Dixieland Jazz - Pete Fountain Discography: Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? - Verve Records

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

Below is part of the booklet

1996 Verve Records - GRD2658 (2 CD set)

Track Listing
Disc 1
01. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
02. When The Saints Come Marching In
03. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
04. Sweethearts On Parade
05. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
06. Tin Roof Blues
07. Aunt Hagar's Blues
08. Beale Street Blues
09. Wabash Blues
10. St. Louis Blues
11. Wang Wang Blues
12. I've Found A New Baby
13. Ja Da
14. Tiger Rag
15. Someday Sweetheart
16. The Birth Of The Blues
17. Dear Old Southland
18. That Da Da Strain
19. At The Jazz Band Ball
20. Jazz Me Blues

Disc 2
01. St. James Infirmary
02. Panama
03. Of All The Wrongs You've Done To Me
04. Milenberg Joys
05. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
06. Struttin' With Some Barbecue
07. Bourbon Street Parade
08. Ballin' The Jack
09. Rockin' Chair
10. South Rampart Street Parade
11. Farewell Blues
12. Careless Love
13. Basin Street Blues
14. (What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue
15. That's A Plenty
16. The Sheik Of Araby
17. Dipper Mouth Blues
18. Washboard Blues
19. Muskrat Ramble
20. I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues

Liner Notes:

Recorded in Los Angeles and New Orleans between 1959 and 1965.
Original release on the Decca Records label.

Pete Fountain Clarinet
Charlie Teagarden Trumpet
Godfrey Hirsch Vibraphone
Merle Koch Piano
Stan Wrightsman Piano
Don Bagley Bass
Morty Corb Bass
Jack Sperling Drums

There are two things that to my mind distinguish Pete Fountain from virtually any other jazz instrumentalist of any genre who has achieved similar vast popularity. One is that he has continued to hold the respect of a great many talented though far less noted musicians - take my word for it, this is a very rare accomplishment. The other is that he remains very much a hometown person: he has always been quite content to be a giant attraction in New Orleans, going out on the road on numerous occasions, of course, but never measuring success in term of New York of LA or London, and remaining involved in the life of his native city.

- Orrin Keepnews, from the liner notes to Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

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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.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? - Verve Records

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