-07-03T19:57:00.003-04:00

In the 1960s famed Dixieland jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain always closed his New Orleans club around the Independence Day holiday in order to celebrate his birthday on July 3. He and his wife, Beverly Lang Fountain, are shown here on one such excursion, outside the Broadwater Beach Hotel in Biloxi. The couple married in October 1951. Their son, Kevin Fountain, who submitted the photo, says he believes it was taken around 1965.

Fountain was first mentioned in The Times-Picayune on March 4, 1948, when police reported the theft of two of his instruments, worth $250, from Warren Easton High School.

The following February his photo was featured in a Werlein's ad congratulating his Junior Dixie Land Jamboree Band for winning on the Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program, a national radio talent show which was a precursor to American Idol.

John Kelly, The Times-Picayune Les Causeries du Lundi elected officers for the 1962-63 season Monday (May 14) at a gathering at Gallier Hall. Installed for the coming year are (from left, seated): Mrs. Frank B. Delery, president; Mrs. Lilian Lewis, first vice-president; and Miss Gladys Anne Renshaw, second vice-president; (standing) Miss Adele Drouet, reception chairman; Mrs. Richard Massie Martin, treasurer; and Mrs. Paul Perret, program chairman. May 16, 1962

After evacuating for Hurricane Katrina, Fountain is back living in New Orleans, but his son reports he has been in East Jefferson General Hospital for the past three weeks. All his fans wish him well today on his 81st birthday.

Courtesy of John Kelly, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
John Kelly can be reached a jkelly@timespicayune.com.

Pete Fountain's 81st Birthday - News

2011-07-03T19:40:00.002-04:00

Happy 81st Birthday Pete!

Pete Fountain, Jazz Clarinetist, was born on July 3, 1930 in New Orleans. He has entertained us for decades and we all wish him the best.

We wish Pete a happy 81st birthday, and may he continue to "toot" and make music for many more years.

Pete's Baby Photo

Pete Fountain at Jazz Fest 2011 - News

2011-05-16T13:21:00.003-04:00

Pete Fountain fires up a second-line
at New Orleans Jazz Fest

New Orleans legend Pete Fountain plays with his granddaughter,
Danielle Scheib on the washboard at the Economy Hall Tent during his set Sunday at Jazz Fest.

Twenty minutes before Pete Fountain's Sunday afternoon set at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Melissa Ensley of Slidell settled into a second-row seat, and turned to me with a question?

"So are you a big Pete Fountain fan?"

As I was about to reply, she pulled from her bag a vintage copy of Fountain's 1964 LP "Licorice Stick," showing off the fresh autograph on the cover. "My earliest musical memory was listening to this with my dad," she said. "We come to see Pete Fountain every year. We can't miss him."

Clearly that was the collective feeling in the Economy Hall tent, where people packed the aisles 10 deep. When the 80-year-old great-granddad of New Orleans traditional jazz climbed onto the stage, surrounded by his seven-piece band, the crowd roared up, clapping and whistling, cell phone cameras held aloft.

A standing ovation before he played his first note. It would be one of four he'd receive during the hour-long set. Hurricanes and health problems may have taken a toll on Fountain, slowing him down a bit, but he still knows how to grab the audience and force them out of their chairs. With Tim Laughlin accompanying on clarinet, he pumped out the old favorites - "Clarinet Marmalade," "Up the Lazy River," and "Basin Street Blues," - his feet tapping to the music.

For "St. Louis Blues," his granddaughter, Danielle Scheib, 32, joined him on washboard, her spoons zipping over the metal surface adding a Zydeco beat. At the end of the song she gave gramps a hug, prompting another roar from the audience.

Dressed in an untucked blue and white button down and white pants, Fountain shared the microphone with Laughlin, tag teaming it through "A Closer Walk With Thee," and "Struttin' with Some BBQ," backed up by Mark Mullins on trombone, Connie Jones on coronet, Tom Maggiore on sax, Olivier "Sticks" Felix on bass, Allyn Young on guitar and John Royen on piano. As he wound into "When the Saints Go Marching In," with Scheib back on the washboard, a second line snaked through the aisles, umbrellas in the air, handkerchiefs waving.

At the end of the song, Fountain bowed to the roaring applause, put his flat cap on his head and exited stage right. A crowd gathered by the barricades, calling out for autographs and photos.

In the second row, Ensley packed up her LP. "With that, we're going home for the day," she said. "Nothing can beat it."

Credits: Published: Sunday, May 01, 2011, 7:30 PM
By Susan Langenhennig, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com

News - A Half-Fast Walk With Pete Fountain - OffBeat Magazine

2011-05-08T21:23:00.005-04:00

A Half-Fast Walk With Pete Fountain
from OffBeat Magazine

Dawn arrived on Fat Tuesday 2011 with a gray, windy bluster and a forecast of heavy rain. But nature could not throw a wet blanket on the smoldering fire of revelers gathering along St. Charles Avenue waiting for the parades to roll. Outside of Commander’s Palace, Pete Fountain readied himself to lead those parades downtown, just as he had for the previous 50 years (he missed 2006 due to illness). Most of those years Fountain and his friends in the Half-Fast Walking Club walked into town, playing as they went and scattering doubloons adorned with Pete’s cherubic face. The crowds who’d been waiting for hours to see Zulu roll always greeted Fountain’s appearance with a joyous response, knowing that Mardi Gras had officially begin.

But the 80-year-old Fountain has been slowed by strokes and now rides downtown on a streetcar float. “I used to walk,” he says with a smile. “Now I have to ride in the truck. But I love it. Just have a good time. This is our 51st year. Now I’m on a trolley car that we put the 14-piece band on. I just sit there and play with them. It started with just the wives, couples walking, and it built from there. When I was a kid, they had all the walking clubs in the neighborhoods with brass bands and everything just like they are today. So that’s what happens; you grow up with it.”

Fountain took his place at the front of the streetcar, resplendent in a dark blue suit festooned with embroidered white detail and wearing a feathered blue top hat. A group of club members walked ahead of him dressed in lighter purple suits and top hats tossing blue beads with medallions bearing the inscription “Pete Fountain” on one side and “Half-Fast Walking Club” on the other. The entourage turned onto St. Charles at Washington Avenue and the crowd cheered. Fountain’s band was in high gear and Pete brought his clarinet to his lips to play a few bars. But for the most part, he held on to his instrument and waved at the people, smiling and at times appearing overwhelmed with emotion.

A television reporter approached the streetcar and asked Fountain a couple of questions about the weather and the music. Pete answered him, and when the reporter finished, Pete turned his gaze directly into the camera and said, “Thank you. I love you.” Fountain has difficulty talking since the strokes, but he is still adept at communication. His message comes from deep inside those merry, watery blue eyes: “I love you.” The message is to all New Orleanians, a humble, simple expression of how much this city’s music and its people mean to him.

Despite his infirmities, Pierre Dewey Fountain, Jr. gives the impression of savoring every moment of his life in his hometown. When he arrived at the Court of Two Sisters to sit down with OffBeat for this story, he chatted with French Quarter Fest board member Aynsley Fein, the daughter of a close friend. She took him by the arm and brought him into the garden, where a jazz trio was playing “Basin Street Blues.” Fountain stopped and greeted each of them warmly. If you play traditional jazz in New Orleans, chances are you know Pete personally.

When we sat down, talk turned immediately to French Quarter Fest. Fountain is the subject of this year’s poster. “The poster looks nice,” offers Fountain. “I’ve played every French Quarter Fest, every year since the beginning. The first year was ‘84, ‘85. We played in Jackson Square. We always played in Jackson Square. My club (Pete Fountain’s, on Bourbon Street) was open back then. My club was separate from the French Quarter Fest, but we did some special events with them. Connie Jones and them were very influential in getting the French Quarter Festival started, and we did a lot of things with the festival.”

Fountain speaks in short bursts interspersed with pauses. As he tries to remember details or formulate his words, he drums his fingers on the table. If he grows frustrated about not being able to express himself, he places his hand on the table palm down. But in general, he is able to talk without much prompting. And though his smile falters, it never fully disappears. That smile bespeaks a lifetime of living in New Orleans playing jazz and reflects the satisfaction of a man who’s seen his music grow from infancy.

When Pete Fountain was a boy growing up in the 1930s, jazz was the popular music of its day, and Fountain knew he wanted to play it as soon as he picked up the clarinet at age nine.

“My father played a little fiddle and drums,” he says. “It was more country what he played.”

Though Fountain grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, he doesn’t remember his childhood days as hard times.

“It was easy because my daddy drove a beer truck,” he says. “We had all we wanted.” His eyes twinkle with the implied joke.

His dad, Pierre (Red) Fountain, was a naturally gifted musician. Pete remembers his father playing his first clarinet before Pete himself could get a grasp on the instrument. But Fountain inherited his father’s instinct to play music without practice. “I always had a good ear,” he says. That instinct is responsible for the relaxed, easy swing in Fountain’s delivery, a talent that allowed him to excel at school without being a disciplined chart player. Once he heard an arrangement, he could play it by heart. Fountain was a star player at McDonogh 28 Elementary School and Warren Easton High School. On the side, he listened to and played with anyone he could. He idolized Irving Fazola, whose broad tone he emulated, and played popular jazz tunes at football games with the Assunto Brothers, who later hired him to play with the Dukes of Dixieland.

“When I was growing up, what is now called New Orleans traditional jazz was contemporary music,” he says. “The Assunto brothers—I used to go to the football games and they would be playing there. It was at City Park Stadium. I asked them if they needed a clarinet player and they said okay, so I used to play with them at the football games. We’d be playing ‘Saints’; it’s the same now when I play it at Saints games. No difference. Just different guys, same tunes.”

Fountain had bigger ambitions. He wanted to make it on Bourbon Street.

“There was a lot more music on Bourbon Street then, especially when I was growing up it was all live music, traditional New Orleans jazz. I would go to various clubs where musicians would all be sitting in with each other. I’d go walking down to Jumbo’s (Al Hirt’s) club.

I went to the Mardi Gras parades on Bourbon Street when I was a kid. I used to go see Irving Fazola on Bourbon Street. I was too young to get into the clubs then, but I would sit outside and listen. When I was 15 years old, they called me up the night Irving died to sit in in his place at the club.”

Fountain realized his life’s ambition as a teenager and never looked back.

“I always thought I would be doing this,” he says. “I played through grammar school and high school. Just played the clarinet, that was it. I knew everybody through playing the music. That was my whole life. I used to go to places and try to play with people as a kid. That’s how I met Jumbo. I always called him Jumbo. We go back all the way. I met him when I was a kid. He was a few years older than me. I used to go see him play. He was unbelievable back then. He invited me up one night and he liked how I played. People would know what you could do once they heard you. Everybody used to play the same thing—‘Saints,’ ‘Muskrat Ramble,’ we all knew the same songs. I was a professional musician, supporting myself playing music, when I was 18 or 19 years old. Jumbo and I were together for a while. It was just friendship, music, you know. I enjoyed being around him because he was a good player.”

In addition to playing with Hirt and others, Fountain had his own group, the Basin Street Six, in the 1950s. He also started a family, marrying Beverly Lang. “I was in the Louisiana National Guard through the whole time, with the band here in New Orleans. So that kept us all out of the [Korean] War. We played for everybody. Everything. I’ve been very lucky to toot the horn.”

Fountain began a recording career during the ‘50s that led to more than 100 albums appearing under his name over the years. “I started out with Joe Mares and Southland Records,” he recalls. “He had a studio. It was funny; he was selling fur pelts so he had this big space and he loved jazz. His brother Paul played trumpet years back in the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. He loved jazz. We would go in there and he would set up one microphone in the middle of the room and tape it. That was all you had.”

One of those recordings led to the biggest break in Fountain’s career, a two-year stint with the nationally-televised Lawrence Welk Show. Once a week, the whole country heard Fountain play a piece of New Orleans traditional jazz on Welk’s program.

“[Welk’s] son heard one of the records I did and they called me,” says Fountain. “They asked me to come up and play. I was very surprised, and then all of a sudden I’m on television and living out in California. I lived there for two years with them.”

Though Fountain was a telegenic presence who provided a needed spark to the somnambulant pace of Welk’s programs, he chafed at the Hollywood lifestyle. Eventually, musical differences led to a parting of the ways with Welk. Fountain was at a crossroad. He was a huge TV star at the dawn of the 1960s. He could have easily arranged for his own television show or toured behind his sudden mass appeal. But all this true son of New Orleans wanted to do was come home.

“I just wanted to,” he explains. “My wife and three kids, they all moved out to L.A. with me. I don’t think she liked it too much. She put up with it for two years and then we came home. I missed the parties and the crawfish boils and all the parts of living your life here.”

“I came back in 1960 and opened up 800 Bourbon St., the jazz club Pete Fountain’s. The city hadn’t changed. I came back and it was the same difference. My name was bigger from playing on TV, but I wanted to come back to what I did here. The stardom, it never did catch up to me maybe. Maybe Jack Daniels helped. The quality of life was more important than being a celebrity. I just pushed all that aside.”

As far as he was concerned, Fountain traded in Hollywood for his lifelong dream, his own Bourbon Street club.

“I had my place 31 years, back when I was taller,” he says, smiling at his own joke. “It was 1960 when we opened the club. And then I went to 231 Bourbon. Jumbo was down the street in the 500 block. We used to go back and forth between clubs. Once I’d get off, I’d go down and see him. He’d come to my place. It depends on how drunk we got. I think Jumbo stayed open the latest of the two of us.”

Fountain celebrated his homecoming with an album, Pete Fountain’s New Orleans, that many consider his best record. Fountain’s hit version of the gospel song “A Closer Walk” comes from that record. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, Fountain turned down offers to tour so he could play in New Orleans. He could have traveled all over the world, but he stayed in his club and played his music there.

“We did some touring, but not much,” he says. “It depends on the money. Of course I did go to do The Tonight Show. I liked Johnny Carson. I did that show 59 times. I knew all the guys in the band. Still do.”

Carson had a great rapport with his band. He would often use them to make hip jokes about partying, and Fountain has a wry comment about Carson’s frequent references to band members being high on marijuana.

“I wonder why he said that?” he asks impishly.

Popular music was changing dramatically while Fountain and Hirt ruled Bourbon Street. Fountain knew that his role had changed to being one of the guardians of a tradition.

“I was aware that we were keeping a tradition going,” he says. “I think that Jumbo, myself and the Dukes of Dixieland, there was all kinds of jazz coming out at the same time so it was lucky for us that we could make a living here without going out of town too much. I’m lucky to have been able to make a living in my hometown.”

Though Fountain has slowed his pace, he hasn’t stopped playing and has no plans to retire.

“I still play out at some private gigs,” he says. “I’m playing French Quarter Festival and at a benefit for the Christian Brothers School. Two of my boys went to the Christian Brothers. We do a golf benefit for them. We do Jazz Fest, too.”

As for his legacy, Fountain says he’s not looking that far ahead. “I don’t know. Just keep playing the clarinet as long as I can. I have a lot of protégés, but the best of them is Tim Laughlin. Tim showed up on our doorstep when he was 15 years old. We let him listen to the music and he took it from there. He’s a good player. Sometimes I think about all the things I’ve done with the records. You know, I mean, it was good. A good life. And here I am. I’m still tootin’ as much as I can. I’m not thinking about the future. I’m taking it one day at a time as much as I can.”

Fountain is more concerned about the future of traditional jazz than he is about his own legacy. He’s pleased to see that traditional New Orleans jazz is enjoying a revival with a younger audience. “When it’s good, you see a lot of jazz out there,” he says, “and then it will back off for a little while and now it looks like it’s coming back. You notice that when the younger players pick it up, like out in the yard there, those younger players. The music is timeless.”

Pete Fountain’s passion for jazz and the people of New Orleans has never wavered. Unlike so many other talented musicians who left New Orleans to pursue stardom on bigger stages, Fountain has never let celebrity make him forget who he is.

“I’m lucky to have been able to make a living in my hometown,” he insists.

Nevertheless, even at 80 Fountain’s celebrity shadows his every step. He is greeted joyfully everywhere he goes in New Orleans and every person he meets gets a warm smile and a heartfelt gesture, a handclasp or pat on the shoulder. He never seems to tire of this role, and even though he has difficulty conversing, his wry sense of humor still animates his statements. The HBO series Treme filmed him leading the Half-Fast Walking Club on Mardi Gras morning. He has seen the show, yes. Did he like it?

“I like that,” he says matter-of-factly. “If they play jazz I love it. I don’t care who, what, why or where.”

At French Quarter Fest: with Connie Jones, Friday, April 8, 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. WWL-TV Jackson Square Stage.

Courtesy of OFFBEAT MAGAZINE
Photos by Elsa Hahne
OffBeat is a monthly print magazine focusing on the music,

cuisine and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana. Its first issue was printed in 1988

Big Bands Of The Swingin' Years: Pete Fountain (Digitally Remastered)

2011-05-07T12:24:00.003-04:00

Big Bands Of The Swingin' Years: Pete Fountain

2011 Essential Media Group

Tracks:
01. St. James Infirmary Blues 3:11 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
02. Up A Lazy River 3:13 (Basin Street Six)
03. Jazz Me Blues 4:06 (Pete Fountain and The Sunsetters)
04. Mumbo Gumbo 2:34 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
05. Margie 2:56 (Basin Street Six)
06. That's A Plenty (Basin Street Six)
07. When The Saints Go Marching In 3:55 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
08. High Society 3:18 (Basin Street Six)
09. Moanin' Low 4:02 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
10. South Rampart Street Parade 2:53 (Pete Fountain and The Sunsetters)

The greatest ambassador of New Orleans jazz since Louis Armstrong, clarinetist Pete Fountain epitomizes the sound of New Orleans and has always remained true to the roots of Dixieland jazz. Presented here is some of Fountain's most treasured classic recordings including "St. James Infirmary Blues," "Up A Lazy River," "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "High Society." All selections newly remastered.

Nothing new here, sound quality sounds like it was taken from a vinyl record.

This is a reissue of the same CDs on

Down On Rampart Street - Music Trax Records
2007 Music Trax Records SEII - 9123

Down On Rampart Street - Classic Sounds Records
1996 Classic Sounds Inc. Records CSI-7785.

News - Pete Fountain, Mardi Gras 2011 and the Half-Fast Walkng Club

2011-03-23T09:30:00.020-04:00

Pete Fountain Celebrates Another Year on the Avenue
Report by WWL TV

He's usually the first attraction of the day on the Uptown parade route for Mardi Gras and today was no exception. New Orleans treasure Pete Fountain lead his Half-Fast Walking Club right down the St. Charles route, making this year 51.

Pete Fountain talks to WWL's Chris Miller about the 51st year with the Half-Fast Walking Club:

''It's my day, it's my day, I enjoy being around the guys and the musicians, just everything,'' Fountain explained.

Watch Pete Fountain as the Half-Fast Walking Club begins its trek down St. Charles:

Fountain will be 81 years old in July and said he has no intention of quitting,

hoping next Mardi Gras will be another good one.

''Have a good day and see you on the road. On the route? On the road.''

He is a world famous clarinetist, but most locals just know him as Pete,

and as a wonderfully nice guy.

Video courtesy of WWL TV.

Memorabilia - Pete Fountain & Tami Curtis Ellis 2011 French Quarter Festival Poster

2011-03-23T08:59:00.004-04:00

2011 French Quarter Festival Poster

By Louisiana Artist, Tami Curtis Ellis

The 2011 French Quarter Festival Poster highlights New Orleans'
own Pete Fountain, Connie Jones, and Tim Laughlin...

The French Quarter Festival All Stars!
Artist Tami Curtis Ellis placed them as the treasured center piece
among many iconic images that represent the music, architecture, culture,
and food that makes New Orleans what it is and what we love!

Tim Laughlin, Pete Fountain, and Connie Jones perform
as theFrench Quarter Festival All Stars at the French
Quarter Festival Press Conference in Jackson Square.

Pete Fountain signs his image in the original artwork for the poster.

Connie Jones signs his image in the original poster artwork
as Pete Fountain and Tami Curtis Ellis look on.

Photo op time with Louisiana artist, Tami Curtis Ellis and
the French Quarter Festival All Stars, Tim Laughlin, Pete
Fountain, and Connie Jones. The three legendary musicians
were the inspiration and the center piece on the 2011 French
Quarter Festival poster artwork this year.

Pete Fountain, Tim Laughlin, and Connie Jones each signed
their own image in the original painting.

It just doesn't get any cooler than that!!!

The posters are signed, numbered and printed in a rich colored silk screen process. To order yours, visit the official French Quarter Festival website at www.fqfi.org.

To see more of Tami's art, visit her website at www.tamicurtisellis.com

News - Pete Fountain's Final Performance - Report

2010-12-20T20:28:00.012-05:00

Pete Fountain's Final Performance
Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis on Dec. 8, 2010
Reported by John Titsworth

It was a chilly evening in Bay St. Louis, MS on December 8th for a performance at The Hollywood Casino that had been advertised as Pete Fountain’s final show at the casino. The band had been playing one 8:00 show the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each month for the past 9 months set up on top of a bar centrally located on the main floor of the casino. The view from the bandstand was that of a sea of slot machines and gambling tables between which chairs were squeezed in order to see Pete play.

The local Biloxi television station, WLOX, sent a camera man and anchorwoman to interview Pete and capture snippets of the show for broadcast later that evening. By 6:30 people were appearing claiming what few good spots existed with favorable views of the stage. By show time a tight knit group had assembled who were personal friends and family as well as many well wishers and loyal fans of Pete over the past 60 years. With little fanfare the show opened with Benny Harrell’s (Pete’s personal manager for the over 35 years) introduction. Pete emerged from behind a curtain to the opening bars of "Clarinet Marmalade" delighting the audience with his first solo of the show. Next up "Up the Lazy River" during which Pete’s solo was partially captured by the WLOX cameraman standing just inches away obstructing the view, but no one seemed to mind.

Virtually everyone in the band soloed; a band consisting of Tim Laughlin (clarinet), Tom Maggiore (tenor sax), Connie Jones (cornet), Mike Genevay (trombone), Allyn Young (guitar), John Royen (piano), Oliver "Sticks" Felix (bass), Bryan Barberot (drums).

The lighting scheme throughout the whole show was peculiar. The band was either lit entirely in red, or entirely in blue, and in one instance entirely in green, switching colors during a tune or in-between tunes often times without any discernible reason. The band then launched into another Fountain chestnut, "Basin Street Blues", explored by Tim Laughlin’s soulful clarinet introduction.

During a brief up tempo piano interlude, to the crowd’s amusement, Pete strutted his stuff second line style. "St. Louis Blues" arranged with rhythm changes kept the fingers popping. Guitarist and vocalist Allyn Young then poked good-natured fun at Tom Maggiore on a blues-drenched selection based on "Tin Roof Blues" with lyrics depicting Tom’s weight fluctuation and his relationship with his woman.

The crowd gasped with joy when Pete render a number best identified with his career, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee"; warmth and love poured forth from Pete’s horn. But the show did not end there. Pete brought up 2 musicians to sit-in on the final 3 numbers, a friend of many years fellow clarinetist, Bert Boe, and pianist David Boeddinghaus. Allyn Young was called upon once again to lend his vocalizes, this time to a rollicking rendition of "My Little Margie"; the pulse so infectious that Elaine Jones (Connie Jones’ wife) and Danielle Harrell Scheib (Pete’s granddaughter) bent, twisted, and hopped their dancing moves in the aisle to the groove.

Another up-tempo standard followed, "Struttin' With Some Barbecue". All good things must come to an end but not before Pete kicked off "When the Saints Go Marching In". The 3 clarinets of Tim, Bert, and Pete established the head feeding into a duet between Tim and drummer Bryan Barberot leading into Bryan’s stomping drum solo. With a head nod Bryan signaled the band back as the 10 musicians romped to a fiery climax. Before departing the stage for the last time a representative from the Casino presented Pete with a bouquet of flowers to the closing musical exit ditty by the band. Eager to meet everyone after the show, Pete accompanied by his family greeted and posed for pictures with anyone who wanted to be with Pete on this memorable closing evening.

What’s in store for Pete? Ever the optimist, Mike Genevay, trombonist with Pete since 1978, proclaimed while exiting the stage door that "don’t be surprised if we show up some place in the near future". Stay tuned.

John Titsworth, New Orleans LA is a frequent contributor to this blog, we thank him for all his hard work and contributions.

Marquee Outside At Entrance To Casino

Band Set Up Top Of Bar Before Final Set

Audience Clustered Amongst Slot Machines Before Show

Soaked in Red

Connie Jones

Oliver Sticks Felix

Tom Maggiore

Mike Genevay

Allyn Young

John Royen

Soaked in Blue

WLOX Cameraman Obstructing View

Struttin His Stuff On Basin Street Blues

Concluding St. Louis Blues

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

David Boeddinghaus

Bert Boe

Tim Laughlin, Bert Boe, Pete

Elaine and Danielle dancing to My Little Margie

Tim & Bryan duet on the Saints

Bryan Signaling To Band On Saints

Bouquet Of Flowers Before Pete's Final Exit

Bryan Tearing Down Kit For Last Time

Greeting Well Wisher After Show

Greeting More Well Wishers After Show

Posing For Pictures After Show

Grandson Gregory, Beverly Fountain, And Pete After Show

We all would like to wish Pete the best, thanks for the great music all these years.

We will miss you, you deserve your retirement!

News - Pete Fountain's Final Performance - News Report WLOX

2010-12-15T11:26:00.005-05:00

Pete Fountain's Final Performance

News Report WLOX

Legendary jazz musician Pete Fountain played his last performance at Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis on Dec. 8, 2010. He's been playing at the casino regularly since 2003

Video Courtesy of WLOX ABC News 13

News - Pete's Final Performance at Bay St Louis Casino

2010-12-11T21:09:00.006-05:00

Legendary Jazz legend and his longtime band held their FINAL PERFORMANCE on Dec 8, 2010 at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

After many years playing there, he recently was only performing on day a month, even then cancelling frequently due to health reasons. We all wish Pete well, and hope he enjoys his retirement. If anyone has additional news, please post a comment.

Vacation Photo in French Quarter - Memorabilia

2010-07-11T11:37:00.002-04:00

Statue of Pete Fountain

Statue of Pete Fountain in Edison Park / Legends Park,
Bourbon Street, French Quarter, New Orleans with
yours truly on a recent visit to New Orleans Memorial Day!

More Pete's 80th Birthday Photos - News

2010-07-11T11:25:00.006-04:00

More Pete's 80th Birthday Photos
Courtesy of John McCusker / The Times-Picayune

Pete Fountain's 80th Birthday Bash - News

2010-07-08T14:22:00.087-04:00

Pete Fountain's 80th Birthday Bash
Reported by John Titsworth

Unlike the predicted downpour and thunderstorms, Saturday July 3rd turned out to a beautiful sunny, albeit hot and humid, summer day in New Orleans. Befitting for a man who was about to throw a big bash open to the public for his 80th birthday at a popular entertainment venue geared generally to a younger audience, Mid-City Rock ‘n Bowl.

Slated to begin at 3:00 and end at 6:00, the party began instead when the doors opened at 2:00. Within just a few minutes the Rock ‘n Bowl became standing room only. A long line of well wishers assembled to sign the sizable guess book, a line that never diminished for the next 4 hours.

The Fountain family spent all morning tastefully decorating the place themselves that included a 12-foot long cake in the shape of a clarinet baked at the Swiss Bakery located on St. Charles Ave., a stop for the Half-Fast Walking Club during Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday. Tickets were sold for a raffle of certain prized items that included a lamp made out of a clarinet.

For the drawing Pete himself drew the winning tickets out of a bucket held by his granddaughter, Danielle, accompanied by Pete’s manager for the past 35 years, Benny Harrell.

A birthday party would not be complete without a birthday cake and candle blowing ceremony. Pete blew out all the candles on his first attempt on a cake held by his son Jeffrey.

Surrounded by his family on stage that included Beverly, Pete’s wife of 60 years, the music was about to begin.

Pete's daughter Darah wishing her dad all the best with a birthday kiss.

Now to the music. The concert was broken up into 3 sets.

For the first set the band sans Pete opened up with "Fidgety Feet" followed by traditional jazz standards including "Together".

After the break when the raffle and birthday cake festivities took place, Pete joined the band. The anticipation of the second set riveted the crowd.

Pete’s live appearances in New Orleans have become a rarity. Television cameras from the local TV stations were on hand to capture the event. The band opened with and burned up "Clarinet Marmalade".

Pete fired up the next tune on "Up the Lazy River" that included solos from members of the band: Connie Jones (cor), Tim Laughlin (cl), Mike Genevay (tb), Otis Bazoon (ts), Allyn Young (g), David Boeddinghaus (p), Kerry Lewis (b), and Bryan Barberot (dr).

The band members doing their solos

Tim soulfully caressed the nuances on the following tune "Basin Street Blues" as Pete second-lined hand-in-hand on stage with New Orleans jazz entrepreneur since the 1940s.

Helen Arlt still kicking in the 21st Century.

Next guitarist and vocalist Allyn Young offered humorous earthy lyrics to which Mike Genevay playfully mimicked on a blues-drenched tune based on "Tin Roof Blues".

Unannounced guest clarinetist, Greg Harrison, hailing from the Washington, DC area, joined in emoting bluesy warmth.

But Pete had one more trick up his sleeve. Granddaughter and professional dancer, Danielle Harrell Scheib, bounced up on stage and spiritedly tapped complementary rhythms to "St Louis Blues"; scores of digital cameras flashed as the TV cameras rolled.

Conclusion, no Pete Fountain concert would be complete without Pete’s soulful interpretation of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee", which is exactly what Pete rendered after which he bid everyone goodbye. He gave the packed house more than what they had come for - a soon to be not forgotten magical 80th birthday celebration that only Pete could possibly deliver. And deliver he did.

John Titsworth, a New Orleans resident, is a frequent contributor to this blog. His contributions are appreciated, we thank you!

Pete Fountain Birthday Bash and Music in New Orleans Sat. July 3 - News

2010-07-05T15:24:00.005-04:00

Pete Fountain Birthday Bash and Music in New Orleans Sat. July 3
by Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune

Clarinetist Pete Fountain, Mr. New Orleans, ranks among the Crescent City’s most beloved musicians. Cutting up on the old Lawrence Welk show, goofing around with Johnny Carson and the gang, presiding over nightclubs on Bourbon Street and in the Hilton Riverside, marching with his Half Fast Walking Club each Mardi Gras morning, entertaining popes and presidents - he’s done it all while conjuring some of the sweetest jazz to ever emerge from a clarinet. Fountain performs twice a month at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, Miss.; his hometown shows are mostly at festivals. But on Saturday afternoon, Fountain plans to celebrate his 80th birthday with a special 3 p.m. performance at Rock ’n’ Bowl. He’ll share the stage with clarinetist Tim Laughlin and cornetist Connie Jones.

Pete Fountain celebrates his 80th birthday at Mid City Rock-n-Bowl in New Orleans with Tim Laughlin, Connie Jones and Co. July 3, 2010. Some You-Tube videos:

Clarinet Marmalade

Struttin' with Some Barbecue

Pete's granddaughter Danielle tap dances as the band wails on St. Louis Blues

Basin Street Blues

Up a Lazy River

Do You Ever Think of Me?

Pete Fountain's 80th Birthday - News

2010-07-03T00:00:00.002-04:00

Happy 80th Birthday Pete!

Pete Fountain, Jazz Clarinetist, was born on July 3, 1930 in New Orleans. He has entertained us for decades and we all wish him the best.

We wish Pete a happy 80th birthday, and may he continue to "toot" and make music for many more years.

Pete's Baby Photo

A Pete Fountain Birthday Card Video: Tim Laughlin on his Mentor

2010-07-02T11:24:00.010-04:00

A Pete Fountain Birthday Card Video
from Tim Laughlin on his Mentor

Times-Picayune videographer John McCusker interviews local clarinetist Tim Laughlin on the importance that jazz legend Pete Fountain has played in his life in this remembrance in celebration of Fountain's 80th birthday.

Courtesty of http://www.nola.com/

Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club

2010-06-25T11:23:00.007-04:00

Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club
Mardi Gras 2010

Courtesy of the Time-Picayune

Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin: The Fat Sound - News

2010-06-03T12:30:00.004-04:00

Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin: The Fat Sound
01 May 2010 - by David Kunian of OffBEAT

Once away from the strip malls and family businesses that alternate on Highway 90, the road to the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi winds through the swampy woods until it rises at the back of a parking lot. For a casino, it is a modest one with a hotel on one side and ceilings against which a basketball player might knock his head above the constant "ching-ching" of the slot machines. Past the entrance, there is a clear spot with several cocktail tables facing a stage with a bar directly in front. The audience sits, drinks and listens. The music, although not out of place in this part of the world, seems a little out of place at the Hollywood. This is not where you would think to hear music 50 years old in the 21st Century. Yet, on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each month, this stage is the only place fans get to hear the twin tandem clarinets of the world famous Pete Fountain and the soon-to-be world famous Tim Laughlin.

Fountain and Laughlin do many of the New Orleans traditional jazz standards, sometimes trading choruses, sometimes playing melodies in unison. There is something special going on here. It is easy to see when Laughlin the Earnest Acolyte and Fountain the Hip Wizard exchange glances and smiles, and when they don’t. Either way, the music weaves in and out almost as if each of them knows what the other is about to do. It goes beyond telepathy and borders on instinct.

The story of Pete Fountain might be well known to the generations that came up when he played in the Dukes of Dixieland or was the featured soloist on The Lawrence Welk Show in the 1960s. Maybe they bought his records "Walking Through New Orleans" or "South Rampart Street Parade." Maybe they remember hearing him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, or going by his club in the French Quarter in the 1960s and 1970s, or the Hilton in the 1980s and 1990s. Some paraded with his infamous Half-Fast Walking Club on Mardi Gras.

Over lunch with Fountain at the Hotel Monteleone, Tim Laughlin confesses, "It was my 17th birthday. My family and I were having dinner at the Hilton. I snuck up to his club and started listening. Actually I talked to his son Jeff, and I said, ‘Do you think I can meet Pete?’ He says, ‘Yeah, come by after the show.’ I ran back down to tell my family, ‘I’m going to meet Pete Fountain.’" Laughlin ran back upstairs and by the time his family followed, he was in Fountain’s office.

Laughlin had grown up listening to his father’s Pete Fountain records, and they had a great effect on him. "That sound," he says. "That’s Pete Fountain. His Mardi Gras record was a great album to play along to. I wore that out." As Laughlin tells this story, Fountain sits to his left and smiles.

"For an entire year, I was too young to get into the club, so they would have a chair outside for me," Laughlin continues. "I would make a reservation like, ‘This is Tim. I’m coming in tonight.’ They’d have a chair outside, and I’d sit and hear the music. The funny thing is that Wimpy, the doorman, would say, ‘Hey, kid, you want something to drink?’ He was thinking I was going to have a coke and..." Pete interrupts, laughing. "He didn’t want a coke. He wanted a beer!" They both laugh. "So he would bring me a beer," Laughlin says. "I used to haunt him every couple weeks. I could have been some loon. Pete always treated me great."

By the time Laughlin met Fountain, he had already been playing clarinet since the age of nine. He’s played with many of the New Orleans greats, including Fountain, the Dukes of Dixieland and Jack Maheu. Recently, his records have been marked with a number of original songs, putting him in the company of Matt Perrine, Rick Trolsen, Evan Christopher and Tom McDermott as people who are adding to the repertoire of New Orleans traditional jazz instead of playing the standards. He is the latest in a long line of white clarinet players that reaches back to Leon Rappolo and moves to Irving Fazola and then to Fountain. Laughlin has been influenced by all those players as well as Benny Goodman, Jack Maheu and cornetist Connie Jones. But the main person that Tim patterns his playing off of is Fountain.

But it’s not just the playing; they share several traits. According to Tom McDermott, who has done gigs and sessions with both, "Tim’s a real people person and Pete is a down-to-earth, regular guy. He’s a regular guy who happens to be world famous."

Connie Jones, who has played with both and has known Fountain since 1950, agrees that both are "very self-effacing and very gracious." Both of them also have a great sense of humor. When talking about what makes Laughlin a good player, Fountain jokes, "He has a wife who likes clarinet players. Like mine." When asked whether he is passing down anything to Tim, Fountain says, laughing, "I hope so. I gave him one of my clarinets."

At the Hollywood Casino, it is evident to the audience that this is not simply another casino act. The band looks like a caricature of a bored Vegas act, but everyone performs like the music matters. Fountain and Laughlin play with a tone that can only come from years of searching and practicing. Fountain’s is a little reedy at times, but still beautiful. Laughlin’s is gorgeous, like a warm shower on a sunny day. It is obvious to band members and observers that Fountain is passing the proverbial torch to Laughlin, but what exactly does that mean? That cliché does not by itself illuminate what is being exchanged between these two musicians. When asked later about it, Fountain says of Laughlin, "He can do it. He can play with anybody. He doesn’t need me."

Laughlin says, "I think the most important thing Pete passed down is the fat sound. That’s the New Orleans sound. Fazola had it. Johnny Dodds had it. Jimmie Noone. That’s what I got from Pete was the fat sound to fill up the horn, the big sound." Fountain adds, "I got it from Fazola. It’s gone from one end to the other."

But, according to Fountain, there is another element to the clarinet besides getting that New Orleans sound. Laughlin says, "He would tell me to get my own sound and listen to other guys." The idea of developing a unique, recognizable sound seems to be the most important piece of wisdom that has passed between the two, and that is something that is discounted in the music world these days. Developing that sound is not easy, though. "It takes a while because the sound pretty much comes from your head," Laughlin says. "You have to hear it before, and it’s kind of a unique thing when you find it."

"He knows it," Fountain says. "He has the sound. No problem there. He’s got that locked up. I don’t have to teach him that." Laughlin agrees. Other than encouraging him to develop a signature sound, "Pete never once gave me advice," Laughlin says. "Never had to," Fountain chimes in. "Nobody gave him advice. I just tell him ‘Don’t drink too much.’" Quickly, Tim replies, laughing, "That’s the only thing where I didn’t listen to him."

Tim also says that he learned from Fountain’s professionalism onstage. "The way he treats the musicians and how he treats the audience," Laughlin says. "I’ll never forget: One time I was at the Hilton, and there was a guy who was talking real loud. Pete did the coolest thing. He took two steps back, and all you heard was this guy talking, ‘Yar yar yar...’ and suddenly everybody is like, ‘Sssshhhhh.’ Then Pete came back to the microphone and everyone applauded. I was like, "Okay, I want to do that some day."

Connie Jones says that Fountain has taught Laughlin "sounds and notes and knowing your role. You know your role and how to play your role. There’s a difference between jazz choruses and playing ensemble choruses. You have a certain role to play in an ensemble and a different role to play in your solos. It’s knowing that, and learning how to do that is the most important part of being a good, successful jazz musician. Tim has learned that very well."

Jones also thinks that Fountain’s support has helped Laughlin. "Tim was able to play at an early age," says Jones, "and I think the thing that Pete gave him was the encouragement to keep going. It’s been a continual learning process, and a good learning process for Tim. Now it’s almost the other way around. Tim is right there when Pete needs him. If Pete needs Tim to take over at a certain place, Tim is available and jumps right in. There is no visible loss of quality."

Even though neither one will say it, there is a small amount of the jazz mystique that passes between the two of them. Tom McDermott puts it like this: "I think there is something more than the notes. Just to talk to people with the experience that guys like Pete or Connie Jones have had, to have been on the stage with Louis Armstrong or to have met Duke Ellington and hear about all the people that these guys have consorted with. The stories-it’s great. It’s like the people you’ve read about come alive when you hear them talk. Pete, he’s been a star for 50 years. And he’s still a rock star around New Orleans."

And he’s still a rock star at the Hollywood Casino. The audience applauds as they recognize the first notes of Fountain’s hit version of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." At a certain point in time, this was the hippest thing going, and then it wasn’t, and now that doesn’t matter. It’s simply great music, and Laughlin and Fountain are giving it their all. Fountain still has that cool swankiness to him that is a great contrast to Laughlin’s earnest enthusiasm. Fountain moves haltingly back to his stool when he finishes his solo, but he’s still solid. And there is something still absolutely hip about him. He knows what’s good and what’s cool and is confident about it without any ego.

"Just a Closer Walk with Thee" finishes up and the band begins the last song of the set, "When the Saints Go Marching In," of course. Fountain and Laughlin play the chorus, then Fountain steps back, snapping his fingers and smiling. He has played this song a million times and he’s still enjoying it. He’s here, in the moment, and there is nothing phony about this performance at the Hollywood Casino off a back road on the Gulf Coast in Bay St. Louis. He’s enjoying himself, and why not? He’s still here despite a heart attack, a mild stroke and advancing age. He’s still got the music, that fat sound, and a great musician in Tim Laughlin who will make sure that the sound will continue.

"It’s a cool thing to make a living standing next to a legend and playing with him," Laughlin says. "A guy I first heard and didn’t know who he was, but it was that sound. It wasn’t because he was famous. It was because he could play."

Reprint courtesy of OffBEAT Louisiana Music and Culture article by by David Kunian
Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin photo by Elsa Hahne.

Monk Hazel And His New Orleans Jazz Kings - GHB Records

2010-05-23T18:08:00.005-04:00

Monk Hazel And His New Orleans Jazz Kings
featuring Pete Fountain

2009 GHB Records BDC-117

Drummer Monk Hazel is joined on these two sessions, recorded in 1955 and 1957, by the then unknown trumpeter Al Hirt and clarinetist Pete Fountain. The 13 tracks here represent Hazel's full recorded output as a leader and include 5 songs unreleased before.

CD Listing:
1. Panama
2. Of All the Wrongs
3. I Used to Love You
4. Long Way to Tipperary
5. Gypsy Love Song [#] unreleased

Personnel on tracks 1 -5:
Al Hirt - Trumpet
Jack Delaney - Trombone
Pete Fountain - Clarinet
Joe Capraro- Guitar
Roy Zimmerman- Piano
Phil Darois - String Bass
Monk Hazel - Drums - Mellophone
Rita St Claire - Vocal

6. Angry
7. Basin Street Blues
8. Let Me Call You Sweetheart
9. When You're Smiling
10. Ja Da #1 [#] unreleased
11. Ja Da #2 [#] unreleased
12. Kiss Me Again [#] unreleased
13. Sin to Tell a Lie [#] unreleased

Personnel on tracks 6 -13:
Dutch Andrus - Trumpet
Jack Delaney - Trombone
Harry Shields - Clarinet
Roy Zimmerman - Piano
Chink Martin - Bass - Tuba
Monk Hazel - Drums
Jackie Blaine - Vocal

Liner Notes:

Certain types of musicians are born to be legends. People like Buddy Bolden, Bix Beiderbecke, Paul Mares, Leon Roppolo, Larry Shields and Monk Hazel are the stuff that jazz dreams are made of. But of the quintet names above, Little Monk is the only one left on this sphere, still sparking great jazz combinations. Always insufficiently recorded in years gone by in fact his last recording session fronting his own band dates back to December 1928 when he waxed four sides under the name of "Monk Hazel and his Bienville Roof Garden". Monk's work is mainly remembered by those fortunate enough to see him in person here or on his occasional sensational forays into New York, Chicago, or Hollywood.

If you're one of those unfortunates who have been told so many times, "You should have been here last night! Monk Hazel was on the stand" you'll welcome these nine sides, because they're just the way he played the night you missed him. Principally famed as the greatest of Dixieland drummers, Monk is also celebrated for his work on cornet and e-flat valve trombone plus his great mellophone solo's one which you will hear on the tune "It's A Long Way To Tipperary."

You'll be knocked out, nevertheless, by the unique Hazel beat as present herein, occupying the spotlight in the rhythm section that includes not only the tuba work on side two by Chink Martin, Sr. but the string bass of Phil Darois with that fabulous beat which has become identified with music generating in this Crescent City.

On both sessions you hear Roy Zimmerman the veteran New Orleans piano man stressing sustained improvisation in middle and upper register and extracting rich tones from the piano bass. On clarinet side two fresh from the critical acclaim heaped on his melodious horn in all of the jazz periodical, following his first Southland appearance with the Johnny Wiggs Group (S-LP 200), you'll hear Harry Shields even more carefully recorded, and full of the quiet fire that made for him an overnight world-wide reputation. You'll never get his solo on the verse to "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" out of your mind.

On Side One the big tone of Pete Fountain clarinet who reminds one of the late and great Irving Fazola, and it is a rare privilege to be able to present him now surrounded by men of his own caliber in his finest recorded performance. Jack Delaney's fluent trombone (heard on both sides) which has in the past year captured the fancies and hearts of all of New Orleans, alternates flexibly between "Tailgate" and "High Register" in a manner that confounds so many of the older heads here and then tosses in solos full of freshness and facility rivalling Brunis and Teagarden.

The driving trumpet you'll hear on Side One is a rare treat. Al Hirt has been a outstanding "job" musician around New Orleans for many a year. Obviously for no good reason, he's never been recorded with a Dixieland band before. You'll be shocked, when you hear this wonderful horn to realize that a jazzman of this caliber can get lost in any city. Southland apologizes for the whole record industry, but offers Al Hirt here in his highly successful disc debut. On Side Two you hear Dutch Andrus on trumpet, a current start in his own right carries this session along in masterly fashion. Dutch has established himself already as one of New Orleans outstanding jazzmen. He sat regularly with the town's finest, and they love to play with his typically New Orleans lead horn. On Side One you hear the top man in his field today on guitar "Joe Capraro" with his big full tone and stimulated rhythm.

Southland was so impressed with the fine singing of Rita St Claire that we took this opportunity to offer her to you. On Side One you will hear Rita St Claire backed by this exciting Dixieland ensemble in "All The Wrongs You Done To Me" and "It's A Long Way To Tipperary" - you hear this gorgeous voice. She is a natural, her singing is effortless, her pitch true, her tone full and thrilling.

On Side Two you hear the great blues singer Jackie Blaine giving Spencer Williams great blues "Basin Street Blues" a grand treatment.

Joe Mares, Jr.

The Very Best of Pete Fountain - Unlimited Media

2010-05-22T14:00:00.002-04:00

The Very Best of Pete Fountain
Unlimited Media

The Very Best of Pete Fountain
Record Label: Unlimited Media
Originally released: 12-08-2008

1. Dobro Moon
2. Margie
3. Going Home
4. Jazz Me Blues
5. South Rampart Street Parade
6. That's a Plenty
7. The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
8. The Lazy River
9. Bugle Call Rag
10. Farewell Blues
11. High Society
12. When the Saints Go Marching in

Live Performance In New Orleans - Setco Records

2010-05-22T13:51:00.002-04:00

Live Performance In New Orleans
Setco Records

Live Performance In New Orleans
Record Label: Setco
Originally released: 01-FEB-2009

Reissue of 1962 Camden Records CAS-727(e) Stereo / CA-727

1. When the Saints Go Marching In
2. High Society
3. Farewell Blues
4. Darktown Strutter's Ball
5. Ballin' the Jack
6. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
7. Muskrat Ramble
8. 12th Street Rag
9. Tin Roof Blues
10. Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey

Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey - Setco Records

2010-05-22T13:43:00.002-04:00

Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey
Setco Records

Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey
Record Label: Setco
Originally released: 01-FEB-2009

Reissue of 1962 Camden Records CAS-727(e) Stereo / CA-727

1. Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey
2. High Society
3. 12th Street Rag
4. Ballin' the Jack
5. When the Saints Go Marching In
6. Farewell Blues
7. Darktown Strutter's Ball
8. Muskrat Ramble
9. Tin Roof Blues
10. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans

Pete's Beat - CEMA Special Markets

2010-05-22T13:36:00.004-04:00

Pete's Beat
CEMA Special Markets

2008 EMI reissue of 1992 CEMA Special Markets S21-56649

CD Listing
1. When You're Smiling
2. Oh, Lady Be Good
3. 'way Down Yonder In New Orleans
4. Someday Sweetheart
5. Avalon
6. Honeysuckle Rose
7. Rosetta
8. Shine
9. The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)
10. You Can Depend On Me
11. Do You Know What It Means (To Miss New Orleans)
12. Deep Purple

Liner Notes:

A showcase for Pete's clarinet, these recordings should appeal more to fans of the mellow, softer Pete than of his driving New Orleans dixieland style music. No credits listed or liner notes here, pretty much a budget release. It's Pete with a small group of unidentified musicians on the xylophone, guitar, bass and drums. The accompaniment is swinging, crisp, and rather lean, thanks in some measure to the absence of a piano, but none of the supporting musicians measures up to the capabilities of the leader during the solos. Except for two obvious selections , there is nothing to identify this with New Orleans but this is still a very enjoyable small group swing set.

Tradition Runs Deep: Blues, Folk & Jazz - Tradition Records

2010-05-22T13:30:00.002-04:00

Tradition Runs Deep: Blues, Folk & Jazz
Various Artists Featuring Pete Fountain

Tradition Runs Deep: Blues, Folk & Jazz
Record Label: Tradition
Originally released: 14-JUL-1998

1. You Got To Move Artist: Mississippi Fred McDowell
2. John Henry Artist: Etta Baker
3. In New Orleans (House Of The Rising Sun) Artist: Leadbelly
4. More Pretty Girls Than One Artist: Woody Guthrie
5. Treat Everybody Right Artist: Big Bill Broonzy
6. Jack O' Diamonds Artist: Odetta
7. Down In The Willow Garden Artist: Kossoy Sisters, Eric Darling
8. Walk On Artist: Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee
9. See See Rider Artist: Lightnin' Hopkins
10. Balky Mule Blues Artist: Blind Lemon Jefferson
11. I'm Not Rough Artist: Louis Armstrong
12. Oop Bop Sh-Bam Artist: Dizzy Gillespie
13. Cherokee Artist: Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra
14. Bayou Blues Artist: Pete Fountain
15. Bamba Samba Artist: Woody Herman, Charlie Byrd

Dixieland Jazz Fever - X5 Music Group

2010-05-22T13:22:00.003-04:00

Dixieland Jazz Fever
Various Artists Featuring Pete Fountain

Dixieland Jazz Fever
Record Label: X5 Music Group
Originally released: 29-04-2008

1. Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White Artist: Al Hirt
2. Moon Over Dixie Artist: Duke Ellington
3. Shine Artist: Al Hirt
4. Rock a Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody Artist: Al Jolson
5. Dixie Jamboree Artist: Nat King Cole
6. Margie Artist: Pete Fountain
7. Dixie Artist: Al Caiola
8. High Society Artist: Pete Fountain
9. I Wanna Be Like You (Live) Artist: Kenny Ball
10. Alexanders Rag Time Band Medley Artist: The Beverley Sisters
11. Bugle Call Rag Artist: Benny Goodman
12. High Society Artist: Sidney Bechet
13. King Porter Stomp Artist: Glenn Miller
14. Maple Leaf Rag Artist: Sidney Bechet
15. Savoy Blues Artist: Acker Bilk
16. That's a Plenty Artist: Tommy Dorsey
17. Tiger Rag Artist: Alvino Rey
18. When the Saints Go Marchin´ in Artist: Louis Armstrong
19. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans Artist: Bill Coleman
20. South Rampart Street Parade Artist: Bob Crosby
21. Muskrat Ramble Artist: Dean Martin
22. Careless Love Artist: The American Patrol Orchestra
23. Beale Street Mama Artist: Cab Calloway
24. Chinatown My Chinatown Artist: Chet Atkins
25. Weary Blues Artist: Tommy Dorsey

It Might As Well Be Swing - Ranwood Records

2010-05-22T13:13:00.003-04:00

It Might As Well Be Swing
Various Artists Featuring Pete Fountain

It Might As Well Be Swing
Record Label: Ranwood
Originally released: 24-AUG-1999

Artist: Glenn Miller
1. Tuxedo Junction
2. Chattanooga Choo Choo
3. Pennsylvania 6-5000
4. Sun Valley Jump
5. Bugle Call Rag
6. I've Got A Gal In Kalamazoo
7. Perfidia
8. Runnin' Wild

Artist: Lawrence Welk
9. Take The "A" Train
10. One O'clock Jump
11. Christopher Columbus
12. King Porter Stomp
13. Caravan
14. That Old Black Magic
15. Organ Grinder's Swing
16. Tangerine

Artist: Pete Fountain
17. Cheek To Cheek
18. Alice Blue Gown
19. Runnin' Wild

Artist: Myron Floren
20. Pennsylvania Polka
21. The Thunder Polka
22. Jolly Polka

Legends Of Jazz Vol. One - Synergy Records

2010-05-22T13:07:00.003-04:00

Legends Of Jazz Vol. One
Various Artists Featuring Pete Fountain

Legends Of Jazz Vol. One - Synergy Records
Record Label: Synergy Records
Originally released: 1999

1. April In Paris Artist: Count Basie
2. Don’T Blame Me Artist: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis
3. Ain't Nobody's Business Artist: Billie Holiday
4. Jazz Is His Old Lady Artist: Earl "Fatha" Hines
5. Eubie's Boogie Artist: Lionel Hampton
6. Sensation Rag Artist: Pete Fountain
7. Birth Of The Blues Artist: Cab Calloway
8. Tain't What You Do Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
9. Love Me Or Leave Me Artist: Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan
10. Riff Raff Artist: Charlie Parker
11. Diga Diga Do Artist: Lena Horne
12. Accentuate The Positive Artist: Lionel Hampton

Big Band Swing Volume 1 - Synergy Records

2010-05-22T12:55:00.003-04:00

Big Band Swing Volume 1
Various Artists Featuring Pete Fountain

Big Band Swing Volume 1
Record Label: Synergy Records
Originally released: 1999

1. April In Paris Artist: Count Basie
2. The Jumpin' Jive Artist: Glenn Miller
3. Frankie and Johnny Artist: Benny Goodman
4. You Are My Everything Artist: Tommy Dorsey
5. I Ain't Got Nobody Artist: Louis Armstrong
6. Dark Eyes Artist: Stan Kenton
7. Pennsylvania 6-5000 Artist: Glenn Miller
8. Sunset In Paradise Artist: Pete Fountain
9. Stompin' At The Savoy Artist: Benny Goodman
10. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) Artist: Lena Horne
11. Little Girl Artist: Tommy Dorsey
12. Chatanooga Choo Choo Artist: Glenn Miller
13. It Might As Well Be Spring Artist: Stan Kenton
14. Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey Artist: Louis Armstrong
15. I Can't Get Started Artist: Artie Shaw
16. Moonlight in Vermont Artist: Tommy Dorsey

When The Saints Go Marching In (EP) - K-Tel Records

2010-05-22T12:47:00.004-04:00

When The Saints Go Marching In (EP)
Various Artists Featuring Pete Fountain

When The Saints Go Marching In (EP)
Record Label: K-Tel
Originally released: Feb 8, 2010

1. When The Saints Go Marching In Artist: Mickey Gilley
2. When The Saints Go Marching In Artist: Pete Fountain
3. When The Saints Go Marching In Artist: Mel McDaniel
4. When The Saints Go Marching In Artist: The Emeralds
5. When The Saints Go Marching In Artist: Tiny Tim
6. When The Saints Go Marching In Artist: Star Sound Orchestra

Christian Brothers School Annual Concert - News

2010-05-01T21:49:00.004-04:00

Christian Brothers School Annual Concert
Pete Fountain & the Hollywood Casino Band

Report by John Titsworth, New Orleans LA

Pete Fountain sets the mood with his Hollywood Casino Band

Pete, accompanied by his Hollywood Casino Band played his annual concert at Christian Brothers School nestled in New Orleans’ City Park on April 15, 2010. The occasion was the annual fund-raising golf tournament in Pete’s name.

Pete sent both his sons to this school and has been an integral part of this event for over 30 years. A large tent was erected in the backyard and was the scene of a 50-minute concert. The weather was beautiful , low 70s and much more importantly low humidity foregoing the need to use an on-stage small portable fan for Pete during outdoor concerts.

After the opening announcement by Brother Gregory, Pete and Band blasted open with “Clarinet Marmalade”, followed by such familiar tunes as “Up the Lazy River”, “Basin Street Blues”, “St. Louis Blues”, blues vocal based on “Tin Roof Blues” by guitarist Allyn Young poking good-natured fun at tenor saxophonist Tom Maggorie, “Just a Closer Walk With Thee”, “My Little Margie” vocal again by Allyn Young, and closing with the “When the Saints Go Marching In” as the crowd roared its approval concluding a special musical evening. The remaining members of the band included Tim Laughlin (cl) sharing clarinet duties with Pete, Connie Jones (cor), Mark Mullins (tb), Tom Maggorie (ts), Allyn Young (g), John Royen (p), Steve Braun (b), John Royen (p), Bryan Barberot (dr).

John Titsworth, New Orleans LA is a frequent contributor to this blog, we thank him for all his hard work and contributions.

Mardi Gras Parade Music from New Orleans - Southland/GHB Records

2010-04-04T12:52:00.003-04:00

Mardi Gras Parade Music from New Orleans
Southland/GHB Records

1994 (CD) GHB Records BHB 107

1974 (Vinyl) GHB Records GHB-107 (re-issue with added cover text)

1955 - Southland LP-207 Mono

1959 - GHB-107 Mono

CD track listing:

1. Mardi Gras Parade
Emile Christian and His New Orleans Jazz Band
Mike Lala (Trumpet)
Harry Shields (Clarinet)
Bob Havens (Trombone)
Emile Christian (Trombone)
Armand Hug (Piano)
Joe Carparo (Banjo)
Monk Hazel (Drums)

2. Bourbon Street Parade
Santo Pecora and His New Orleans Rhythm Kings
Santo Pecora (Trombone)
Lester Bouchon (Clarinet)
Thomas Jefferson (Trumpet)
Phil Darois (String Bass)
Roy Zimmerman (Piano)
Johnny Edwards (Drums)

3. March of the Bob Cats
Pete Fountain and His New Orleans Band
Eddie Miller (Tenor Sax)
Pete Fountain (Clarinet)
Al Hirt (Trumpet)
Stan Wrightsman (Piano)
Morty Corb (Bass)
Ray Baudec (Drums)
Abe Lincoln (Trombone)

4. Buzzards Parade
Sharkey and His Kings of Dixieland
Sharkey Bonano (Trumpet)
Harry Shields (Clarinet)
Bob Havens (Trombone)
Armand Hug (Piano)
Joe Capraro (Banjo)
Monk Hazel (Drums)
Chink Martin (Bass)

5. King Zulu Parade
Johnny Wiggs and His New Orleans Kings
Johnny Wiggs (Cornet)
Raymond Burke (Clarinet)
Emile Christian (Trombone)
Jeff Riddick (Piano)
Edmond Souchon, MD (Banjo)
Paul Barbarin (Drums)
Sherwood Mangiapane (Tuba)

6. High Society
Sharkey and His Kings of Dixieland
Sharkey Bonano (Trumpet)
Harry Shields (Clarinet)
Bob Havens (Trombone)
Armand Hug (Piano)
Joe Capraro (Banjo)
Monk Hazel (Drums)
Chink Martin (Bass)

7. While We Danced at the Mardi Gras
Al Hirt and His Jazz Band
Al Hirt (Trumpet)
Harry Shields (Clarinet)
Bob Havens (Trombone)
Joe Capraro (Guitar)
Paul Edwards (Drums)
Roy Zimmerman (Piano)
Phil Darois (String Bass)

8. If Ever I Cease to Love
Johnny Wiggs and His New Orleans Kings
Johnny Wiggs (Cornet)
Raymond Burke (Clarinet)
Emile Christian (Trombone)
Jeff Riddick (Piano)
Edmond Souchon, MD (Banjo)
Paul Barbarin (Drums)
Sherwood Mangiapane (Tuba)

9. South Rampart Street Parade
10. Got to the Mardi Gras
11. Moose Parade - Raymond Burke, Jefferson
12. Why Don't You Go to New Orleans - Jim Beatty Listen
13. Joe Avery's Whoopin' Blues Listen
14. Second Line Listen
15. When the Saints Go Marching In Listen
16. Day After Mardi Gras

Vinyl Track Listing:
Side 1
1. Mardi Gras on Parade, Emile Christian and His New Orleans Jazz Band
2. Bourbon Street Parade, Santo Pecora and his New Orleans Rhythm Kings
3. March of the Bob Cats, Pete Fountain and his New Orleans Band
4. New Orleans Parade, George Girard and his New Orleans Five
5. Basin Street Blues, Thomas Jefferson's Creole Jazz Band

Side 2
1. King Zulu Parade, Johnny Wiggs and his New Orleans Kings
2. High Society, Sharkey and his Kings of Dixieland
3. While We Dance at the Mardi Gras, Al Hirt and his Jazz Band
4. Buzzard's Parade, Sharkey and his Kings of Dixieland
5. If I Ever Cease To Love; Johnny Wiggs and his New Orleans Kings

LINER NOTES:

PERSONNEL
In Order Of Appearance
Emile Christian And His New Orleans Jazz Band
Santo Pecora And His New Orleans Rhythm Kings
Pete Fountain And His New Orleans Band
Sharkey And His Kings Of Dixieland - #4, 6
Johnny Wiggs And His Kings Of Dixieland - #5, 8
Al Hirt And His Jazz Band
The Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band
The Young Men Of New Orleans
Thomas Jefferson/Raymond Burke
Jim Beatty
Sarah Spencer's Rue Conti Jazz Band
George Buck's Jazzology All Stars
Sammy Duncan And His All Stars
The Lakefront Loungers

"The same spirit that enters the people of (and in) New Orleans during the Mardi Gras time infuses the music of the Carnival season. Music is literally everywhere, whether a brass band in Jackson Square playing 'Saints' for the umpteenth time or a recorded version of the favorite 'Mardi Gras Mambo' being blasted from some huge speakers on the bed of a truck. The juke boxes are stocked with seasonal fare and muzak versions of Carnival hits which fill the ears of shoppers at the mall. Music is the key to the festivities, and in the words of Arthur Hardy, publisher of the Annual 'Mardi Gras Guide,' the city's traditional jazz is the soul of the celebration. On this collection we are treated to sixteen performances of New Orleans jazz that are associated with Mardi Gras. The stylistic thread running throughout this disc is the beat, that unmistakable yet indescribable beat, is the hallmark of the music that accompanies parade season." Liner notes by Jon Pult

The Very Best Of Pete Fountain - Max Cat Records

2010-04-03T21:05:00.004-04:00

The Very Best Of Pete Fountain

2010 - Max Cat Records

Note, how long did it take to create this cover? They could have done so much better!

CD Listing:
1. St. James Infirmary
2. Margie
3. Going Home
4. Jazz Me Blues
5. South Rampart Street Parade
6. That's A-Plenty
7. World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
8. Lazy River
9. Bugle Call Rag
10. Farewell Blues
11. High Society
12. When the Saints Go Marching In

Same release as "The Very Best Of Pete Fountain"
1998 - BCI Music Records BCCD 60410-2

New Orleans All-Stars - Clarinetist Pete Fountain still reigns supreme as the king of New Orleans jazz. Recorded in 1957. this comprehensive collection of various sessions features inspired solos by Fountain. pianists. trombonists. trumpeters. and even the occasional tuba player.

Personnel:
Pete Fountain: clarinet
Tony Almerico: trumpet
Jack Delaney: trombone
Roy Zimmerman: piano
Lester Bouchon: clarinet. tenor saxophone
Frank Frederico: guitar
Joe Lovacano: bass
Johnny Castain: drums

Same stuff that has been around for years, seems they cash on these oldies every year!

Pete Fountain - Volume II - Essential Media Group

2010-04-03T19:20:00.006-04:00

Pete Fountain - Volume II
(Digitally Remastered)

2010 - Essential Media Group

Disc
1. High Society 3:16
2. That's A Plenty 2:53
3. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise 4:48
4. Margie 2:54
5. Up A Lazy River 3:10
6. Mahogany Hall Stomp 4:07
7. I'm Goin' Home 3:17
8. Farewell Blues 3:14

Liner Notes:

The epitome of New Orleans jazz clarinet, Pete Fountain remains the senior ambassador of the New Orleans Dixieland jazz scene. His potent combination of swing and Dixie land has endeared to fans worldwide. This collection from 1974 offers a proper view of the artist performing some of his best loved numbers including "Margie" and "Mahogany Hall Stomp".
All selections newly remastered.

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

David Mekalian - Here is the history of these recordings:

Dixieland From New Orleans: The Basin Street Six
1950 Circle Sound Records L-403 (10" LP)

High Society
1972 Pickwick Records SPC-3201 Stereo / PC-3201 Mono

Pete Fountain Volume II
1974 Everest Records, FS-303 Stereo

The Basin Street Six: The Complete Circle Recordings
1994 GHB Records BCD-103

Personnel:
George Girard (trumpet)
Pete Fountain (clarinet, track 2 tenor sax)
Joe Rotis (trombone)
Roy Zimmerman (piano)
Bunny Franks (string bass)
Charlie Duke (drums)

Recorded New Orleans
Tracks 1,2,4,5,7: Aug 2, 1950
Tracks 3,6: Nov. 3, 1950

From when the very first note of Pete's clarinet hits after the two bar introduction in "High Society," you know everything is going to be alright. Such is the sweetness and surety of his tone that as he darts in and around the trumpet's melody, a feeling of well-being should immediately pervade the listening area. And then comes the solo! Here Fountain shows his true mastery, running up and down and around scales with incredible range and speed. Of course, it's easy to miss speed, hidden as it is within his silky smooth attack and technique. To top it off, he then takes out his bass clarinet and breezes through another couple choruses a few octaves down - a pretty good introduction to the Pete Fountain style and range.

After a strutted run through of "That's A Plenty," the album's second cut, "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" finds Fountain in a slightly more contemplative mood as he makes his way almost mournfully through the theme. As the song progresses though, and the band begins to jump, the clarinet responds in kind. Here, it's fun to hear how Pete gets both melancholy and joy out of the same notes, as the clarinet gradually, but never completely, succumbs to the glee of the brass and rhythm section.

Following the introduction, the trumpet's working of "Up A Lazy River" includes some nice scale bending similar to the clarinets at the start of "Margie." The tempo here is decidedly slower than anything so far and the blues just drip off the notes.

As its name might suggest, "Mahogany Hall Stomp" marks a return to the upbeat. But, as if the bluesiness of the preceding tunes have had an effect, the tone here is more contemplative than the album's opening tunes. Which is not to say it isn't hot. The flame is just more blue than white. Trumpet leads off. followed by clarinet. The trumpet then returns in muted form and blows some impressive long notes.

"I'm Goin' Home" is one of those songs which the adjective bittersweet was born to describe. While not exactly a traditional New Orleans second line, it does put one in mind of that final send off. But the sublime accented scales of the clarinet together with the occasional united trumpet punches, make it far more sweet than bitter - and serve as a strong argument against the playing of funeral dirges on such occasions.

As impressive as Pete is when he's noodling at high speeds. it's the slow. mellow, julep-sipping stuff that is most dramatic. "Margie" is an excellent example. On the opening phrase of the melody, Pete bends a blues note with exquisite force and subtlety). It's almost as if the turntable were suddenly spinning just a hit slower (And if l were listening to a vinyl copy. I might have checked). Then the love songs vocal is presented in that matter-of-fact. Hex. I don't really sing. but nobody else showed up for the gig. kind of was that works perfectly for this type of song. After the vocal, the trumpet piano and trombone run through the tune.

With "Farewell Blues" the album ends where it began. as Pete Fountain once again runs circles around everything without breaking a sweat. Too often, people dismiss Dixieland without really listening to it. Pete Fountain makes sure you pay intention. you'll be glad you did.

Pete Fountain and Jim Valentine - New Orleans Memorabilia

2010-02-21T14:02:00.004-05:00

Pete Fountain and Jim Valentine
New Orleans Memorabilia

1964 Jim Valentine with Pete, talking about his horn after the
show at 800 Rue Bourbon, Pete Fountain's French Quarter Inn.

1987 when Jim bought one of Pete's back up horns from
him at Pete's Place, at the Hilton, New Orleans.

Jim ( a fine clarinetist) sits in with the band on
August 2009 at the Hollywood Casino.

Thanks Jim for the fine photo's, great memorabilia!

Mardi Gras 2010 Report

2010-02-16T20:57:00.006-05:00

Mardi Gras Report from Our Very Own Blog Member

John Titsworth, New Orleans LA
Thanks for the Report and Pictures!

This year’s Mardi Gras walk is over. The Half-Fast Walking Club celebrated its 50th anniversary . Even though the weather was sunny, the temperatures were quite chilly if not cold. The walk started off at Commander’s Palace at 7:00 AM as it always does with a temperature of 32 degrees. John Goodman briefly stopped by the courtyard to say “Hi” to his good friend and then quickly left. The walk went off without a hitch.

Throughout the walk when interviewed by the TV cameras, Pete kept his comments short. Pete held his horn in his hand intermittently as he rode the parade route in the band truck, and played only once during a TV interview on St. Charles Ave. The crowds populated the route in abundance. When the HFWC entered Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, Pete dropped out of the parade citing the frigid temperatures. He did show up later at one of the parade’s refreshment stops, Hotel Monteleone, wishing the walkers well as a large cake commemorating the 50th anniversary was cut and consumed.

All in all a great walk and a fitting tribute to one of America’s great musicians.

Pete and John Titsworth sharing a photo toegther.

Pete Fountain's 50th Half Fast Walk

2010-02-16T20:44:00.006-05:00

Pete Fountain's 50th Half Fast Walk
by Bill Capo / Eyewitness News
Posted on February 16, 2010 at 6:24 PM

NEW ORLEANS - Only on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans can you find 250 men wearing ivory colored suits sipping milk punch at dawn. And that's how Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club marked their 50th anniversary. "50 years, I feel good," Pete said with a smile. "And Mr. Pete, will you keep walking for another 50 years?" asked Father Byron Miller as he gave a prayer before the start.

They walked, staggered, stumbled, and promenaded - anything but march. They brought the first sign of Carnival on Mardi Gras day to waiting crowds in the early morning hours - some were still so sleepy they don't know who just passed. But marching and music were only part of the attraction for the Half Fast walkers. "We got a national emergency, they can't change the beer tanks," joked club officer Carl Lindberg. "We in trouble." "I was just saying, it's been a great parade so far," said one walker. "I've only had one boyfriend try to hit me so far."

Pete made a lot of Mardi Gras history during walks which started in the 1960s. "In those days it was a different kind of crowd, the people were wilder, crazier," said Judge Stephen Plotkin, a Charter Member. "This is pretty staid compared to that." There was the 25th anniversary.

"Y'all had a good time? Pete asked that year. "We had a good time, did you have a good time? If you hold me I will." And the 30th, when legendary actor Phil Harris made the trip. "Beautiful, the best," Harris said. "How many cups have you thrown? You mean full or empty?"

Over the years, it has become a family event. "You got grandfathers, you got fathers, sons, son in laws, we've even got as couple of great grandchildren who will be pulled into the parade around some of these hotels," said Co-Captain Benny Harrell. "All about family." "Here's to you Pete," said Michael Valentino in a toast. His grandfather taught Pete to play the clarinet.

"To tell you the truth, I'm getting so old now, I'm riding in the bus right now, but I'm going to get out and start strutting pretty soon," said club member Richard McNealy. And sure enough, a couple of blocks later he showed everyone the oldest walker, age 86, could still strut. They've been walking for 50 years. Now to start a new half century is just a short step, taken half fast.

"50 years. I used to be taller, I don't know what's happening," Pete ended with a laugh.

Courtesy of wwltv.com New Orleans.

Pete's Krewe Kicked Out of Parade

2010-02-13T20:12:00.007-05:00

Pete's Half-Fast Crewe Gets Kicked out of Baton Rouge Parade

for walking too slow. See the video.

By Rachel Frost
Source: WBRZ
Updated: February 9, 2010 6:38 PM

The Baton Rouge Police Department kicked Pete Fountain's Half Fast Marching Krewe out of the Krewe of Mystique parade over the weekend. Police warned the group several times before asking them to exit the parade route. The president of the Krewe of Mystique invited the Marching Krewe to Baton Rouge in celebration of their 50th anniversary. According to police the Half Fast Walking Krewe was kicked out for the safety of parade goers and participants.

Story credit: ACD News WBZR New New Orleans.

Pete Fountain's Mardi Gras - Half Fast at 50

2010-02-13T10:03:00.003-05:00

Half Fast at 50

Pete Fountain's Mardi Gras

by ANGUS LIND

Pete Fountain’s Half-Fast Walking Club parading down St. Charles Avenue as pirates in 1983

Pete Fountain has been to the top of the musical mountain so many times the heights have become dizzying.

A living legend, the jazz clarinet virtuoso has played five U.S. State Dinners by command performance for three presidents, made 59 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and performed for Pope John Paul II and a crowd estimated at 150,000 for the New Orleans Papal Mass.

He also played two years with Lawrence Welk on the West Coast, appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and did variety shows with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andy Williams and Perry Como. He’s won an Emmy for his pre-game music at the 1990 Super Bowl, he’s reigned as Bacchus, several of his albums have gone gold and at Musical Legends Park on Bourbon Street there’s a life-sized bronze of Pete, along with those of Fats Domino and Al Hirt, among others.

A fixture at Jazz Fest, it’s been a dream ride for Pierre Dewey Fontaine, who Bing Crosby called Pedro.
But ... there’s no place like home.

“I’ve done everything with Pete – the Pope, the state dinners, Bob Hope, Carson,” says Benny Harrell, Pete’s son-in-law, manager and co-captain, “and they’ve all been great – but none of it compares to how people treat Pete on Mardi Gras Day.” That is when his Half-Fast Walking Club hits the streets.

“They want to touch him, take pictures. They shout out his name. And there’s a whole side of Pete that comes out that day. You can see it. He’s got that gleam in his eye, that little bad boy look. There’s a twinkle in his eyes you don’t see all the time,” says Harrell. “It’s a real love affair between the people of New Orleans and Pete. It’s always special, and there’s no experience that can match it.”

2010 is a milestone – it’s year 50 for this 79-year-old Warren Easton graduate to lead Pete Fountain’s Half-Fast Walking Club, never to be confused with any group that marches. For the past 20 years, originating at Commander’s Palace at 6 a.m. Mardi Gras Day, this renegade group of revelers prances, dances and stumbles along the St. Charles Avenue parade route ahead of the Zulu organization, and somehow staggers – after many stops – toward the eventual finish line at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside Hotel, where they have lunch.

“Fifty years just flew by. It’s hard to believe,” says Fountain. “In the early days it was really crazy – it was a good drinking day. Now I have a glass of wine and that’s about it.”

“We’ve matured a little bit – and I use that word lightly,” says Harrell. “Those years when Phil Harris was on stage at the club, then Sunday they would roll in Bacchus. It was a long, long weekend. Pete would look after me and I’d look after him. He’d watch me a lot. We’re very close, real friends. Now the tide has turned – now I watch him more than he watched me.”

Pete and his band no longer walk. They ride in a “streetcar” that leads the parade. His band has been together a long time. Of the bass player, Oliver “Stick” Felix, says Fountain, “I think we played The Last Supper together.” There was an official Half-Fast truck, but it was at Pete’s home in Bay St. Louis, Miss., when Hurricane Katrina hit.

Beverly Fountain is Pete’s wife of 58 years. They met when she was 17. “You were 19 when I met you,” she tells him. “I’m still 19,” he replies.

Beverly is the de facto historian for the club. “When we came back here in 1959 after two years on the coast with Lawrence Welk, Franky and Johnny’s had a streetcar that was unbelievable in the Elks Krewe of Orleanians,” she says. “They asked us if we wanted to ride. We were living Uptown at the time. It was terrific. Pete played and that experience spawned everything.”

Fountain always wanted his own walking club and so in 1960 it began with about a dozen couples walking from Pete’s club on Bourbon Street. That lasted exactly one year, with the ladies deciding it was better left to the boys.

“The guys got sloshed and the women wouldn’t walk with ’em anymore,” says Beverly, who walked that first year.

It was about at this point that Beverly Fountain proclaimed it a “Half-Fast” club, play on words intended. “One year was enough with the men,” she says. Another problem, recalls Nonemacher, was that when they were first organized – a term rarely used with this group – “they were changing wives and girlfriends like they were changing clothes.”

Part of that equation was that Jack Daniel’s was a sponsor, and every member got a half-pint as the walk began. Like the David Allen Coe song, “Jack Daniel’s If You Please Knock Me to My Knees,” it did exactly that to many of the Half-Fast members.

The club grew in size over the years and eventually opted for the St. Charles route over Bourbon Street. Through the years they have costumed, honoring virtually every different nationality and group. They have been Mississippi riverboat gamblers, gauchos, pirates, King Arthur and his court, Northwest mounted police, Dutch boys, Vikings and conquistadors.

For the year of “Not So Beauty and the Beast,” they dressed in women’s dresses with Pete sporting a silver tutu and wearing a crown. He looked lovely.

WARRIORS
In 2006 they were scheduled to be Aztec warriors. Katrina claimed the costumes, except for the hats. So Nonemacher improvised. She bought orange sweatshirts to go with the headgear. One of the members complained that they were either going to look like FEMA workers or like they just got released from Central Lockup.

“No you’re not,” she replied. “You’re going to look like Half-Aztecs.”

Because of a rough bout with shingles, Pete couldn’t make the parade that year and was hospitalized. His protégé, Tim Laughlin, substituted and was humbled and honored by the experience. “I was really saddened even though I knew he was OK,” Laughlin says. “They asked me to sit up where he sits but I was hesitant. Mardi Gras was his day.

It wasn’t the same and we missed him. I was pretty bummed out until I put about three beers in me. It got easier after that.”

Fortified with liquid courage, Laughlin says the members of the walking club treated him wonderfully, “as if I had saved the day or something, but we really missed Pete.” After the parade, Fountain called Tim that night to thank him, saying he had seen him doing a live interview. Stealing a page out of Yogi Berra’s quote book, Laughlin told him: “Boss, if you do this again next year, nobody’s going to show up to see you.”

He added, “It was fun but that’s the last time you do this to me.”

When Laughlin met Pete on his 17th birthday, he never thought he’d be performing shows with him and riding with him every Mardi Gras day. “My 21st birthday was coming up and I was telling Pete that Mardi Gras fell on my birthday,” Laughlin recalls. Fountain says, “Why don’t you walk with us?”

“I still have the picture of us playing together. He was dressed as an Argentenian cowboy and I was wearing my Holy Cross band jacket with my 4-year-letter. That was 25 years ago – hard to believe.”

Trumpeter and coronet player Connie Jones, 75, will be in that number for the 50th procession, after starting in 1967.

One of Fountain’s closest friends, he first met Pete at Lenfant’s on Canal Boulevard “when I was too young to get in” but did anyway, wearing his dad’s suit. When the Basin Street Six trumpet player George Girard left the group in 1953, Jones says, the band hired him. He was 19 at the time. He calls Pete almost every day.

“It’s a fun day. We get to play a lot. It’s just a whole lotta friends,” he says. “Pete’s been around so long. He’s never gotten into trouble, been married forever. He’s just a guy who’s working at what he does. He loves the people and they love him.”

Now 250 strong with a waiting list, many of the former “banner boys” who carried the banner as kids are now members. They come from all over the country to participate, and there are 62 out-of-towners. For the 25th walk, they wore silver-gray tuxedos. For the 50th, they’re wearing ivory tuxes with matching shirts, ties and fedoras.

“They’re like a bunch of women,” says Nonemacher, who’s dubbed the “Half-Fast den mother.” “They’re so prissy when I show them what they’re going to wear.” The themes and the costumes are selected by Beverly Fountain and Nonemacher, who are good friends. “Bev and I do it,” she says. “If we left it to them, they’d wear baseball caps and blue jeans.”

At a meeting before Christmas, Nonemacher stressed the importance of this year’s costume. “I don’t want y’all looking like an un-made bed during the parade. This is a special year. Get your tuxedos fitted.” Then came the grumbling, which Nonemacher simply dismisses with, “They’re just a fun, fun bunch of children.”

There have been years when there were costume problems. Jimmy Ponsetti, a member for 46 years who has held various official positions in the club – most of them upright – recalled the year he showed up and forgot his pants, only had his boxers on. “So I just went that way,” he says. “No big deal.”

Steve Plotkin, the last living walking charter member, created the charter and filed the papers for the original group before he became a judge. His feelings about the club pretty much say it all. Pete, he says, has been such an active member of the club, always appearing at meetings and functions. “The members think so highly of him as an individual and there’s no doubt that he has not only been the glue that kept the originals marching together, but a group that has grown into 250-300 members.

“The experience is unique,” says Plotkin. “You can ride a float but there’s nothing like walking ahead of the floats, swapping doubloons, flowers and beads for kisses.”

Every year, Fountain addresses the members before they begin with the words: “This is your day,” as if it wasn’t his, too – emphasizing their role, downplaying his. For years his dad, Red Fountain, walked. This year sons Kevin and Jeff will join the fold. Through the years, celebrities from Frankie Laine and Phil Harris to M*A*S*H’s Gary “Radar” Burghoff and John Goodman have walked.

Merlin Schaeffer of Schaeffer’s Seafood in Bucktown, Chris “Bozo” Vodanovich of Bozo’s Restaurant in Metairie and co-captain Elmo Spellman, Fountain’s optician, are long-time local members who have been active participants.

GOOD RIDE
As the years went by and the older members got even older, the club paid to have a specially-built truck for incapacitated members who still want to participate. “That’s where you go if you’re on injured reserve,” a member explains.

And then there are experiences like the year one member who had plied himself with Jack Daniel’s and bloody Marys walked up to a woman who was dressed up as a nun and offered her a flower for a kiss. “She was standoffish,” says Plotkin, so he then offered her both a flower and a doubloon. “She was non-committal about that too,” he recalled. So the member decided to grab the woman and plant a kiss on her.

“She was aghast,” says Plotkin. “She said, ‘I really am a nun.’”

John Thieler, who has also been victimized by the magic elixir from Lynchburg, Tenn., admits he always “looks forward to making an idiot of myself every year.” One year, he surpassed himself. “I climbed a tree on St. Charles to give a girl in the tree some doubloons. Made sense to me.”

Well, as everyone who lives here knows, not everything in this city is supposed to make sense, nor in many cases can some behavior be explained. It is what it is, plain and simple.

Laughlin recalls the year that Al Hirt came out of his club and walked a few blocks with Pete. “Jumbo was dressed as a pirate. He had the patch, the hook and the parrot and looked so cool playing with his good arm. All I could do was stare at the two of them. What a great memory.”

In the early years of the Saints, the late 1960s, many of the players, including Joe Wendryhoski and Davy Whitsell, walked with the team. It was always a dicey situation. Beverly Fountain says in 1967 a group of the players, including Whitsell, showed up at her house at 5 a.m. “They knocked on the door. They were ready to go. They had been up all night.” It wasn’t pretty, she says, as they walked on top of cars parked along the route.

One year, she says, they walked between the Rex floats, and the members wanted to know, “Who were those people?”

The group used to meander more than it does today. That changed when the Zulu organization opted to take the traditional St. Charles route, so they had to precede them. There have always been pit stops along the way, but they have changed through the years. Some of those include or included Kolb’s Restaurant, Swiss Bakery, Mike Anderson’s Seafood restaurant, Faux Pas bar, Nick Karno’s Club, Pat O’Brien’s and Hotel Monteleone.

The ladies’ arm of the organization, “The Better Half,” was organized in 1975. They have had banquets through the years and these days on Mardi Gras Day you can find them at the Monteleone during the parade, eating and drinking in the Carousel Bar and behaving somewhat better than their counterparts. “Guys don’t know how to pace themselves,” says Beverly. “Some just fall along the wayside.”

Anybody who has spent any time with Pete Fountain not only knows what a city treasure he is, but also how genuine he is, and how much he loves his city and his people. No story tells more about him than when Russ Nonemacher, a charter member of the group, was dying in 1999. “He was at death’s door,” wife Marilyn recalls, “and he so wanted to make the parade in 2000.”

Since one of his favorite things was eating raw oysters, Pete showed up at their home one day, carrying two five-gallon containers of raw oysters. They went in the backyard on a cold day. Pete opened the oysters and they ate them together. Russell Nonemacher didn’t make the 2000 parade ... but, then again, upon further review, he did. Pete put Russ’s likeness on that year’s doubloons. And when he couldn’t find a CD with Pete’s “Just a Closer Walk” for the funeral home, Fountain said he would provide one.

Instead, he provided himself, and played at Nonemacher’s funeral.

Pete and Beverly Fountain have three children (not including Pete), six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Before Christmas in 2009, they were looking over some old Half-Fast pictures at lunch one day. Married 58 years, he looked at her and says, “My girl – she puts up with me.”

“It’s been a good ride,” Beverly replies.

Yes, it has.

Dressed as "Not-So-Beauty and the Beast" in ’94

Dressed as American Indians in 1966. - With his father in Chinese-inspired costume in ’72. - As Mounties in ’81. - Phil Harris poses with Marilyn Nonemacher in 1975. - Gary Burghoff paraded in ’80 - Fr. Frank Coco and John Goodman in 2000. - Riverboat gamblers in ’87. - Clowning around in ’88.

Story compliments of neworleans.com

Taste of Louisiana, Chef John Folse's Christmas Memories with Pete Fountain

2009-12-19T14:37:00.003-05:00

Taste of Louisiana Show on PBS, 1995 Christmas Memories Show. Pete shares a couple of his family recipes and toots Jingle Bells with Louisiana Chef John Folse. 10 minutes duration. Courtesy of LPB.org.

The Basin Street Six - River Boat - Mercury Records

2009-10-12T22:47:00.005-04:00

The Basin Street Six
River Boat
featuring Pete Fountain

1951 Mercury Records EP-1-3238 Mono 7" EP

Side A:
1. Lazy River
2. I Can't Give You Anything But Love

Side B:
1. Sunday
2. Panama

Liner Notes:

Personnel:
George Girard (trumpet,vocals)
Joe Rotis (trombone)
Pete Fountain (clarinet)
Roy Zimmerman (piano)
Bunny Franks (bass)
Charlie Duke (drums)

Recording Date: Chicago September 19, 1951

In this Extended Playing album Mercury presents a genuine treat for jazz lovers in a sampling of the Dixieland which has brought quick fame to the Basin Street Six, a group of young musicians which Mercury believes is destined to become a legend in the jazz field. Jazz connoisseurs of long standing aver that this brand of music has not been heard since the days of the fabulous New Orleans Rhythm Kings. who remain, after many years, the criterion for excellence.

It is not by accident that the Basin Street Six has been compared to the New
Orleans Rhythm Kings. Like their great predecessors, the Basin Street Six came from New Orleans to Chicago and immediately created a sensation at such spots as Jazz Ltd. and the Blue Note. Their youth, vigor and obvious joy and talent in the music they play has brought them a fanatical following. In 21 year old George Girard on trumpet they have one of the most promising jass musicians to come along since the immortal Biz. The others, Pete Fountain on clarinet, Joe Rotis on trombone, Roy Zimmerman on piano, Charlie Duke on drums and Bunny Frank on bass, form a combination with Gerard that is the talk of the jazz world.

The four selections offered here are among the choicest in the Basin Street Six's rapidly expanding repertoire. You'll enjoy "Lazy River," played as we doubt you've ever heard it played before. Then there's "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," played tenderly yet with amazing variations which will leave you breathless with awe at their musicianship. "Sunday" is a gay romp, played with all the buoyancy and bounce this jazz standard calls for. "Panama" is a delight to anyone who appreciates authentic Dixieland.

Here, then. is the Basin Street Six, a young but musically mature group which has been called "the reincarnation of one of the first great jazz bands, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings."

Pete Fountain Performing at Hollywood Casino Bay St Louis

2009-09-19T12:02:00.004-04:00

Disappointing Visit to see Pete at

Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis

As usual, I make my yearly visit to see Pete play at the tiny Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis MS. Since he only plays once a month, I checked their website and it stated he now plays Tues and Wed. of the first FULL week of each month. So I checked the calender, then called them to Sunday before (9/6/09), spoke with a lady who assured me he was playing this Tues. (9/8 and 9/9). I even asked since the week before wasn't the first FULL week (a phrase that seems to escape understanding at this casino). When I got down there from Massachusetts, I was surprised to find out he played the previous Tues and Wed. (not the first FULL week of the month and apparently unknown to casino personnel who answer these sort of questions to people planning on travelling to their little casino) The best they could do is offer me a free buffet. That certainly is the poorest effort I've ever seen. Maybe I'm spoiled since I leave near the casinos Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, the two largest casinos in the world. These class acts would be embarrassed to offer a free buffet when they provided inaccurate information to a guest. Below are some excerpts from their website (which they now have changed the wording to cover themselves) and emails from the public relations person (who merely restated that Pete plays on Tues and Wed, ingnoring my concerns or their liablity).

Hollywood Casino Bay St Louis Website:

Old web page verbiage:

Pete Fountain Jazz it up with legendary Jazz Musician Pete Fountain LIVE in the Oak Royale Room. $20 cover includes 2 FREE drinks. Tickets sold in Token's Gift Shop. Shows are held the first Tuesday and Wednesday of the first full week of every month. See Tokens Gift Shop for show schedule.

New web page verbiage as of 9/17/09:

Jazz it up with legendary Jazz Musician Pete Fountain LIVE in the Oak Royale Room. $20 cover includes 2 FREE drinks. Tickets sold in Token's Gift Shop. Shows are held on selected Tuesday and Wednesday of every month. See Tokens Gift Shop for show schedule. Hollywood Casino reserves the right to cancel or change show schedule at anytime.
--------------------------

From: David Mekalian
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2009 2:12 PM
To: 'Bob Davidge'
Subject: RE: Hollywood Casino St Louis Bay, MS Contact Request

I understand he used to play every Tue and Wed and only plays the first FULL week of each month now. My point was he didn't play the first FULL week of Sept and before I made the trip from Massachusetts I called your Casino and was told when I called the Casino on Sun he was playing the Tues of my visit (the first FULL week). This was a long trip for what turned out to be a disappointment. I know Pete Fountain, I run a website dedicated to him and report on my visit to see him each year.

http://petefountain.blogspot.com

If Pete is still performing next year, I'll look you up next Sept or Oct 2010.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Bob Davidge [mailto:Bob.Davidge@pngaming.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 10:55 AM
To: David MekalianSubject: FW: Hollywood Casino St Louis Bay, MS Contact Request

Mr. Mekalian,

Thank you for contacting us about your recent visit to our property. We are pleased to be the only casino on the Coast to feature the legendary Jazz musician Pete Fountain. Until recently, he performed every Tuesday and Wednesday, and now typically performs the first Tuesday and Wednesday of the first full week of the month. There have been occasions when he has been unable to do that.

Unfortunately, you’re right he played on Tuesday, Sept. 1st and Wed., Sept. 2nd and is scheduled to play again, on Oct. 6 & 7th, the first full week of October. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to seem him during your visit. I promise you that I will see that I’ll address this issue and I will change that verbiage on our website.

Please feel free to call me during your next visit.
Thank you again,

Bob
Bob Davidge
Advertising & Public Relations Manager
Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis
711 Hollywood Blvd.
Bay St. Louis, MS 39520
(228) 466-8047
www.hollywoodcasinobsl.com

Memorabilia - Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club by Brad Thompson

2009-08-09T15:13:00.003-04:00

Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club Poster
by Brad Thompson

Poster features legendary New Orleans jazz clarinetist, Pete Fountain, a founder and one of the most prominent members of The Half Fast Walking Club, one of the best known marching Krewes that parades in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Foutain commissioned native New Orleans artist, Brad Thompson to paint "a collage of all that encompasses his part in starting 'the carnival' each year in New Orleans."

Size: 27" x 22" Unframed
Artist-Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Print

For more information or to purchase a poster:
http://www.usd.edu/smm/GiftShop/Posters/PeteFountainPoster.html

Memorabilia - Pete Fountain: The Duke of Dixieland - Jazz Times 2001

2009-08-09T14:42:00.005-04:00

Pete Fountain: The Duke of Dixieland
Jazz Times Magazine, October 2001
by Geraldine Wyckoff

Pete Fountain appears a contented man as he sits in his homey office adjacent to his club in New Orleans’ Hilton Hotel. "Welcome to the inner sanctum," greets Fountain as he walks through a hall lined with photographs representing a lifetime in music.

A robust individual with shiny pink cheeks and a ready smile, Fountain, 71, glows with a sense of knowing just who he is, of being happy with his life and thankful for his many successes. He’s come a long way from the skinny asthmatic kid who, at the age of nine, took up the clarinet on the recommendation of a doctor. Because of his health problems, the physician advised Fountain’s mother to get her son a wind instrument to improve his respiratory system.

"Years ago they called it weak lungs," explains Fountain, who never again suffered with breathing difficulties. "It built up my lungs; in fact, they became over sized through the years."

The prescription, of course, not only cured the young boy but eventually led to a career spanning some six decades, over 90 albums and international acclaim. Music drew Fountain even before he ever put a clarinet to his lips. As a kid, he used to pass a club called the Top Hat on his way to the movies at the nearby Arcade Theater. He would stop to listen through the fence to bands with musicians like trumpeters Sharkey Bonano and Louis Prima.

"My sister would have to drag me along saying ‘Come on, we have to go to the show,’" remembers Fountain, who really preferred peeking through the slats and listening to the music. "I found out I really enjoyed jazz," he continues. "It was just the feeling of listening to the jazz like that, it just brings you up, even as a little kid. Something was there."

Fountain grew up in a mid-city New Orleans neighborhood. About a block and a half away was Peterson’s Music Store, a spot where Fountain would often hang out. The proprietor, Harold Peterson, encouraged the clarinetist in his endeavors and would have the boy get his horn and play for patrons of the store who he thought would enjoy hearing him.

"Mr. Peterson put together a little brass band, it was called the Broad Street Social and Pleasure Club. He would get everybody in the neighborhood who played. They’d stop by my house and pick me up. It was a school night and my mother used to scream about it. They wouldn’t walk too long. it would last as long as a barrel of beer lasted."

By the time Fountain was 14 he was already playing some dancehall jobs. "We had a little band and we’d get $5 a night," recalls Fountain. "There were four of us so we’d get $1.25. One of the guys, Jack Delaney, a great trombone player, would borrow his brother’s car to take us to the job."

Serious about music, Fountain listened to the clarinetists of the era like New Orleanians George Lewis, Raymond Burke and Irving Fazola as well as Benny Goodman. "I’m glad I did because I didn’t copy one particular clarinet player," says Fountain. "I put those four together and came up with a sound."

He developed his craft in ensembles like Phil Zito’s International Dixieland Express, The Dukes of Dixieland and the Basin Street Six. It was while with the Six, standing alongside childhood friend and music mate trumpeter George Girard, that Fountain realized his life’s work would be in music. "I went directly from high school to the Conservatory of Bourbon Street," says Fountain with a laugh.

With the Basin Street Six, Fountain played what he calls "swingin’ Dixie" and it’s a style he’s stuck with throughout his career. During the late 1940s, trumpeter Al Hirt would often sit in with the Six, and he and Fountain developed a life-long personal and musical relationship.

"From then on we got to be friends and we worked together a lot of times," says Fountain. "It was one of those things that whoever got the job wore the bow tie. If Al got the job he wore the bow tie; if I got the job I wore the bow tie. To work with Al, he was such a technician; he really helped me with my technique. Because to keep up with him, you’ve got to play because he’s not going to wait for you. He would kick off a tune and it was gone."

A glitch in Fountain and Hirt’s musical careers occurred in 1956, when the two musicians, who by then had family responsibilities, faced a scarcity of jobs. Blame it on the rise of rock ’n’ roll and rhythm ’n’ blues in their hometown; for the first time Fountain abandoned music as his main source of income. The two stuck together, however, and went to work for a pest-control company.

"He was in the roach division and I was in the termite division," says Fountain with a chuckle. "I was small and skinny at that time so I could get under a house. We didn’t last! I think we lasted about two months there. That was it."

Soon thereafter Fountain and Hirt both got the breaks that would completely change their fortunes. Hirt went with vocalist Dinah Shore and Fountain got the call from bandleader Lawrence Welk.

"She really made him and Welk really made me," says Fountain, who joined Welk’s band in 1957 and performed weekly on the bandleader’s popular television show. Fountain gained particular recognition on the program as he stepped out of the orchestra to lead a featured Dixieland combo that played classics like Muskrat Ramble.

Fountain initially went to Los Angeles to play with Welk for a couple of weeks but ended up staying two years.

"He kept me sober, and it damn near killed me," recalls Fountain, laughing. "He was pretty hard on drinking."

While Fountain was getting only union scale with Welk, he was gaining a strong following of fans and a reputation for his Dixieland style. He recorded an album with Welk and then debuted as leader on Pete Fountain’s New Orleans on the Coral label. (Re-released by MCA, Fountain says the album is still selling.) Now a household name and recording artist, Fountain felt his career was flourishing enough that he and his family could return home.

"I wanted my kids to grow up in New Orleans like I did," says Fountain. "Los Angeles didn’t have the heart and the warmth that you have down here. Even though my wife could cook red beans and rice, you miss the seasonings, you miss the crawfish and all of that."

Fountain, who has now been in the club business over 40 years, bought his first nightspot at 800 Bourbon Street. Playing three shows a night, five days a week wasn’t easy work, but was necessary because of the club’s limited capacity. Several years later, the clarinetist moved the action up the street to a larger spot at 231 Bourbon. Now Fountain had the luxury of having to play only two sets a night. In 1977, the clarinetist finally moved Pete Fountain’s to its present location on the third floor of the Hilton Hotel. Seating 400 patrons and designed by Fountain to resemble the Blue Room club in Las Vegas’ Tropicana hotel, the clarinetist and his band began packing them in for a single show a night.

It’s a long way from Bourbon Street, and its heavy foot traffic, to the third floor of a downtown hotel. Realizing the problem from the onset, Fountain knew he had to let his fans across the country know where to find him when they came to New Orleans. He got in contact with The Tonight Show, then hosted by Johnny Carson, and asked to be a guest. The resulting performance served its initial purpose of advertising Fountain’s new locale and also became the first of 58 appearances on the popular late night television show.

With the release of 2001’s Big Band Blues (Ranwood), two of the most influential aspects of Fountain’s career appearances on Welk’s and Carson’s television shows came together. On the album, Fountain performs with the New Lawrence Welk Orchestra on arrangements by former Tonight Show guitarist Bob Bain. Through the years, Bain wrote these charts specifically for the clarinetist’s many appearances with the Tonight Show band, then led by Doc Severinsen.

In New Orleans, Fountain is renowned not only as a clarinetist and club owner, but also for his annual Mardi Gras appearances with his Half-Fast Marching Club. Since childhood, Fountain enjoyed watching and listening to Carnival organizations the Jefferson City Buzzards and the Corner Club. So in 1961, he and a group of friends formed their own marching club. The group of costumed revelers makes an annual trek from uptown New Orleans to the French Quarter, heading out on Carnival morning to walk in front of the famous Zulu parade. In Half-Fast’s early years, the Onward Brass Band accompanied it, led by drummer Paul Barbarin and later by clarinetist Louis Cottrell. For Carnival 2001, almost 200 people marched with the Half-Fast, which boasted two bands and, of course, Fountain’s clarinet.

"It’s New Orleans," says Fountain of this Mardi Gras experience. "It’s part of me; it’s part of my life."

As Fountain sits comfortably in his office, the walls full of photographs tell his story. Autographed pictures of stars like Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson hang next to those of Fountain and his father costumed as Indians during one of the Half-Fast’s notorious marches. Fountain is at once the famed musician who played with trumpet legend Louis Armstrong and at the White House, and the guy who can’t resist hitting the streets for a second-line parade.

"I’m still here tootin’," says Fountain with a smile. "What you see is what you get."

About Geraldine Wyckoff

Geraldine Wyckoff has been a freelance music journalist in New Orleans for more than 22 years. She writes regularly for Louisiana Weekly and New Orleans Magazine. Geraldine has been contributing to JT since 1986.

http://jazztimes.com/articles/20111-pete-fountain-the-duke-of-dixieland

Review: The Roosevelt's Blue Room July 31, 2009 Show

2009-08-03T15:37:00.020-04:00

The Roosevelt's reborn Blue Room
swings with Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin

by Keith Spera, Music writer, The Times-Picayune
Saturday August 01, 2009, 2:33 PM

Water glasses reflected blue stage lights. A massive chandelier sparkled. Elegantly attired guests dined on lobster and filet mignon and danced to a jazz big band fronted by the clarinets of Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin.

Take away the iPhones deployed by some and Friday could have passed for a scene from the Blue Room's heyday as one of the South's premier supper clubs.

Instead, Friday marked the rebirth of the Blue Room in The Roosevelt New Orleans, the sumptuously restored former Fairmont hotel on Baronne Street.

Photo right: Fountain "toots" at the opening of the reborn Blue Room on Friday, July 31, 2009. Kevin Zansler / The Times-Picayune

Back in the day, the Blue Room hosted all manner of marquee entertainers: Louis Armstrong. Frank Sinatra. Sonny & Cher. Tony Bennett. Ella Fitzgerald. Marlene Dietrich. Jimmy Durante. Bette Midler. For decades, until supper clubs fell out of favor, it was the place to see and be seen. Many New Orleanians harbor fond memories of special occasions spent there.

In its new incarnation, the room's layout is altered only slightly. Tables are set on two tiers, per tradition. But the low stage on which performers once ventured out among tables has been replaced by a herringbone-patterned dance floor. Musicians now occupy a raised stage set into the room's back wall.

On the Blue Room's opening night, guests dined on lobster, caviar, filet mignon and baked Alaska. Kevin Zansler / The Times-Picayune

But the elegance of the old days is in evidence. Many in attendance Friday could have frequented the Blue Room in the 1960s or earlier. With a $195 ticket, they passed through massive gold doors gift-wrapped with blue ribbons. Inside awaited memories and executive chef Stefan Kauth's menu of lobster and choupique caviar symphony, petit filet mignon, Louisiana crab cakes, truffle mashed potatoes and baked Alaska flambe.

Photo right: Tim Laughlin joined his friend and mentor Pete Fountain on stage for the reopening of the Blue Room. Kevin Zansler / The Times-Picayune

Laughlin and an expanded version of his band eased into a program of jazz standards and original material. The latter included "For Pete's Sake," a song Laughlin wrote in honor of Fountain, his friend, mentor and the night's special guest.

All musicians but Fountain wore tuxedos; he opted for a dark suit and tie. Bassist Matt Perrine, his long hair pulled back in a discrete ponytail, worked an upright bass furiously as he soloed in "When the Saints Go Marching In."

Men in suits and women in cocktail dresses crowded the dance floor. They kept dancing through the spiritual "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." "It's done in a tempo where you can get away with it," Laughlin said later.

After a final "Struttin' With Some Barbecue," fans pressed against the stage to shake Fountain's hand or collect an autograph on the blue souvenir menus. "The whole city loves you," one man said to Fountain.

Laughlin and Fountain return on Saturday, Aug. 1, for a second sold-out show. For the next few weeks at least, the Blue Room will open only for weddings and other private events. Starting in October, the room will feature a Sunday brunch, the restoration of another tradition.

The 504-room Roosevelt, now part of the Hilton Hotel Corp.'s upscale Waldorf-Astoria portfolio, welcomed its first guests since Hurricane Katrina in early July. Laughlin has performed frequently in the hotel's refurbished Sazerac Bar. When a regular schedule of entertainment will return to the Blue Room itself is uncertain.

Fans new and old will likely embrace it.

Fountain first played the room in the 1940s, and appeared dozens of times over the years. Laughlin attended a handful of shows at the old Blue Room, including the Mills Brothers and Mel Torme. But Friday was the first time he ever graced the stage himself.

"It was almost spiritual in a way," Laughlin said soon after the show's conclusion. "One of the biggest honors I've ever had. And to do it with Pete is a notch above that."

The Blue Room's new herringbone-patterned dance floor, sparsely populated early on, filled up by the end of Friday's show. Kevin Zansler / The Times-Picayune

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2009/08/the_roosevelts_reborn_blue_roo.html

Return of Entertainment to the Sazerac Bar and Blue Room

2009-07-26T11:22:00.004-04:00

Roosevelt's Blue Room to open July 31 with Pete Fountain

After nearly 50 years, The Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel is again claiming its spot as a top music destination in the city and around the world.

On July 31, legendary clarinetist Pete Fountain will take the stage at The Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel's Blue Room, sharing the stage with fellow clarinetist Tim Laughlin. Together they will bring back the kind of star entertainment that once made the Blue Room one of America’s premier night clubs and supper clubs. The event will include a champagne reception and dinner starting at 7 p.m., with music to follow.

Once one of America's premier night clubs and supper clubs, The Blue Room will feature live music each Friday evening. The Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel will be opening its various attractions throughout the next month or so.

100 CD Box Set Japanese Remasters - 2009

2009-07-19T16:39:00.010-04:00

The Complete "Pete"

100 CD Box Set Mini LP OBI - Japanese Remasters

Volume One - The Early Years

Columbia Years with Phil Zito, Santo Pecora

The Mercury Years with Santo Pecora, Basin Street Six

The 1950'S with Al Hirt, Santo Pecora, Basin Street Six, Tony Almerico
and The Dukes of Dixeland

Matt Litchliter Artwork - Teri Galleries, LTD. - Fine Art in Metairie, Louisiana

2009-07-05T14:22:00.003-04:00

Matt Litchliter

Louisiana Artist
Pete Fountain Artwork

Pete Fountain Original on Canvas
Co-signed by Matt Litchliter and Pete Fountain

Matt Litchliter & Jazz Legend Pete Fountain

Autographing the original appropriately titled "Pete Fountain".

It was an exciting day at Teri Galleries when Jazz Legend Pete Fountain visited to give his 'signature of approval' to New Orleans' artist Matt Litchliter's original painting of the internationally famous clarinetist! A collection of jazz fans and fine art investors were on hand to witness Pete Fountain and Matt Litchliter's meeting and autograph session. Although the original of Pete Fountain has sold, a limited edition run of giclee's on canvas are available.

Courtesy of http://www.terigalleries.com/litchliter.shtml

Jim Tweedy Artwork - Teri Galleries, LTD. - Fine Art in Metairie, Louisiana

2009-07-05T14:08:00.004-04:00

Jim Tweedy

Louisiana Artist

Pete Fountain Artwork

Hot Head Pete

Little Pete Blue

Red Pete

All original oil paintings on Canvas signed by Jim Tweedy & Pete Fountain

Artist Jim Tweedy with Jazz Legend Pete Fountain,
autographing originals for art investors.

Courtesy of http://www.terigalleries.com/tweedy.shtml

Happy Birthday Pete Fountain! - Teri Galleries, LTD. - Fine Art in Metairie, Louisiana

2009-07-05T13:47:00.006-04:00

Happy Birthday Pete Fountain!

Artwork by Jim Tweedy

Teri Galleries, LTD. - Fine Art in Metairie, Louisiana

Teri Galleries is celebrating the 79th birthday of their long time friend, Pete Fountain. Pete has been a huge part of what makes New Orleans so unique and his music has touched so many throughout his long career. Celebrate with us by purchasing one of the pieces that Pete's music inspired.

The embellished giclee' "Pete Fountain" by Louisiana artist Matt Litchliter captures that indelible spirit that is Pete Fountain as he plays during Mardi Gras and the during the procession of the Half Fast Walking Club. The series of original paintings done by another Louisiana artist, Jim Tweedy, have also been inspired by Pete Fountain. These pieces, both original and giclee's, show Pete's love of life and music in these fun representations.

These pieces as well as Litchliter's piece have been co-signed by Pete Fountain. If interested in either piece please contact Teri Galleries at 504-887-8588,1-800-533-8374 or via email at info@terigalleries.com

Courtesy of http://terigalleries.blogspot.com/2009/07/happy-birthday-pete-fountain.html

Some Blogs That Have Pete Fountain Downloads For Free.

2009-07-04T20:46:00.001-04:00

Here are some blogs that have Pete Fountain LP's and CD's ripped to mp3 files. Click on the individual description to view the blogs. New ones added 6/17/09.

This blog has the LPs Let The Good Times Roll, Dixieland Classics, Pete Fountain's New Orleans, Something Misty, Farewell Blues and Pete's Beat listed.

This blog has the LPs Those Were the Days and I Love Paris listed.

This blog has the LPs Dr. Fountain's Magical Licorice Stick Remedy For The Blues, Those Were the Days and I Love Paris listed.

This blog has the LP Pete Fountain and Al Hirt Bourbon Street listed.

This blog also has the LP Pete Fountain and Al Hirt Bourbon Street listed.

This blog has the LP Candy Clarinet listed.

Note the download link for Candy Clarinet is here.

This blog has Licorice Stick, The Best of (1972 Coral), Licorice Stick and Candy Clarinet listed.

And this blog has the LP Taste of Honey.

Around the World for Lovers - Verve Records

2009-05-31T21:05:00.005-04:00

Around the World for Lovers (Various Artists)
Featuring Pete Fountain

2007 - Verve Records

Track Listing:
1. A Foggy Day - Louis Armstrong
2. April In Paris - Sarah Vaughn
3. A Nightengale Sang In Berkeley Square - Anita O'day
4. Corcovado - Antonio Carlos Jobim
5. Dear Old Stockholm - Stan Getz
6. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? - Pete Fountain
7. I Left My Heart In San Francisco - Arthur Prysock
8. Isfahan - Joe Henderson
9. Non-Stop To Brazil - Astrud Gilberto
10. When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano - Carmen McRae
11. Manhattan - Blossom Dearie

Dr. John - Goin' Back To New Orleans - Warner Bros.

2009-05-25T13:11:00.003-04:00

Dr. John - Goin' Back To New Orleans
featuring Pete Fountain

1992 - Warner Bros

Tracks:
01. Litanie des Saints
02. Careless Love
03. My Indian Red
04. Milenburg Joys
05. I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say
06. Basin Street Blues (featuring Pete Fountain)
07. Didn't He Ramble
08. Do You Call That a Buddy?
09. How Come My Dog Don't Bark When You Come 'Round
10. Good Night, Irene
11. Fess Up
12. Since I Fell For You
13. I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You
14. Cabbage Head
15. Goin' Home Tomorrow
16. Blue Monday
17. Scald Dog
18. Goin' Back to New Orleans

Line Up:
Dr. John (vocals, guitar, piano, organ)
Danny Barker (guitar, banjo)
Tommy Moran (guitar)
Pete Fountain (clarinet)

Charles Neville, Herb Hardesty, Eric Traub, Amadee Castenell, Frederick Kemp (Tenor Saxophones)

Alvin "Red" Tyler, Roger Lewis (Baritone Saxophones)

Al Hirt, Jamil Sharif, Charlie Miller, Umar Sharif, Clyde Kerr,Jr. (Trumpets)

Bruce Hammond (trombone)
Kirk Joseph (tuba)
David Barard, Chris Severin (bass)
Freddy Staehle (drums)

Alfred "Uganda" Roberts, Chief "Smiley" Ricks, Cyril Neville, Charles Neville (Percussion)

Shirley Goodman, Stephanie Whitfield, Connie Fitch, Tara Janelle, Chuck Carbo (Background Vocals)

The Neville Brothers: Art Neville, Aaron Neville, Charles Neville, Cyril Neville (Vocals)

Liner Notes:
Goin' Back traces a century of Crescent City musical history, starting in the mid-19th century with Louis Moreau Gottschalk, a classical composer influenced by the African chants and slave dances he witnessed in New Orleans' Congo Square. With support from some of the city's most prominent musical pioneers (including Danny Barker, Pete Fountain, and the Neville Brothers), Dr. John breathes new life into the work of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, James Booker, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, and Huey Piano Smith. From early jazz to junkie blues, Goin' Back covers it all, ranging from well-trod standards ("Basin Street Blues," "Careless Love") to otherwise forgotten jewels ("I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say," "How Come My Dog Don't Bark"). What's most remarkable is how utterly alive and timeless it sounds. - Keith Moerer

That's A Plenty by Pete Fountain - K-Tel

2009-05-17T11:32:00.006-04:00

That's A Plenty
by Pete Fountain

2009 - K-Tel Records

Tracks:
1. That's A Plenty
2. Sensation Rag (Live Version)
3. In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree (Live Version)
4. Up A Lazy River
5. Sunset In Paradise
6. Bayou Blues
7. Margie
8. High Society
9. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
10. Mahogany Hall Stomp
11. Farewell Blues
12. When The Saints Go Marching In

Liner Notes:

This is another one of those download only release on Amazon, old tunes from the Phil Zito, Tony Almerico, Sharkey Bonano, Santo Pecora and George Girard days. These songs seem to get repackaged over and over, same songs.

Bugle Call Rag & Other Favorites (Digitally Remastered) - EMG

2009-05-17T11:22:00.008-04:00

Bugle Call Rag & Other Favorites (Digitally Remastered)
by Pete Fountain

2009 - Essential Media Group LLC

Tracks:
1. Margie
2. Going Home
3. South Rampart Street Parade
4. That's A Plenty
5. Jazz Me Blues
6. Farewell Blues
7. Bugle Call Rag
8. High Society
9. When The Saints Go Marching In
10. Lazy River
11. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

Liner Notes:

This is one of those download only release on Amazon, old tunes from the Phil Zito, Tony Almerico, Sharkey Bonano, Santo Pecora and George Girard days. These songs seem to get repackaged over and over, same songs.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2009 - News

2009-04-28T10:01:00.005-04:00

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2009
Pete Fountain Performs on Sat April 25, 2009

Visit the official The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2009 website.

Pete onstage doing what he does best!

Pete’s professional dancer and granddaughter, Danielle Harrell Scheib

Pete behind the Economy Hall Tent after his set, saying "Hello".

Report from our very own blog member, thanks John!

The first weekend of JazzFest in New Orleans just concluded. New Orleans is now settling into a week of abundant night time club activity all over the city with jam sessions into the wee small hours. But last Saturday afternoon on the Fairgrounds in the Peoples Health Economy Hall Tent, Pete played an hour long set from 4:25 to 5:25.

He opened with “Clarinet Marmalade” and was greeted with a standing ovation before he played his first note. Other tunes included “Lazy River”, “Muskrat Ramble”, “Tin Roof Blues” with Allyn Young delivering an humorous blues vocal poking fun at trombonist Mike Genevay, and “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” after which the audience rose out of their seats to give a deserved standing ovation.

However, Pete had not played his full hand yet. Pete’s manager, Benny Harrell, announced that Pete’s professional dancer and granddaughter, Danielle Harrell Scheib, would accompany Pete and Band on “St. Louis Blues” supplying rhythmical patterns with her energetic tap shoes. A crowd favorite, Ms. Scheib stayed through the final number “When the Saints Come Marching In”. The weather cooperated with a sunny, pleasantly breezy day accompanied by blue skies and low humidity. JazzFest has one more weekend of music beginning this Thursday and ending next Sunday.

Pete Fountain Golf Tournament and Christian Brothers School Benefit 2009 - News

2009-04-18T10:57:00.003-04:00

Pete Fountain Golf Tournament

and Christian Brothers School Benefit 2009
reported by our very own blog member, thanks!

April 16, 2009 - New Orleans, LA

Tonight, Pete accompanied by his regular band that performs at the Hollywood Casino performed their annual benefit concert that coincides with the annual Pete Fountain Golf Tournament. A large tent was erected in the backyard where the 7:00 to 8:00 concert was held. The band opened with "Clarinet Marmalade" followed by such tunes as "Lazy River", "St Louis Blues", "Tin Roof Blues", and "When the Saints Go Marching In". Pete was in good spirits and constructed imaginative solos throughout. The weather was cool and the humidity was low, always a plus for New Orleans especially this time of year when summertime heat and humidity are beginning to settle in permanently.

Pete Fountain, Christian Brothers School

Pete Fountain and Tim Laughlin

Pete Fountain and the Hollywood Casino Band

Pete Fountain Golf Tournament Cake

Pete Fountain

Pete and Tim

French Quarter Festival 2009 - News

2009-04-18T10:38:00.004-04:00

French Quarter Festival 2009

reported by our very own blog member, thanks!

The Connie Jones Band opened the French Quarter Festival today, April 17, 2009 outdoors in Jackson Square at 11:00. As the "surprise" guest Pete greeted the crowd as he joined Connie and gang for a few opening numbers which included "Clarinet Marmalade", "Lazy River", "St. Louis Blues", and "Just a Closer Walk With Thee". Pete definitely enjoyed himself smiling and waving to people as the crowd enthusiastically cheered each number, crying for more after "A Closer Walk". Pete embraced Tim Laughlin and Connie Jones with heart-felt hugs at the conclusion of the set. Last year, Pete opened the French Quarter Festival with Connie’s band as the "surprise" guest. With any luck this will become an annual event.

Pete warming up before the show.

Pete Fountain and the Connie Jones Band

Otis Bazzon, Tim Laughlin, Pete Fountain and Connie Jones

Otis Bazzon, Tim Laughlin and Pete Fountain

Pete and Benny Harrell after the concert.

Pete Fountain and the Good Book - Coral Records

2009-04-05T12:19:00.000-04:00

Pete Fountain and the Good Book

Coral Records - Catalog Number 94 603 - 7" EP

Country: France

Side A:
1. Yes indeed
2. Nobody knows the Trouble I've Seen

Side B:
1. Let Me Walk Closer to Thee
2. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Liner Notes:

French import, late 1960's. Four tracks. Rare, hard to find, unique cover.

Louisiana Music Hall of Fame - Pete Fountain's Induction 2008

2009-04-05T11:56:00.000-04:00

Louisiana Music Hall of Fame

Pete Fountain's Induction 2008

Pete Fountain and Mike Shepherd at Hollywood Casino Induction

PETE FOUNTAN (b. July 3, 1930 – ): Born in the cradle of American jazz, Pete Fountain was a skinny boy who spent too much of his time hanging around the front door of the Top Hat Dance Hall, a stronghold of Dixieland Jazz in New Orleans.

In 1955, he was a member of the Dukes of Dixieland but until 1956, be-bop and rock and roll were the hottest sounds going and it was difficult making a living playing jazz, even in New Orleans, the home of jazz, so with a wife and three small children to support, he gave up music if only temporarily.

But the very next year, Lawrence Welk, host of the nation’s top-rated television show, hired Fountain and for the next two years, he was the most famous jazz musician on television, his name became a household word, and New Orleans Jazz made a comeback. After two years in Los Angeles, Fountain likewise made a comeback – to New Orleans to open his own jazz club in the heart of the French Quarter. Since its opening in 1959, it has expanded into the largest jazz club in the city.

He has performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as on Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Andy Williams specials and performed fifty-nine times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He also performed at four U.S. State Dinners, for four U.S. Presidents, for Pope John Paul II at the New Orleans Papal Mass with an audience of over 400,000.

He has recorded over ninety albums, three of which went gold. He also received a gold record for his single Just A Closer Walk With Thee. He was voted the number 1 Jazz Clarinetist for thirteen consecutive years in the Playboy Readers Poll.

He was King of Bacchus, and received an Emmy for the 1990 Super Bowl Pre-Game Music. He received the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award in Music. Among those with whom he has performed are Louis Armstrong, Harry James, and Harry Connick, Jr.

On March 18, 2007 at Hollywood Casino in Bay St.Louis, MS, Pete Fountain was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame.

Courtesy of the Lousiana Music Hall of Fame.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New Orleans

2009-03-20T13:03:00.000-04:00

St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New Orleans

One of our blog members gave this great report and pictures. Thanks!

Tonight the Half-Fast Walking Club participated in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade sponsored by the Downtown Irish Club of New Orleans. The parade began in the Bywater section of New Orleans then meandered through the streets of the French Quarter ending on Bourbon Street to a raucously fired up virtually impenetrable crowd rivaling throngs found during Mardi Gras. Pete has never participated in this parade. This year he surprised us. Pete met us on the 1200 block of Decatur Street in the Quarter, and he had his family. During all the commotion, Pete and his wife Beverly were gracious enough to pose for a picture.

St. Patrick's Day Parade, Pete Fountain, 1234 Decatur St. French Quarter

St. Patrick's Day Parade, Beverly & Pete Fountain, 1234 Decatur St. French Quarter

Pete Fountain on the Lawrence Welk Show - Bootleg

2009-03-15T20:46:00.000-04:00

Pete Fountain on the Lawrence Welk Show
5 CD Box Set March 1957 through March 1959

Liner Notes:
5 CD Box Set released 2009
Pete Fountain on the Lawrence Welk Show
Rare and Unreleased Records
March 1957 through March 1959

A rare find. over 170 recordings from Pete's time playing on the Lawrence Welk show. Carefully transferred from the original tapes and remastered, the sound quality is outstanding. Almost every recording Pete did on the Welk show, plus outtakes, airchecks, soundboard checks and dialog are included. As a bonus, some additional tracks from The Ed Sullivan Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Johnny Carson Show, The Bell Telephone Hour and the Kraft Music Hall are included.

Click on the below covers to see the track listing on each disc.

Let's Get Acquainted - Brunswick Records

2009-03-15T01:13:00.000-04:00

Let's Get Acquainted - The Lennon Sisters
featuring Pete Fountain

1958 - Brunswick Records BL 54031

Selections Include:

Side One
1. Let's Get Acquainted
2. Little White Lies
3. Young And In Love
With Orchestra Directed By Tiny Little
4. Teenage Waltz
With Orchestra Directed By Tiny Little
S. Pocahontas
6. White Silver Sands
With Pete Fountain And His Dixieland Boys

Side Two
1. When I'm With You
Featured In The Motion Picture "Poor Little Rich Girl"
2. One Day A Little Girl
With Pete Fountain And His Dixieland Boys
3. Walk With Me
4. If I Don't Love You
5. Shake Me I Rattle (Squeeze Me I Cry)
6. Goodnight God

Liner Notes:

The Lennon Sisters - Vocal Quartet With Instrumental Accompaniment

Let's get acquainted with the Lennon Sisters - Dianne, Peggy, Kathy & Janet - those four talented youngsters who sing their way into the hearts of millions of television viewers each week, via Lawrence Welk's network shows.

Representing half of Bill and Isobel Lennon's family of eight children there was always much to do around their Venice, California home. Singing together was the way the girls made their dishwashing chores lighter and their family duties more like fun than work. Humming lullabies and play-party songs together was a family affair in which the sisters took delight.

Perhaps some of their natural talent comes to them through their Dad. Bill Lennon had been a featured vocalist with the Paul Whiteman and Freddie Martin Bands in the early forties and for a time had a quartet with his brothers, Pat, Bob and Ted. As a protege of the famous tenor, Tito Shipa, he appeared in Hollywood Bowl concerts.

The girls first performed for friends and relatives and then went "on stage" at church benefits and civic functions. Fifteen-year-old Dianne's St. Monica's schoolmate, Larry Welk, Jr. "discovered" the sisters and got his famous dad to listen to them. Welk Sr. was so impressed with their charm and musical ability that he immediately signed them for a special ABC-TV Christmas show that was in preparation for the 1955 holidays. As soon as the nation's viewers saw them, Welk's judgement and Larry Jr's foresight were justified.

Billboard, the trade magazine of the music industry, published results of a disc jockey popularity poll shortly there-after and the Lennon Sisters were within the top ten most promising vocal groups. Noting this, Coral & Brunswick Records began making plans for offering more of their fine work on wax. Hence, several single releases, among them hits like "Tonight You Belong To Me" and "White Silver Sands" and now their first long playing album.

Despite tempting lucrative offers for outside engagements, the girls have remained loyal to their primary duties at home and with their schooling, limiting their professional work to recording and appearing as members of the Welk shows.

With no formal musical training, the girls do their arrangements seated at the kitchen table with a pitch-pipe as their only instrument. Mom helps them with the harmony and Dad coaches on phrasing and expression. Mom also designs and makes all their costumes.

Maestro Welk sums up their charm in the following statement: "They look sweet, sing sweet and have a certain intangible spiritual quality. It gets across to the audience."

Listen to these selections ...we're sure you will agree.

Mardi Gras 2009 Report

2009-03-07T13:17:00.000-05:00

Our very own blog member is in the picture taken at Commander’s Palace with Pete. His report of Mardi Gras is as follows:

Mardi Gras went well with tremendous weather (low 70s, not a cloud in the sky, and low humidity). This year Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club walk paraded as Toy Soldiers. Pete hardly played at all, a run or 2 for the local TV cameras. Tim Laughlin carried the yeoman’s portion of the parade.

Additional Mardi Gras from local press:

Clarinetist Pete Fountain will kick off festivities on Fat Tuesday, leading more than 200 members of his Half-Fast Walking Club through the city streets. Fountain said this is the largest group in his club's 49-year history.

"There's a lot of us this year, from all over the country," he said. "It's always a lot of fun."

Though celebrities have joined Fountain in the past, among them jazz singer Frankie Laine and actor John Goodman, Fountain said this year no big names will be marching. But, "each one of my guys is a celebrity," he said with a chuckle.

Pete Fountain: Birth Of The Blues (George Klein's Talent Party 1964)

2009-03-07T13:04:00.000-05:00

George Klein's Talent Party 1964

This is the earliest known video footage of George Klein, host of the WHBQ-TV Memphis show "Talent Party". This clip is an excerpt from an interview George did with famous jazz clarinet player Pete Fountain. Plus, you get to hear Pete "lip sync" (clarinet sync?) eight bars of the song, Birth Of The Blues he'd recently recorded.

NOTE: Memphis Memories would like to thank Harvey and Chet for finding this rare classic on a VHS tape at a flea market and making it available so it can be shared with everyone.

Credit: http://visualguidanceltd.blogspot.com

Phil Zito and his New Orleans International City Dixielanders - Dixieland Express - Columbia Records

2009-02-08T16:47:00.000-05:00

PHIL ZITO and his New Orleans International City Dixielanders

DIXIELAND EXPRESS (7" 45 rpm Box Set)

1951 Columbia Records Set B-199

7" - 45 rpm - 4 Record Box Set

Record One:
Side A: Bob Cats
Side B: Shine

Record Two
Side A: Bye and Bye
Side B: Original Dixieland One Step

Record Three
Side A: She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain
Side B: Zito's Zag

Record Four
Side A: Clarinet Marmalade
Side B: Tulane Swing

Liner Notes:

PHIL ZITO and his New Orleans International City Dixielanders

Recorded in New Orleans

Personnel:
Phil Zito drums
Emile Christian bass
Roy Zimmerman piano
Pete Fountain clarinet
Joe Rotis trombone
George Girard trumpet

The upswing in Dixieland music that began to gather momentum during the last months of 1949 is happily serving a dual purpose. Not only is it introducing this "happy-making" music to generations almost entirely unfamiliar with it and bringing hack fond acquaintance to older enthusiasts, it is bringing recognition to a number of small groups that served faithfully and unceasingly during the Dixieland drought. Many of these groups, playing in nightclubs and theaters around the country, suddenly found that they were not, after all, playing mostly for their own amusement. They found that somehow the lively two-beat of their music had been taken up by a public weary of modernism and wary of over experimentation.

These records introduce such a group: Phil Zito and his New Orleans International City Dixielanders. Long-time favorites of New Orleans citizens, Zito and his organization have been heard at almost every musical event in that fascinating city. They have played in nightclubs, at jazz concerts and battles, at dances, in theaters, in parks and at all sorts of celebrations. Zito's first group, organized in the late Thirties, built up a considerable reputation with local fans, but was disrupted by the war. When Zito returned from the Navy, he again began building up a small combination, emphasizing Dixieland music, and swiftly became one of the leaders of the jazz movement in New Orleans.

As currently constituted, the New Orleans International City Dixielanders consist of comparative old timers in the rhythm section, with representatives of the younger musical generation in other spots. Zito himself is at the drums, Emile Christian plays bass, Roy Zimmerman piano, Pete Fountain clarinet, Joe Rotis trombone and George Girard trumpet. This is a festive outfit in the good old-fashioned New Orleans tradition. They put in plenty of time playing the usual round of engagements, but it is not uncommon to find them whooping it up at the opening of a new factory or spreading their music through the streets of the city to signal the premiere of a new film. If this is not precisely the clientele of the old jazz bands, it is at least the closest equivalent that these less rowdy days permit, and it carries their music directly into the daily existence of the lucky residents.

Eight samples of that vigorous brand are contained in this collection, some of them standard jazz exercises, some of them originals. In them is the happy compromise between high-flying solo work and closely-knit ensemble playing that distinguishes the New Orleans International City Dixielanders. Although their title may be a trifle cumbersome, there is nothing unwieldy about their music. Recorded in New Orleans, it has the special flavor of that city's contribution to popular music, bright, inventive and splendidly uncomplicated.