Pete Fountain

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Pete Fountain at the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

Pete Fountain , actually Pierre Dewey LaFontaine jr., (Born July 3, 1930 in New Orleans , Louisiana , † August 6, 2016 there ) was an American jazz clarinetist of New Orleans jazz .

Live and act

Fountain began playing the clarinet at the age of 9 ("to strengthen his lungs", as he said in a 2003 interview) and was heavily influenced by the New Orleans clarinetist Irving Fazola (1912–1949) (who in turn was influenced by Leon Roppolo and Jimmie Noone ). He played in the bands of the drummer Monk Hazel (1920-1980) and the trumpeter Al Hirt (1922-1999) before he founded the "Basin Street Six" in 1950 with his friend, the trumpeter George Girard . In 1954 he joined Lawrence Welk's band , which was broadcast nationwide with its own TV show (1957 to 1959) on ABC and made Fountain known. Back in New Orleans he played with the " Dukes of Dixieland " of the Assunto brothers and then in bands under his own name. He played frequently at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in the 1960s and appeared frequently (58 times) on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show . In 1967 Fountain released the album Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert , a tribute album to the German composer Bert Kaempfert, who was very popular in the USA at the time . Herbert Rehbein , Kaempfert's long-time partner and friend, was involved in the recording as arranger .

In the 1960s and 1970s Fountain had his own jazz club in the French Quarter and later until 2003 "Pete Fountain's Jazz Club" at the Riverside Hilton in New Orleans, then at the Bay-Saint-Louis Casino. He lost his house there in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That same year he underwent heart surgery - the only time he missed the Mardi Gras parade.

He was one of the founders of the Mardi Gras or carnival club "The Half Fast Walking Club". He released more than 100 records or CDs under his own name. In 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from Loyola University New Orleans . He has been invited four times by US presidents to play in the White House . In 1987 he played before the Pope at his mass in New Orleans.

In 1972 he wrote his autobiography A Closer Walk - the Pete Fountain Story , named after his signature hit "Just a Closer Walk with Thee". In 2014 he ended his career.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Scott Walker: Music legend, New Orleanian Pete Fountain cherished dies . WDSU , August 7, 2016, accessed August 8, 2016.
  2. ↑ He received lessons from the trumpeter Johnny Wiggs, among others . Fountain mentions George Lewis , the saxophonist and clarinetist Eddie Miller and Benny Goodman as other influences
  3. ↑ In his own words, he left Welk because “Champagne and Bourbon don't mix”. Interview 2003.
  4. ↑ A band that appeared in the framework of football games, and in which he had played before.
  5. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/Pete-Fountain-Pete-Fountain-Plays-Bert-Kaempfert/release/3163440
  6. ↑ Keith Spera: Pete Fountain has retired from performing, will miss the 2014 New Orleans Jazz Fest . The Times-Picayune , April 17, 2014, accessed August 8, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Fountain, Pete
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fountain, Peter Dewey Jr .; LaFontaine, Pierre Dewey Jr. (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz clarinetist
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH New Orleans , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 2016
Place of death New Orleans , Louisiana