And The Angels Sing - Vocalion Records

And The Angels Sing

1967 Vocalion/Decca Records VL 73803 Stereo / VL 3803 Mono

Side One
1. Get Happy
2. Let the Good Times Roll
3. Corrine, Corrina
4. Angel Eyes
5. Talkin' 'Bout You

Side Two
1. Soft Winds
2. Georgia On My Mind
3. A-Eh La Bas
4. It's All Right
5. And the Angels Sing

Liner Notes:

The Vocalion brand was revived in the late 1950s by Decca Records (U.S.A.) as a budget label for back catalog reissues. Decca Records (U.K.) revived the label for a time in the 1960s.

This has the same song list as the 1962 Coral Records CRL 757406 Stereo / CRL 57406 Mono titled "Let The Good Times Roll" with two less tracks, Blue Clarinet and Down Home.

For the First Time, Brenda and Pete - Decca Records

For the First Time, Brenda and Pete

1967 Decca Records DL 74955 Stereo / DL 4955 Mono

Side 1
1. Cabaret
2. There's A Kind Of Hush
3. Basin Street Blues
4. Windy
5. Night And Day

Side 2
1. One Of Those Songs
2. Mood Indigo
3. Can't Take My Eyes Off You
4. The 59th Street Bridge Song
5. Anything Goes
6. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues


Liner Notes:

The time was the spring of 1960. The place was historic New Orleans. The occasion was the opening of a brand new night club - The French Quarter Inn.

It was a memorable evening, particularly for PETE FOUNTAIN. This marked the opening of his own club, and a multitude of his friends and fans gathered to pay their respects and wish him well. Seated in the audience was BRENDA LEE, who had a night off during an extensive one-nighter tour and, being a fan of Pete's, had decided to join the well-wishers on this night.

Brenda was introduced to the audience by Pete, and the sustained applause that resulted led to some unrehearsed, on-the-spot singing by her with Pete and his band. Thus began a mutual admiration society, and the friendship and respect each has for the other have grown over the years since their first impromptu duetting in New Orleans - years that have brought great and lasting success individually to these two talented artists. (For the record, Brenda and Pete had never met personally before that night, and it is doubtful that either one of them - or anyone else in attendance - imagined that not too many years later they would join forces in this exciting and unique album.)

Like all good musical weddings, this one contains something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue - each selection is given a rare and brilliant interpretation, faultlessly blending two out-standing individual talents. It was inevitable that Brenda and Pete would finally record such an album, and while it took some years to materialize, the results were more than worth the waiting - and it would be safe to predict that FOR THE FIRST TIME will surely not be the last time!

Jazz Reunion - JUCU Records

Jazz Reunion

1981 JUCU Records SV 1946 Stereo

Side One
1. When You're Smiling
2. Scatterbrain
3. Just Friends
4. S-H-I-N-E
5. Maria Elena

Side Two
1. Moonlight and Shadows
2. Rain Ford
3. Oh, Lady Be Good
4. Minkey
5. Honeysuckle Rose

Liner Notes:

Clarinet: Pete Fountain
Amplified Marimba: Frank Flynn
Drums: Jack Sperling
Guitar: Bob Bain
Bass: Ray Leatherwood

Arranger and Producer - Frank Flynn
Recording Engineer and Co-Producer - Phil A. Yeend

Microphones used were: AKG-414 on Clarinet, three U87s on Drums, SM-53 on Bass, SM-53 on Guitar, and SM-53 on Amplified Marimba.

Mixing Console API 24 Track Automated Console Recording on 3M-M79 16 Track Tape Machine Recorded on Scotch 250 Tape


PETE FOUNTAIN'S JAZZ REUNION

How sad the realization that the pure, unadulterated, toe-tapping, finger-snapping brand of jazz contained herein may soon be added to the list of endangered species.

Not that I want to sound like the voice of doom, but considering this overdubbed era - a time in which more attention is lavished on electronic gimmickry than on musical integrity - an honest jam session like this sticks out like a healthy thumb.

Perhaps its most refreshing aspect is the unabashed return to basics, and considering it was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all jazzmen are creatively equal, this Bicentennial year bash provides an eloquent argument to "know thy roots."

Pete Fountain's roots can be summed up by stating his birthplace: New Orleans. But he is young enough and also versatile enough to have been able to steer his clarinet away from Dixieland exclusively and expand its sound to the domain of the straight ahead. So straight ahead that he was once a featured part of the Lawrence Welk band.

This session will convince jazz buffs that Pete Fountain belongs in this particular setting: as a leader of a group that can tackle any idiom - from two-beat to off-beat, to the refreshingly modern group dynamics of this album.

As for Frank Flynn's background, it's necessary only to point out that for years he was George Van Eps' musical alter ego, and you get an accurate picture of his no-nonsense approach to jazz. A New Yorker by birth, his experience runs a gamut from arranging for Ben Pollack and playing drums and singing for Ted Fio Rito to playing vibes in the studios.

Thus we have a "front line" of like-minded swingers devoted to the joys of jazz, backed by a formidable rhythm machine devoted to the infectious pulse of jazz. That rhythm machine - a well honed section that could easily form a jazz entity all its own - consists of Bob Bain, one of the studio's busiest guitarists; Ray Leatherwood, whose walking bass lines provide a firm melodic underpinning; and the sterling Jack Sperling, a drummer who swings so sensitively that he never over shadows his colleagues. The results are not merely a happy, bouyant reunion for Pete and the musicians with whom he used to work in Hollywood, but a spontaneous outpouring of Jazz U Can Understand. (Viola, JUCU!)

It doesn't require a doctorate in musicology to hear the many high points: like that rhythmic phrase of Pete's in When You're Smiling; or resuscitating an inconsequential oldie such as Scatterbrain to show how good improvisers can always rise above material; and how about the drive that builds on Shine? By the final chorus, Frank's marimba is doing more than coping: he and Pete are laying down independently swinging lines.

On Side Two, did you ever hear Moonlight and Shadows taken at such a bright tempo? And for simplicity - which is the essence of jazz - could anything be more effective than those introductory cushions Frank provides for Pete on Rain and Lady Be Good? If you're not familiar with Minkey, you're not alone: Pete and Frank fashioned that blues and named it for Pete's grandson. Going out in style, Honeysuckle Rose features an exercise in counterpoint that proves jazz can cerebrate as well as celebrate.

It's a most satisfying reunion: Pete draws from his Fountain of youth, and to be Frank, the resulting sounds are "in like Flynn."

Harvey Siders Jazz Critic,
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

Alive In New Orleans - First American Records

Alive In New Orleans

1977 First American Records FA-7706 Stereo

Side One
1. The Jazz Me Blues
2. Stranger On The Shore
3. Little Girl
4. When Your Lover Has Gone

Side Two
1. Struttin' With Some Barbeque
2. Georgia On My Mind
3. Diane
4. Margie
5. Indiana

Line Notes:

Recorded At Studio In The Country, Bogalusa, Louisiana.
Produced By Pete Fountain And Bill Evans.
Engineered By Bill Evans.

Personnel:
Pete Fountain - Clarinet
Eddie Miller - Tenor Sax
Jack Delaney - Trombone
Jim Duggan - Trombone
Mike Serpas - Trumpet
Earl Vuiovich - Piano
Oliver Felix - Bass
Charlie Lodice - Drums

Also released with a different cover LP 1977 First American Records FA-7706 Stereo and CD 1998 - Alive in New Orleans Laserlight 17 181 Delta Music Records

The Early Years - Music Masters

Pete Fountain TV Special - The Early Years

1970 Music Masters MM GS 1012-1013

Side One
1. Bugle Call Rag
2. Silver Dollar Blues
3. Moanin' Low
4. Sensation Rag
5. Jazz Me Blues
6. That's A Plenty
7. Margie
8. Up A Lazy River
9. Mahogany Hall Stomp

Side Two
1. South Rampart Street Parade
2. St. James Infirmary Blues
3. When The Saints Go Marching In
4. Creole Cookin'
5. Mumbo Gumbo
6. High Society
7. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
8. Lonesome Trails
9. Farewell Blues

Liner Notes:

Pete Fountain TV Special - The Early Years

Project Co-ordination by Vince J. Rundus
Released by Music Masters, ltd. Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Future Sound Marketing Distributors For Albums, Tapes, Films 1-800-251-3550

I couldn't locate any real information on this LP. It's billed as a TV Special, not a special (as in an Elvis TV special) as in a TV show that Pete performed in, but as an album offered on TV, featuring his Early Years. The cover is a golden textured foil like material, with a drawing of Pete by artist Terri Lee. There are no credits or liner notes. It's a real budget offering. It is a collection of material, early Pete, some live, all in surprisingly good listening quality. Pete wails very nicely and the trumpet player is really good. (It's not Hirt or Frank Assunto, sounds like George Girard) In fact, I compared the tracks and they are from the Basin Street Six sessions. To get 18 tracks on a vinyl LP is rare, so it would be considered a good value. I couldn't find anything about Music Masters Ltd or Future Sound Marketing, so who knows the legitimacy of this recording, if royalties were paid or if it was approved by Pete Fountain. 10 of these tracks appear on the CD Down On Rampart Street, 1993 Quicksilver Label (now out of print) If anyone has information on this compilation, please leave a comment.

Pete Fountain and The New Orleans All Stars - Pickwick Records

Pete Fountain and The New Orleans All Stars

1962 Pickwick International Design Label SDLP-182

A budget-label collection split between Dixieland legend Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars. Side one features a live track from Fountain.

Side One
1. South Rampart Street Parade (Pete Fountain)
2. Sensation Rag (Pete Fountain)
3. Sunset in Paradise (New Orleans All Stars)
4. In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (New Orleans All Stars)
5. Bayou Blues (New Orleans All Stars)


Side Two
1. Jazz Me Blues (Pete Fountain)
2. Bugle Call Rag (Pete Fountain)
3. St. James Infirmary (New Orleans All Stars)
4. When the Saints Go Marching In (New Orleans All Stars)

Pete Fountain - Pickwick Records

Pete Fountain

1966 Pickwick Records SPC-3024 Stereo / PC-3024 Mono

Side One
1. Sidewalks Of New York
2. Hindustan
3. Till We Meet Again
4. Shine

Side Two
1. Jazz Me Blues
2. South Rampart St. Parade
3. Sensation Rag
4. Bugle Call Rag

Liner Notes:

Pete Fountain is the licorice stick man. The licorice stick, as any child well knows, is long, thin and black and full of aroma and flavor. That description also happens to fit Pete's clarinet, the tastiest reed exported from Louisiana since the discovery of cane sugar.

Pete's earliest idol was Irving Fazola, one of the great dixieland artists who swarmed around New Orleans a few decades ago. Since the age of 10, when he began studying music, Pete Fountain earnestly set about developing the deep feeling and the velvet sounds which float out of the french horn. Pete learned his lessons well and matured into a superlative instrumentalist with a style that both swings and sings.
As a young man, Pete played in all the top spots in the New Orleans French Quarter. The turning point in his career came in 1957 when he traveled to Los Angeles for a concert date and was heard by Lawrence Welk, Jr., a devotee of dixieland music. Pete was persuaded to join Welk's entertainment troupe in which his clarinet emerged as one of the most popular features.

Pete's soul, however, stayed on Bourbon Street. After two years with Welk, Pete returned to Dixieland's native habitat, New Orleans, where he has remained ever since. In New Orleans, Pete is to the clarinet what Al Hirt is to the trumpet. Both have beards, both have their own musical combos and both have their own night clubs in town; and Pete, like Al and all the other great jazzmen who have made New Orleans the capital of dixieland, brings great joy and spirit to the vast chorus of American music.

HERMAN SCHOENFELD
Music Editor of Variety

Live Performances in New Orleans - Pickwick Records

Live Performances in New Orleans

Pete Fountain and The All Star Dixielanders

1962 Pickwick Records CAS-727 Stereo / CA-727 Mono

Same as Pete Fountain and Other All-Star Dixielanders Live Performances in New Orleans Camden Records CAS-727(e) Stereo / CA-727 Mono

Side One
1. When the Saints Go Marching In
2. High Society
3. Farewell Blues
4. Darktown Strutters' Ball
5. Ballin' the Jack

Side Two
1. 'Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
2. Muskrat Ramble
3. 12th Street Rag
4. Tin Roof Blues
5. Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey

Liner Notes:

Pete Fountain and The All-Star Dixielanders
A&R Coordinator: Ethel Gabriel

Authentic Dixie by the "Stylists Who Made the Style"

Jazz may have come up the river from New Orleans, as the musical bromide has it, but lots of it remained behind, too, and is still flourishing there. Even though jazz, and especially the Dixieland style of jazz, has fallen into the musical melting pots of Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, San Francisco and New York, New Orleans has remained the daddy of 'em all.

There's something about New Orleans that keeps its music and its musicians continually vigorous and vital, and the city has remained a potent jumping-off point for happy musical adventures. This, despite the changes in form and pattern that have been taking place in the over all jazz scene through the past couple of decades. Also, New Orleans has continued to be one of the most fertile cities in the country for bringing new musicians to the fore. It is no accident that men like Pete Fountain and Tony Almerico have blossomed after exposure in New Orleans.

Although many words have been written about New Orleans' contribution to America's musical history, few have been able to capture the essence as well as an actual performance. This album is such a performance - and what a performance. "Live - from New Orleans" should be enough of a catch phrase to intrigue any musical buff. But there's more to this album than that. For here we have the stylists who made the style. Fore-most among them, perhaps, is Pete Fountain who has done so much to spread the Dixieland gospel around the country in the past few years. A clarinetist who can stand with the all-time greats, he has the mellow and lyrical tone that has become identified with the New Orleans clarinet style. And there is Tony Almerico, a trumpeter-singer who has upheld the New Orleans tradition for many years.

Working along with Pete Fountain and Tony Almerico are such Dixieland luminaries as trumpeter George Girard, trombonist Jack Delaney, clarinetist Harry Shields, tenor sax man Lester Bouchon, pianist Roy Zimmerman, and many others of equal stature.

There is a line in the popular New Orleans' song Basin Street which says that it's the place where old friends meet. You'll meet most of them here, playing away to their delight as well as yours.

MIKE GROSS
Music Editor, Variety

High Society - Pickwick Records

High Society

1972 Pickwick Records SPC-3201 Stereo / PC-3201 Mono

Side One
1. High Society
2. That's A Plenty
3. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
4. Margie

Side Two
1. Up A Lazy River
2. Mahogany Hall Stomp
3. I'm Goin' Home
4. Farewell Blues

Liner Notes:

It's funny how words come to have different meanings. For example, when you're a kid, licorice means long, chewy, black candy. When you grow up, licorice means low, moaning, mellow clarinet music. And if you're a fan of really good clarinet music, licorice means Pete Fountain.

There's an effortless quality to the way Pete licks his licorice stick. Folks got to like it back when he stood out in the Lawrence Welk crowd and they continued to like it, to love it, when Pete started making records.

The tunes on this album are comfortable ditties that are either from the twenties or sound as if they should be. They have that lazy, zesty feel that music had when jazz was just getting started, when musicians were just beginning to dandle songs on their instruments as if they were babies on their knees.

The jazz babies here include "Margie," "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise," "I'm Going Home," "Farewell Blues" and the album title tune, "High Society."

Pete Fountain lifts that licorice to his lips and lets these sweet, sweet melodies float through the air with the greatest of ease.

Why not catch them?

Blog Visitors by City