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

Monday, August 3, 2009

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

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 But the low stage on which performers once ventured out among tables has been replaced by a herringbone-patterned dance floor.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

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

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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.

Monday, August 3, 2009