Dixieland Jazz - Pete Fountain Discography: Mood Indigo

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Mood Indigo - Coral Records

Mood Indigo

1966 Coral Records CRL 757484 Stereo / CRL 57484 Mono

Side One
1. MOOD INDIGO - Clarinet Solo With Orchestra
2. WASHBOARD BLUES -Clarinet Solo With Instrumental Accompaniment
3. YOU'RE NOBODY 'TIL SOMEBODY LOVES YOU - Clarinet Solo With Orchestra And Chorus
4. SORRENTO BLUES - Clarinet Solo With Instrumental Accompaniment
5. MISS LUCY - Clarinet Solo With Orchestra
6. DIPPER MOUTH BLUES - Clarinet Solo With Instrumental Accompaniment

Side Two
1. Themes From George Gershwin's RHAPSODY IN BLUE - Clarinet Solo With Orchestra
2. YOUR CHEATIN' HEART - Clarinet Solo With Chorus And Orchestra
3. BLUESETTE - Clarinet Solo With Instrumental Accompaniment
4. FA SO LA BLUES - Clarinet Solo With Orchestra
5. BLUE DANUBE BLUES - Clarinet Solo With Instrumental Accompaniment
6. LOVELESS LOVE - Clarinet Solo With Instrumental Accompaniment

Liner Notes:

MOOD INDIGO PETE FOUNTAIN
Directed By CHARLES "BUD" DANT"

Exquisitely tired and four-in-the-morning..." That was how an English composer, the late Constant Lambert, once described "Mood Indigo." An inspired title when the number was written in 1930, it was also a euphemism that denoted some-thing a little more sophisticated than a blue mood or a natural twelve-bar blues. Yet the content was basically blue, as Lambert perceived, and as Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard, its composers, intended.

Like Pete Fountain, Bigard was a native of New Orleans and a clarinetist, so a bond exists between co-composer and performer in this instance. More-over, Duke Ellington was responsible for diverting Bud Dant, Pete's musical director, from a career as a teacher to that of professional musician.

Bud's familiarity with Ellington's own interpretation of Mood Indigo is evident enough in this attractively arranged version, where the cellos play the low obbligato and the violins the high harmony of the original muted trumpet. The result is a haunting background for Pete's nostalgic statements, the small concert orchestra used also including violas, trombones, French horns and a rhythm section consisting of Stan Wrightsman (piano), Bobby Gibbons (guitar), Morty Corb (bass) and Jack Sperling (drums).

An indigo mood established, Pete turns to Hoagy Carmichael's famous Washboard Blues, a number which served, incidentally, as the theme of the Bud Dant Collegians in the long, long ago. Here the accompaniment is by a small group similar in instrumentation to that with which he usually works, whereas You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You returns him to the "Nashville sound" and the voices that proved so effective on his best-selling "Licorice Stick" album. The song isn't a blues, but it has a "down" connotation, and Pete gives it a bluesy feeling. The source of Sorrento Blues isfairly obvious from the title, but this small-group performance moves at an attractive 12/8 gait, with Bobby Gibbons and Jack Sperling providing an admirable foundation for the clarinetist. Miss Lucy was originally a part of "Crescent City Suite" and very popular in New Orleans. Its composer, Paul Weston, calls it "The Stephen Foster Blues", but although built on the twelve-bar blues structure, it proves an excellent vehicle for the orchestra's strings as well as the soloist. Completing Side I is another number by a New Orleans musician, King Oliver, whose famous Dipper Mouth Blues comes complete with the enthusiastic and now-traditional cry of "Oh, play that thing!"

The prominence given the clarinet in themes from George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue was always a tribute to the instrument's role in jazz, and Pete Fountain understandably wanted to record his own interpretation. Here his playing is dove-tailed with the orchestra's in a condensation to which Morty Corb contributes an emphatic bass part.

Your Cheatin' Heart, the Hank Williams hit, is appropriately assigned to Nashville again, while the discreet elegance of a small string section sets Toots Thielemans' Bluesette off to advantage. Fa So La Blues is an original which refers, via a punning title, to an idol of Pete's, the late Irving Fazola, a New Orleans clarinet player whose tone and style exerted a wide and beneficial influence in jazz. The orchestra's trombones and French horns sound a sombre, sorrowing note in Bud Dant's excellent arrangement. Both Blue Danube Blues and Loveless Love are played with the small group, which permits Pete to express himself freely and warmly on much-loved territory.

Though the prevailing mood be indigo, Mr. Stick Man proves once more in this collection that there are many shades of blue!

STANLEY DANCE

Pete Fountain plays a Leblanc clarinet exclusively!

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Pete's Bio

Peter Dewey Fountain, Jr. was born July 3, 1930 in New Orleans, the cradle of American music, Jazz. He was a skinny kid who spent too much time hanging around the front stoop of the Top Hat Dance Hall near his home. The Top Hat was a stronghold of Dixieland Jazz and Jazz already had a strong hold on Pete Fountain. But, oh the sounds! This was music straight from the soul. Sounds that would never be written in stone, that would always be brand new because they were purely personal. Pete heard all the greats in New Orleans and he knew he wanted to play Jazz.

After endless hours of practicing and listening to the recordings of Benny Goodman and Irving Fazola, the personal sound of Pete Fountain began to emerge and it was "Fat." By the time Pete was 16, he had already gained a reputation on the street, Bourbon Street.

Through these formative years of his musical training, Pete performed with several sensational bands. One such band was the Junior Dixieland Band which performed in the famous Parisian Room-often performing for legendary jazz men. It was a heady time of life and Pete Fountain was savoring every moment.

A few years later Pete joined Phil Zito's International Dixieland Express. They were playing the El Morocco on the street. It was there he met Beverly. She had decided very young to marry a musician and Pete had decided very young to be a musician.

Pete was performing with some of the best known jazz bands in the country--The Basin Street Six, The Dukes of Dixieland, Al Hirt--and it was great.

Until 1956...Be-Bop and Rock & Roll were the hot new sounds, and the music that Pete loved could not provide him or anybody else with a living. Jazz, in its own birthplace New Orleans, was definitely asleep. He gave up music. He had no choice. With a wife and three small children to support, music was a luxury he could not afford.

All he really wanted to do was play music. All he needed was a band, a bandstand and a place to play.

In 1957, Lawrence Welk, host of the nation's most popular television program, wanted Pete on the show, and that kind of opportunity only comes once in a lifetime. For two years, Pete was the most famous Jazz musician on television. Pete Fountain became a household name and New Orleans Jazz made a comeback that has never faded.

After two years in California, Pete came home to New Orleans. He had learned what every New Orleanian has to accept as a fact of life. you can leave New Orleans, but it never leaves you. The cuisine, the sights and the sounds.

Pete immediately opened his own jazz club in the heart of the French Quarter. His national fame and fans followed him to New Orleans which allowed Pete's club to expand, through the past 34 years, into the largest jazz club in the city.

Pete has always been considered an ambassador of New Orleans Jazz as he performs his music on guest appearances on network television and specials. Some of the highlights have been such classics as the Ed Sullivan, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Andy Williams specials. More recently his credits include A Close up of Pete Fountain, Super Bowl Saturday Night and the National Memorial Day Concert. He also performed 59 times on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show."

Pete has performed at four U.S. State Dinners by command performance for four Presidents of the United States. He has also performed for Pope John Paul II at the New Orleans Papal Mass with an attendance of over 400,000 people.

During Pete's career, he has recorded 56 albums and has been a featured performer on 44 additional albums for a total of 100 recordings. Three of Pete's albums have gone gold, "Pete Fountain's New Orleans," "The Blues," and "Mr. New Orleans." He also received a gold record for his hit single "Just A Closer Walk With Thee."

Through Pete's career he has received numerous awards and honors including a Doctorate of Music from the College of Santa Fe; he was voted the #1 Jazz Clarinetist for 13 consecutive years in the Playboy Readers Poll; he was King of Bacchus; he received an Emmy for the 1990 Super Bowl Pre-Game Music; and he was awarded the 1993 Louisiana Legends Award.

Pete has performed with music legends ranging from Louis Armstrong and Harry James to Harry Connick, Jr. Yet to this day his greatest thrill is taking the stage and performing the music he loves, watching as it works its irresistible magic on the audience. Straight to the soul.

Pete Fountain and his wife, Beverly, have three children and five grandchildren. He divides his DAYS between his family, various charitable organizations and his favorite fishing hole.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Mood Indigo - Coral Records

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