Pete Fountain Timeline Tree

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Pete Fountain Timeline Tree

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Very very interesting to know...I love Pete Fountains playing! I remember as a child my dad got me one of his albums and said when I played as good as him then I could play professionally. Well Im 45 now and I still play but only to an audience of myself and who ever is in ears shot . I especially loved the Tiger Rag on the Lawrence Welk Show. I've had to put it down a few times but I think I will play till my teeth fall out ha ha ha!; September 14, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Thankyou for including my idol:
Al Hirt.
Al & Pete starved together early on in their musical careers & were lucky to have each other to lean on. Both of these men traveled the globe but always went back home to their beloved Bourbon Street where jazz was born, and in my opinion helped revive Dixieland Jazz.
Tommy Gee
www.freewebs.com/tommygaston; October 27, 2008 at 11:28 AM
Anonymous said...: Hello Pete! I'm Giuseppe Allesandra's great grand-daughter (Papa Jack Lain's tuba player in the Reliance Brass Band) Emanuel's father. Dukes of Dixieland etc. I remember sitting in Al Hirts lap as a child in some club off Burbon St. Also had fun seeing you in this years Mardi Gras parade!
Charlotte Crist; April 26, 2009 at 6:56 AM
Jim Brimer said...: To the King of traditional jazz clarinet, I'm still a huge fan of yours starting in and around 1960. The first song I learned was your "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" from your record called "I Love Paris". I still play that tune. I first saw you live at Arlington High School in Arlington, TX. You have been a great mentor to me through the years. I applaud you and wish you very well.
Jim Brimer
www.theoldjazz.com; May 25, 2009 at 3:18 PM

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, October 7, 2007