Pete Fountain's 82nd Birthday - News

Happy 82nd Birthday Pete!

Pete Fountain, Jazz Clarinetist, was born on July 3, 1930 in New Orleans. He has entertained us for decades and we all wish him the best.

We wish Pete a happy 82nd birthday, and may he continue to "toot" and make music for many more years.

Pete's Baby Photo

Pete Fountain at New Orleans Jazz Fest - News

Jazz Legend Pete Fountain Pleases Fans with the Standards

By Katie Van Syckle NOLA.com

Pete Fountain took the stage at New Orleans Jazz Fest on Sunday afternoon as any legend should - supported by a bevy of talented musicians, there to let the 81-year-old shine. Fountain, a.k.a "Mr. New Orleans," is considered by many to be the ambassador of Dixieland Jazz. Also a fixture during Carnival season, Fountain's "Half-Fast Walking Club" has been leading the downtown parade route on Mardi Gras since 1960.

Photo By Katie Van Syckle

Pete Fountain plays during New Orleans Jazz Fest accompanied

by his great-granddaughter Isabella singing, "What a Wonderful World."

Fans were pouring out the sides of the tent as the crowd chanted, "Let's go, Pete!" to greet the artist with a standing ovation. Smart phones lined the stage to snap his image.

"Mr. Music, Mr. Pete Fountain," his emcee said.

"Yeah Pete!" The crowd responded. In the middle of "Lazy River" the legend leaned on a stool to his right for support, but his smile did not fade. He enraptured the crowd during "Basin Street Blues." The air smelled like the recognizable Jazz Fest triumvirate of trampled grass, sweat and beer. A seated patron shushed chatter in the back row.

To the left of the stage, couples embraced in dance on a wooden surface reserved for the purpose. Fountain invited his great-granddaughter, Isabella, to the stage for an adorable rendition of "It's a Wonderful World." After a rousing response from fans, and a kiss for her great-grandfather, like any good diva, Isabella was wisked off stage and into the crowd.

The second line, led by three enthusiastic umbrella carriers, picked up steam. A man with a thick white beard, high socks and a tag that read "free hugs" did a robot dance across the tent. As Fountain served his trademark "A Walk with Thee," the second line still was in full swing, but the majority of the crowd sat calmly and respectfully.

For a moment, the reserved tent seemed like the polar opposite of any Springsteen-rock induced mayhem transpiring across the Fair Grounds at the Acura Stage. Then, a breeze of smoke blew by, and it was clear that although vibes may be diverse, some Fest fans are on the same party page.

News: Al Hirt and Pete Fountain

Al Hirt and Pete Fountain
The Times-Picayune Covers 175 Years of New Orleans History

Trumpeter Al Hirt and clarinetist Pete Fountain, one bearded, the other bald, personified good-time New Orleans jazz for decades. Friends and frequent collaborators, they released popular recordings, appeared on national TV and presided over Bourbon Street nightclubs bearing their names.

Nicknamed "Jumbo," Hirt embodied the city’s rollicking spirit in his performances and voracious appetites. From 1962 to 1983, he operated the Al Hirt Club on Bourbon. He recorded more than 50 albums. He won a Grammy Award in 1964 for his recording of the Allen Toussaint-penned instrumental "Java," which ascended to No. 4 on the pop charts. Other hits included "Sugar Lips" and "Cotton Candy."

He briefly hosted his own TV show on CBS. He performed for six presidents, for Princess Grace in Monaco, and for Pope John Paul II at the University of New Orleans in 1987.

His artistic success contrasted with turbulence in other areas of his life. Three of his four marriages failed, and unsuccessful business deals in the 1970s and ’80s led to lawsuits. He died of liver failure in 1999 at age 76.

The son of a Dixie beer truck driver, Fountain emerged as the most famous ambassador of traditional Dixieland jazz. In the late 1950s, two years as the featured soloist on "The Lawrence Welk Show" made him a star. The 1959 album "Pete Fountain’s New Orleans" contains what is arguably the definitive "A Closer Walk," marked by his impeccably rich clarinet tone. His 59 appearances on "The Tonight Show" during the Johnny Carson era fueled six-figure sales of his albums.

Indicative of his unofficial status as "Mr. New Orleans," Fountain has navigated the downtown parade route at the head of his Half-Fast Walking Club on nearly every Mardi Gras morning since 1960.

Also in 1960, he opened his first Bourbon Street nightclub. From 1977 to 2003, he was the featured act at another club in the Hilton Riverside. After closing it, he accepted a regular gig at a casino near his 10,000-square-foot weekend home in Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Hurricane Katrina’s tidal surge obliterated that home and its collection of memorabilia. Two strokes suffered since the storm have made speaking difficult for him. But Fountain can still "toot" on the clarinet, and, at 81, plans to continue as long as he is able.

By Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

Dixieland Essentials - Stardust Records

Dixieland Essentials

2011 - Stardust Records

01. Jazz Me Blues
02. Basin Street Blues
03. Struttin' With Some Barbecue
04. Muskrat Ramble
05. When The Saints Go Marching In
06. St. James Infirmary
07. Bourbon Street Parade
08. Farewell Blues
09. At The Jazz Band Ball
10. Tin Roof Blues
11. South Rampart Street Parade
12. Milenberg Joys
13. Washboard Blues
14. Wabash Blues
15. Someday Sweetheart
16. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
17. Beale Street Blues
18. Ballin' The Jack
19. I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues
20. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
21. That's A Plenty
22. Dipper Mouth Blues
23. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
24. St. Louis Blues
25. I've Found A New Baby
26. Panama
27. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
28. Black And Blue
29. Careless Love
30. Wang Wang Blues

Liner Notes:

Dixieland from New Orleans: Naturally that's where it all started, back before the turn of the century. New Orleans - where the old time marching jazz came into being: Where Ragtime: Barrel House, old and present day Dixieland all originated: And the best Dixieland is still coming from this famous bend in the Mississippi.

This is yet another MP3 only download compilation from various times in Pete's long career. 30 tracks, great sound quality .

Crazy - Classic Records

Crazy

2011 - Classic Records

01. Muskrat Ramble
02. Paradise
03. Running Wild
04. Wolverine Blues
05. Your Cheatin' Heart
06. Amazing Grace
07. Basin Street Blues
08. Crazy
09. Georgia
10. I Can't Stop Loving You
11. It Had to Be You
12. Jazz Me Blues
13. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
14. Lazy River
15. Marie

Liner Notes:

Dixieland from New Orleans: Naturally that's where it all started, back before the turn of the century. New Orleans - where the old time marching jazz came into being: Where Ragtime: Barrel House, old and present day Dixieland all originated: And the best Dixieland is still coming from this famous bend in the Mississippi.

This is yet another MP3 only download compilation from various times in Pete's long career. Great sound quality .

Pete Fountain Birthday News - Memorabilia

In the 1960s famed Dixieland jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain always closed his New Orleans club around the Independence Day holiday in order to celebrate his birthday on July 3. He and his wife, Beverly Lang Fountain, are shown here on one such excursion, outside the Broadwater Beach Hotel in Biloxi. The couple married in October 1951. Their son, Kevin Fountain, who submitted the photo, says he believes it was taken around 1965.

Fountain was first mentioned in The Times-Picayune on March 4, 1948, when police reported the theft of two of his instruments, worth $250, from Warren Easton High School.

The following February his photo was featured in a Werlein's ad congratulating his Junior Dixie Land Jamboree Band for winning on the Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program, a national radio talent show which was a precursor to American Idol.

John Kelly, The Times-Picayune Les Causeries du Lundi elected officers for the 1962-63 season Monday (May 14) at a gathering at Gallier Hall. Installed for the coming year are (from left, seated): Mrs. Frank B. Delery, president; Mrs. Lilian Lewis, first vice-president; and Miss Gladys Anne Renshaw, second vice-president; (standing) Miss Adele Drouet, reception chairman; Mrs. Richard Massie Martin, treasurer; and Mrs. Paul Perret, program chairman. May 16, 1962

After evacuating for Hurricane Katrina, Fountain is back living in New Orleans, but his son reports he has been in East Jefferson General Hospital for the past three weeks. All his fans wish him well today on his 81st birthday.

Courtesy of John Kelly, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
John Kelly can be reached a jkelly@timespicayune.com.

Pete Fountain's 81st Birthday - News

Happy 81st Birthday Pete!

Pete Fountain, Jazz Clarinetist, was born on July 3, 1930 in New Orleans. He has entertained us for decades and we all wish him the best.

We wish Pete a happy 81st birthday, and may he continue to "toot" and make music for many more years.

Pete's Baby Photo

Pete Fountain at Jazz Fest 2011 - News

Pete Fountain fires up a second-line
at New Orleans Jazz Fest

New Orleans legend Pete Fountain plays with his granddaughter,
Danielle Scheib on the washboard at the Economy Hall Tent during his set Sunday at Jazz Fest.

Twenty minutes before Pete Fountain's Sunday afternoon set at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Melissa Ensley of Slidell settled into a second-row seat, and turned to me with a question?

"So are you a big Pete Fountain fan?"

As I was about to reply, she pulled from her bag a vintage copy of Fountain's 1964 LP "Licorice Stick," showing off the fresh autograph on the cover. "My earliest musical memory was listening to this with my dad," she said. "We come to see Pete Fountain every year. We can't miss him."

Clearly that was the collective feeling in the Economy Hall tent, where people packed the aisles 10 deep. When the 80-year-old great-granddad of New Orleans traditional jazz climbed onto the stage, surrounded by his seven-piece band, the crowd roared up, clapping and whistling, cell phone cameras held aloft.

A standing ovation before he played his first note. It would be one of four he'd receive during the hour-long set. Hurricanes and health problems may have taken a toll on Fountain, slowing him down a bit, but he still knows how to grab the audience and force them out of their chairs. With Tim Laughlin accompanying on clarinet, he pumped out the old favorites - "Clarinet Marmalade," "Up the Lazy River," and "Basin Street Blues," - his feet tapping to the music.

For "St. Louis Blues," his granddaughter, Danielle Scheib, 32, joined him on washboard, her spoons zipping over the metal surface adding a Zydeco beat. At the end of the song she gave gramps a hug, prompting another roar from the audience.

Dressed in an untucked blue and white button down and white pants, Fountain shared the microphone with Laughlin, tag teaming it through "A Closer Walk With Thee," and "Struttin' with Some BBQ," backed up by Mark Mullins on trombone, Connie Jones on coronet, Tom Maggiore on sax, Olivier "Sticks" Felix on bass, Allyn Young on guitar and John Royen on piano. As he wound into "When the Saints Go Marching In," with Scheib back on the washboard, a second line snaked through the aisles, umbrellas in the air, handkerchiefs waving.

At the end of the song, Fountain bowed to the roaring applause, put his flat cap on his head and exited stage right. A crowd gathered by the barricades, calling out for autographs and photos.

In the second row, Ensley packed up her LP. "With that, we're going home for the day," she said. "Nothing can beat it."

Credits: Published: Sunday, May 01, 2011, 7:30 PM
By Susan Langenhennig, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com

News - A Half-Fast Walk With Pete Fountain - OffBeat Magazine

A Half-Fast Walk With Pete Fountain
from OffBeat Magazine

Dawn arrived on Fat Tuesday 2011 with a gray, windy bluster and a forecast of heavy rain. But nature could not throw a wet blanket on the smoldering fire of revelers gathering along St. Charles Avenue waiting for the parades to roll. Outside of Commander’s Palace, Pete Fountain readied himself to lead those parades downtown, just as he had for the previous 50 years (he missed 2006 due to illness). Most of those years Fountain and his friends in the Half-Fast Walking Club walked into town, playing as they went and scattering doubloons adorned with Pete’s cherubic face. The crowds who’d been waiting for hours to see Zulu roll always greeted Fountain’s appearance with a joyous response, knowing that Mardi Gras had officially begin.

But the 80-year-old Fountain has been slowed by strokes and now rides downtown on a streetcar float. “I used to walk,” he says with a smile. “Now I have to ride in the truck. But I love it. Just have a good time. This is our 51st year. Now I’m on a trolley car that we put the 14-piece band on. I just sit there and play with them. It started with just the wives, couples walking, and it built from there. When I was a kid, they had all the walking clubs in the neighborhoods with brass bands and everything just like they are today. So that’s what happens; you grow up with it.”

Fountain took his place at the front of the streetcar, resplendent in a dark blue suit festooned with embroidered white detail and wearing a feathered blue top hat. A group of club members walked ahead of him dressed in lighter purple suits and top hats tossing blue beads with medallions bearing the inscription “Pete Fountain” on one side and “Half-Fast Walking Club” on the other. The entourage turned onto St. Charles at Washington Avenue and the crowd cheered. Fountain’s band was in high gear and Pete brought his clarinet to his lips to play a few bars. But for the most part, he held on to his instrument and waved at the people, smiling and at times appearing overwhelmed with emotion.

A television reporter approached the streetcar and asked Fountain a couple of questions about the weather and the music. Pete answered him, and when the reporter finished, Pete turned his gaze directly into the camera and said, “Thank you. I love you.” Fountain has difficulty talking since the strokes, but he is still adept at communication. His message comes from deep inside those merry, watery blue eyes: “I love you.” The message is to all New Orleanians, a humble, simple expression of how much this city’s music and its people mean to him.

Despite his infirmities, Pierre Dewey Fountain, Jr. gives the impression of savoring every moment of his life in his hometown. When he arrived at the Court of Two Sisters to sit down with OffBeat for this story, he chatted with French Quarter Fest board member Aynsley Fein, the daughter of a close friend. She took him by the arm and brought him into the garden, where a jazz trio was playing “Basin Street Blues.” Fountain stopped and greeted each of them warmly. If you play traditional jazz in New Orleans, chances are you know Pete personally.

When we sat down, talk turned immediately to French Quarter Fest. Fountain is the subject of this year’s poster. “The poster looks nice,” offers Fountain. “I’ve played every French Quarter Fest, every year since the beginning. The first year was ‘84, ‘85. We played in Jackson Square. We always played in Jackson Square. My club (Pete Fountain’s, on Bourbon Street) was open back then. My club was separate from the French Quarter Fest, but we did some special events with them. Connie Jones and them were very influential in getting the French Quarter Festival started, and we did a lot of things with the festival.”

Fountain speaks in short bursts interspersed with pauses. As he tries to remember details or formulate his words, he drums his fingers on the table. If he grows frustrated about not being able to express himself, he places his hand on the table palm down. But in general, he is able to talk without much prompting. And though his smile falters, it never fully disappears. That smile bespeaks a lifetime of living in New Orleans playing jazz and reflects the satisfaction of a man who’s seen his music grow from infancy.

When Pete Fountain was a boy growing up in the 1930s, jazz was the popular music of its day, and Fountain knew he wanted to play it as soon as he picked up the clarinet at age nine.

“My father played a little fiddle and drums,” he says. “It was more country what he played.”

Though Fountain grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, he doesn’t remember his childhood days as hard times.

“It was easy because my daddy drove a beer truck,” he says. “We had all we wanted.” His eyes twinkle with the implied joke.

His dad, Pierre (Red) Fountain, was a naturally gifted musician. Pete remembers his father playing his first clarinet before Pete himself could get a grasp on the instrument. But Fountain inherited his father’s instinct to play music without practice. “I always had a good ear,” he says. That instinct is responsible for the relaxed, easy swing in Fountain’s delivery, a talent that allowed him to excel at school without being a disciplined chart player. Once he heard an arrangement, he could play it by heart. Fountain was a star player at McDonogh 28 Elementary School and Warren Easton High School. On the side, he listened to and played with anyone he could. He idolized Irving Fazola, whose broad tone he emulated, and played popular jazz tunes at football games with the Assunto Brothers, who later hired him to play with the Dukes of Dixieland.

“When I was growing up, what is now called New Orleans traditional jazz was contemporary music,” he says. “The Assunto brothers—I used to go to the football games and they would be playing there. It was at City Park Stadium. I asked them if they needed a clarinet player and they said okay, so I used to play with them at the football games. We’d be playing ‘Saints’; it’s the same now when I play it at Saints games. No difference. Just different guys, same tunes.”

Fountain had bigger ambitions. He wanted to make it on Bourbon Street.

“There was a lot more music on Bourbon Street then, especially when I was growing up it was all live music, traditional New Orleans jazz. I would go to various clubs where musicians would all be sitting in with each other. I’d go walking down to Jumbo’s (Al Hirt’s) club.

I went to the Mardi Gras parades on Bourbon Street when I was a kid. I used to go see Irving Fazola on Bourbon Street. I was too young to get into the clubs then, but I would sit outside and listen. When I was 15 years old, they called me up the night Irving died to sit in in his place at the club.”

Fountain realized his life’s ambition as a teenager and never looked back.


“I always thought I would be doing this,” he says. “I played through grammar school and high school. Just played the clarinet, that was it. I knew everybody through playing the music. That was my whole life. I used to go to places and try to play with people as a kid. That’s how I met Jumbo. I always called him Jumbo. We go back all the way. I met him when I was a kid. He was a few years older than me. I used to go see him play. He was unbelievable back then. He invited me up one night and he liked how I played. People would know what you could do once they heard you. Everybody used to play the same thing—‘Saints,’ ‘Muskrat Ramble,’ we all knew the same songs. I was a professional musician, supporting myself playing music, when I was 18 or 19 years old. Jumbo and I were together for a while. It was just friendship, music, you know. I enjoyed being around him because he was a good player.”

In addition to playing with Hirt and others, Fountain had his own group, the Basin Street Six, in the 1950s. He also started a family, marrying Beverly Lang. “I was in the Louisiana National Guard through the whole time, with the band here in New Orleans. So that kept us all out of the [Korean] War. We played for everybody. Everything. I’ve been very lucky to toot the horn.”

Fountain began a recording career during the ‘50s that led to more than 100 albums appearing under his name over the years. “I started out with Joe Mares and Southland Records,” he recalls. “He had a studio. It was funny; he was selling fur pelts so he had this big space and he loved jazz. His brother Paul played trumpet years back in the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. He loved jazz. We would go in there and he would set up one microphone in the middle of the room and tape it. That was all you had.”

One of those recordings led to the biggest break in Fountain’s career, a two-year stint with the nationally-televised Lawrence Welk Show. Once a week, the whole country heard Fountain play a piece of New Orleans traditional jazz on Welk’s program.

“[Welk’s] son heard one of the records I did and they called me,” says Fountain. “They asked me to come up and play. I was very surprised, and then all of a sudden I’m on television and living out in California. I lived there for two years with them.”

Though Fountain was a telegenic presence who provided a needed spark to the somnambulant pace of Welk’s programs, he chafed at the Hollywood lifestyle. Eventually, musical differences led to a parting of the ways with Welk. Fountain was at a crossroad. He was a huge TV star at the dawn of the 1960s. He could have easily arranged for his own television show or toured behind his sudden mass appeal. But all this true son of New Orleans wanted to do was come home.

“I just wanted to,” he explains. “My wife and three kids, they all moved out to L.A. with me. I don’t think she liked it too much. She put up with it for two years and then we came home. I missed the parties and the crawfish boils and all the parts of living your life here.”

“I came back in 1960 and opened up 800 Bourbon St., the jazz club Pete Fountain’s. The city hadn’t changed. I came back and it was the same difference. My name was bigger from playing on TV, but I wanted to come back to what I did here. The stardom, it never did catch up to me maybe. Maybe Jack Daniels helped. The quality of life was more important than being a celebrity. I just pushed all that aside.”

As far as he was concerned, Fountain traded in Hollywood for his lifelong dream, his own Bourbon Street club.

“I had my place 31 years, back when I was taller,” he says, smiling at his own joke. “It was 1960 when we opened the club. And then I went to 231 Bourbon. Jumbo was down the street in the 500 block. We used to go back and forth between clubs. Once I’d get off, I’d go down and see him. He’d come to my place. It depends on how drunk we got. I think Jumbo stayed open the latest of the two of us.”

Fountain celebrated his homecoming with an album, Pete Fountain’s New Orleans, that many consider his best record. Fountain’s hit version of the gospel song “A Closer Walk” comes from that record. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, Fountain turned down offers to tour so he could play in New Orleans. He could have traveled all over the world, but he stayed in his club and played his music there.

“We did some touring, but not much,” he says. “It depends on the money. Of course I did go to do The Tonight Show. I liked Johnny Carson. I did that show 59 times. I knew all the guys in the band. Still do.”

Carson had a great rapport with his band. He would often use them to make hip jokes about partying, and Fountain has a wry comment about Carson’s frequent references to band members being high on marijuana.

“I wonder why he said that?” he asks impishly.

Popular music was changing dramatically while Fountain and Hirt ruled Bourbon Street. Fountain knew that his role had changed to being one of the guardians of a tradition.

“I was aware that we were keeping a tradition going,” he says. “I think that Jumbo, myself and the Dukes of Dixieland, there was all kinds of jazz coming out at the same time so it was lucky for us that we could make a living here without going out of town too much. I’m lucky to have been able to make a living in my hometown.”

Though Fountain has slowed his pace, he hasn’t stopped playing and has no plans to retire.

“I still play out at some private gigs,” he says. “I’m playing French Quarter Festival and at a benefit for the Christian Brothers School. Two of my boys went to the Christian Brothers. We do a golf benefit for them. We do Jazz Fest, too.”

As for his legacy, Fountain says he’s not looking that far ahead. “I don’t know. Just keep playing the clarinet as long as I can. I have a lot of protégés, but the best of them is Tim Laughlin. Tim showed up on our doorstep when he was 15 years old. We let him listen to the music and he took it from there. He’s a good player. Sometimes I think about all the things I’ve done with the records. You know, I mean, it was good. A good life. And here I am. I’m still tootin’ as much as I can. I’m not thinking about the future. I’m taking it one day at a time as much as I can.”

Fountain is more concerned about the future of traditional jazz than he is about his own legacy. He’s pleased to see that traditional New Orleans jazz is enjoying a revival with a younger audience. “When it’s good, you see a lot of jazz out there,” he says, “and then it will back off for a little while and now it looks like it’s coming back. You notice that when the younger players pick it up, like out in the yard there, those younger players. The music is timeless.”

Pete Fountain’s passion for jazz and the people of New Orleans has never wavered. Unlike so many other talented musicians who left New Orleans to pursue stardom on bigger stages, Fountain has never let celebrity make him forget who he is.

“I’m lucky to have been able to make a living in my hometown,” he insists.

Nevertheless, even at 80 Fountain’s celebrity shadows his every step. He is greeted joyfully everywhere he goes in New Orleans and every person he meets gets a warm smile and a heartfelt gesture, a handclasp or pat on the shoulder. He never seems to tire of this role, and even though he has difficulty conversing, his wry sense of humor still animates his statements. The HBO series Treme filmed him leading the Half-Fast Walking Club on Mardi Gras morning. He has seen the show, yes. Did he like it?

“I like that,” he says matter-of-factly. “If they play jazz I love it. I don’t care who, what, why or where.”

At French Quarter Fest: with Connie Jones, Friday, April 8, 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. WWL-TV Jackson Square Stage.

Courtesy of OFFBEAT MAGAZINE
Photos by Elsa Hahne
OffBeat is a monthly print magazine focusing on the music,

cuisine and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana. Its first issue was printed in 1988

Big Bands Of The Swingin' Years: Pete Fountain (Digitally Remastered)

Big Bands Of The Swingin' Years: Pete Fountain

2011 Essential Media Group

Tracks:
01. St. James Infirmary Blues 3:11 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
02. Up A Lazy River 3:13 (Basin Street Six)
03. Jazz Me Blues 4:06 (Pete Fountain and The Sunsetters)
04. Mumbo Gumbo 2:34 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
05. Margie 2:56 (Basin Street Six)
06. That's A Plenty (Basin Street Six)
07. When The Saints Go Marching In 3:55 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
08. High Society 3:18 (Basin Street Six)
09. Moanin' Low 4:02 (Pete Fountain and the New Orleans All Stars)
10. South Rampart Street Parade 2:53 (Pete Fountain and The Sunsetters)

The greatest ambassador of New Orleans jazz since Louis Armstrong, clarinetist Pete Fountain epitomizes the sound of New Orleans and has always remained true to the roots of Dixieland jazz. Presented here is some of Fountain's most treasured classic recordings including "St. James Infirmary Blues," "Up A Lazy River," "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "High Society." All selections newly remastered.

Nothing new here, sound quality sounds like it was taken from a vinyl record.

This is a reissue of the same CDs on

Down On Rampart Street - Music Trax Records
2007 Music Trax Records SEII - 9123

Down On Rampart Street - Classic Sounds Records
1996 Classic Sounds Inc. Records CSI-7785.