Big Band Remixed & Reinvented - Sunswept Music

Big Band Remixed & Reinvented

featuring Pete Fountain

2006 Sunswept Music

1. Benny Rides Again (Kool Kojak Comandante Remix) Benny Goodman And His Orchestra
2. Woodchoppers Ball (Thunderball Remix) Tito Puente & Woody Herman
3. Mambo Herd (Part 1) (All Good Funk Alliance Remix) Woody Herman
4. Laura (Giacomo Bondi Remix) Les Brown & The Band Of Renown
5. Nightmare (Mizter Koffy Remix) Artie Shaw
6. Minor Swing (John Beltran's Remember New Orleans Mix) Django Reinhardt
7. Harlem Nocturne (Brass & Mazachingo Remix) Les Brown & The Band Renown
8. Tangerine (Worldwide Groove Corporation Remix) Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey
9. Shine (DJ Spooky Subliminal Big Band Mix) Harry James
10. Strike Up The Band (The Tao Of Groove Remix) Red Nichols
11. Mambo Herd (Part 2) (Chris Joss Remix) Woody Herman
12. St. James Infirmary (Chris Coco Remix) Pete Fountain
13. Hit The Note (Kidgusto Remix) Jimmy Dorsey
14. Prelude To A Kiss (KC Santana's Mixteka Latin Swing Mix) Lionel Hampton
15. Blue Flame (Don Tiki's Blue Flame Remix) Les Brown & The Band Of Renown
16. Sentimental Journey (Jazz Stuff Combo Remix) Les Brown & The Band Of Renown
17. Bugle Call Rag (Panaphonic Remix) Gene Krupa

Liner Notes:

Collection of various artists, Pete appears on track 12. This collections is a new MP3 download only offered at music sites. To purchase or listen to previews, click on this link at Amazon.com

Pete Fountain And The Kings Of Dixieland - Crownstar Records

Pete Fountain And The Kings Of Dixieland

2006 Crownstar Records

1. School Days
2. Bugle Call Rag
3. Careless Love
4. Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie
5. Thunder & Blazes
6. Shine On Harvest Moon
7. Lassa's Trombone
8. Washington Post March
9. My Old Kentucky Home
10. Dixieland Blues

Liner Notes:

This is similar to the other post, but has "School Days" added.

Original recording was in 1956, Crown Records released these songs on LP in 1964. It is located here as Pete Fountain And The Kings Of Dixieland - Crown Records

Through the formative years of his musical training, Pete Fountain 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 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. He also played with Sharkey Bonano and the Kings of Dixieland where this material originated. The music on this album is good, the recordings are well done. This collections is a new MP3 download only offered at music sites. To purchase or listen to previews, click on this link at Amazon.com

Pete Fountain & The Kings of Dixieland - Crownstar Records

Pete Fountain & The Kings of Dixieland

2006 Crownstar Records

1. Bugle Call Rag
2. Somebody Stole My Gal
3. Careless Love/ Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie
4. Thunder & Blazes
5. Shine On Harvest Moon
6. Lassa's Trombone
7. Washington Post March
8. My Old Kentucky Home
9. Dixieland Blues
10. Sensation Rag

Liner Notes:

Original recording was in 1956, Crown Records released these songs on LP in 1964. It is located here as Pete Fountain And The Kings Of Dixieland - Crown Records

Through the formative years of his musical training, Pete Fountain 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 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. He also played with Sharkey Bonano and the Kings of Dixieland where this material originated. The music on this album is good, the recordings are well done. This collections is a new MP3 download only offered at music sites. To purchase or listen to previews, click on this link at Amazon.com

Pete Fountain & The Village Scramblers - Crownstar Records

Pete Fountain & The Village Scramblers

2006 Crownstar Records

1. South Rampart Street Parade
2. Bill Bailey
3. Washington And Lee Swing
4. Dixieland One Stop
5. There Is A Tavern In The Town
6. Oh Dem Golden Slippers
7. When The Saints Go Marching In
8. Charleston Get Out
9. The Battle Hymn Of The Republic
10. My Wild Irish Rose
11. Jazz Me Blues

Liner Notes:

This collections is a new MP3 download only offered at music sites. To purchase or listen to previews, click on this link at Amazon.com

One bonus, the MP3 collection includes "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" which was not on the original Crown recording released in 1964. This is the same as the Crown LP published here Pete Fountain & The Village Scramblers

Happy New Year to everyone!

Happy New Year to everyone! Winding down, only a handful of LP's left to post and a few Cd's and the Pete Fountain discography will be as complete as I can do. I also have some EP's with picture sleeves that I will post. I'm not going to post 45 rpm or cassettes.

I've tried to be as complete as possible, but if anyone has any missing items please let me know. Most of the stuff left to post is Pete appearing on another artist's recording. Also, any feedback would be appreciated, I hope this blog has helped document the great works of Pete Fountain or helped someone find an old memory in one of his recordings.

The Basin Street Six - America's Music - Mercury Record

The Basin Street Six - America's Music

1952 Mercury Records MG 25160 Mono 10" LP

Side A:
1. Panama
2. If I Could Be With You
3. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
4. Bye and Bye

Side B:
1. Sunday
2. Melancholy Rhapsody
3. Lil' Liza Jane
4. Hindustan

Liner Notes:

Another variation of this LP. This was the first release, smaller cover printed on a 10" cover. The flip side of the cover has ads for other Mercury albums. Otherwise, everything is the same as the other Mercury releases.

Personnel:
George Girard trumpet
Joe Rotis trombone
Pete Fountain clarinet
Roy Zimmerman piano
Bunny Franks bass
Charlie Duke drums

Recording Dates New Orleans August and November 1950, Chicago September 19, 1951, Record released March 1952.

From 1950-1954, Pete led The Basin Street Six, a band that also featured legendary trumpet player/vocalist George Girard, along with Joe Rotie on trombone, Roy Zimmerman on piano, Buddy Franks on bass and Charlie Duke on drums.

Dixieland in 1950 was no longer popular and the Basin Street Six was created as the greatest unemployed band in the City, It was George Girard who came up with a regular two nights a week job at L'Enfants on Canal Boulevard. The band had to play dance music mostly. Bill Reed of WWL TV picked up the show as part of his dixieland revival campaign and within three months the Basin Street Six had found their niche as a funny hat band, wearing old Mardi Gras costumes, switching instruments and even dressing up as girls on occasions, a real fun band but still playing good dixieland jazz.

In fact the band was good enough to make their first recording session towards the end of the year. The group soon landed a recording contract with the Mercury imprint in 1952. For Mercury they recorded a handful of singles and LPs. Pete Fountain was on his way.

When the TV job closed, L'Enfants returned to having only a dance music policy and late in 1951 the Basin Street Six were again looking for work. Within a week the band opened at Perez's Oasis and then the Silver Slipper Club on Bourbon Street (the same building that housed the Silver Slipper Club became Your Father's Moustache' during the 60's and 70's but now no longer exists as a jazz venue).

Soon they were playing six nights a week all over the City, the dixieland revival was in full swing. A second recording session was made this time for Mercury Records. Down Beat carried a story, the band were now living like celebrities. Blaise D'Antoni, president of the Standard Fruit Company, the largest importer of bananas in New Orleans, bought the band under a ninety-nine year contract, he liked the way they clowned and played. All the members of the band signed the contract, part of the deal being that the Standard Fruit Company continued to call the band the Basin Street Six. The band opened on a banana boat bound for Honduras, a two week cruise entertaining Mr. D'Antoni's guests. Everybody had a good time but it could not last and the ninety-nine year contract ended after three months, with everyone parting friends.

Back in New Orleans the Basin Street Six played the intermission set for a Louis Armstrong concert at the Municipal Auditorium, a fitting accolade for the fine little band. A trip to the Blue Note in Chicago was reluctantly made, none of the men wanted to be away from home for long. There were periods of squabbling and it became obvious that there were feelings of discontent among the fellows, they were falling out over everything. In four years the band had always been run as a cooperative unit, no leader, but this had not always been easy as George Girard was really a natural leader with a superstrong personality. Upon returning from Chicago George quit the band to form him own group, Connie Jones replaced him for a while, Roy Zimmerman and Pete Fountain left a few weeks later. It was 1954, the Basin Street Six were no more. George Girard was destined to be one of New Orleans greatest talents, but unfotuneayely passed away from colon cancer at the young age of 26 two years later. A chapter completes in the continuing story of New Orleans dixieland jazz.

Candy Clarinet Merry Christmas From Pete Fountain - Coral Records

Candy Clarinet Merry Christmas From Pete Fountain

1960 - Coral Records CRL 757487 Stereo / CRL 57487 Mono

Side 1
1. The Christmas Song
2. Santa Claus Medley
3. Winter Wonderland
4. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
5. Blue Christmas
6. Candy Clarinet

Side 2
1. Jingle Bell Rock
2. I'll Be Home For Christmas
3. The Little Drummer Boy
4. Silver Bells
5. White Christmas
6. Christmas Is A-Comin' (May God Bless You)

Liner Notes:

"Candy Clarinet" Merry Christmas for Pete Fountain.

Candy Clarinet?
Well. there is a time of year, isn't there, when the demand for licorice sticks appreciably declines and sales graphs of candy walking canes zoom madly upwards?

Everyone knows when that is. So, in anticipation of December 25th, here is Pete Fountain's clarinet, candy-striped, holiday delivered and Christmas-wrapped, to brighten up the festivities in New Orleans style.

Pete came up with a joyful program of Christmas favorites - all the big ones like Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, White Christmas, The Christmas Song, and Santa Claus is coming to Town, and added some that are less familiar, but good, including an original authored by "Bud" Dant and himself. It's titled if you've not guessed, is 'Candy Clarinet!

The numbers, in fact, seem to cover every possible eventuality in a swinging holiday season. They announce that both Santa Claus and Christmas are coming, and they bring on the sound of the little drummer boy, not to mention two kinds of bells. Songwrites Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne having expressed a popular sentiment in Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, it is hardly surprising that a Winter Wonderland and a White Christmas should result. But how about Blue Christmas? Be not concerned. Just wait until you hear how that candy-stiped clarinet fixes it. Then there ia the assurance that I'll Be Home For Christmas, which really finds it's complement in The Christmas Song by Mel Torme and Rubert Wells, the sub-title of which is Merry Christmas To You.

The collection is another example of Pete Fountain's versatility. His familiar sound and phrasing are very audibly here, but they are flexibly adapted to fit a new need and a new situation. In the public imagination, the jazz musician is perhaps not exactly the type expected the jolly chores of Santa Claus, yet his charitable instincts are probably as well developed as those of any other member of society. Certainly, there is no questioning the good will expressed through his Candy Clarinet.

It is that instrument, needless to say, which leads the revels. Pete has always had a special gift for providing good cheer, whether it is in New Orleans, Nashville, Los Angeles, or the Winter Wonderland, and here he really shines. On most tracks, too, he is superbly supported by an outstanding vocal group, which brings new zest and know-how to some of the more time-honored selections. And always underneath there is an expert rhythm section, giving performances impetus and a beat - and, in one case, a rock!

This is music made for a happy time. It is music to accompany the feasting and gift giving. It is music to relax to after the children have gone, exhausted, to bed, It is music to dance to after all the day's joyous duties are done. And what it keeps repeating in many different ways, but very clearly is:

Merry Christmas for Pete Fountain.

Dixieland Jamboree - Santo Pecora and His Dixieland Band - Verve Records

Dixieland Jamboree

Santo Pecora and His Dixieland Band

featuring Pete Fountain

Lu Watters and His Yerba Buena Jass Band

1955 Verve Records MG V-1008

Side One:
Santo Pecora and His Dixieland Band
1. Rose Of The Rio Grande
2. Basin Street Blues
3. Twelfth St. Rag
4. Canal Street Romp
5. March Of The Mardi Gras
6. Mahogany Hall Stomp
7. Listen
8. My Lou'siana
9. Maple Leaf Rag

Side Two:
Lu Watters and His Yerba Buena Jass Band
1. Ostrich Walk
2. Chanticleer
3. Down Home Rag
4. Doing The Hambone
5. Aunt Hagar's Blues
6. High Society
7. Muskrat Ramble
8. Bees Knees

Liner Notes:

Santo Pecora and His Dixieland Band

Personnel on:
Listen
March Of The Mardi Gras
My Lou'siana
Mahogany Hall Stomp
Recorded In New Orleans, LA, June, 1950.

George Girard (trumpet)
Santo Pecora (trombone)
Pete Fountain (clarinet)
Armand Hug (piano)
John Sense (bass and tuba)
Santo Pecoraro (drums)

Personnel on:
Canal Street Romp
Basin Street Blues
12th Street Rag
Rose Of The Rio Grande
Recorded In New Orleans, LA, 1950.

George Girard (trumpet)
Santo Pecora (trombone)
Pete Fountain (clarinet)
Fred Laudeman (piano)
Lou Massenter (bass)
Eddie Grady (drums)

Lu Watters and His Yerba Buena Jass Band

Personnel:
Lu Watters (trumpet)
Don Noakes (trombone)
Bob Helm (clarinet)
Wally Rose (piano)
Pat Patton (banjo)
Clancy Hayes (banjo and vocals)
Dick Lammi (bass and tuba)
Bill Dart (drums)

Recorded at "Hambone Kelly's", El Cerrito, CA, December 7, 1949

Cover design by David Stone Martin

Dixieland Jamboree

Here is an interesting contrast of Dixieland jazz styles - the one, Santo Pecora's, coming direct from the spawning place of jazz, New Orleans; the other, Lu Watters', stemming from the site of the latter-day Dixieland revival, San Francisco (a city which, incidentally, has always looked with particular fondness on the treasures of the past. The sociologists can make of it what they will, but it is a fact that New Orleans and San Francisco are beyond a doubt the most colorful cities in the United States and it is these two cities that have contributed so much to Dixieland jazz, past and present).

Santo Pecora and His Dixieland Band

The first half is devoted to SANTO PECORA (nee Pecoraro) the trombone master who stirred so much excitement and awe along the clubs of New Orleans' Bourbon St. Originally Pecora, who was born March 31, 1902, in New Orleans, was a student of the French horn but turned later to the trombone, this being clearly an instrument of more value in Dixieland jazz. Pecora first came to prominence when he was featured with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the mid-1920s and still later he toured with a number of dance bands and appeared in motion pictures from time to time. By 1942 Pecora was ready to return home to New Orleans and he has remained there, off and on, ever since. He is known best from his big-toned, driving trombone in the old "tail-gate" tradition. He is heard here in three Pecora originals, standard pop tunes and some Dixieland traditionals.

Lu Watters and His Yerba Buena Jass Band

LU WATTERS, nine years younger than Santo Pecora, has since retired at least temporarily from the music field but it was he who almost single-handedly spurred the Dixieland rebirth in San Francisco in 1940. Before this, Watters, who was born Dec. 19, 1911, at Santa Cruz, Calif., and first turned to the bugle at St. Joseph's Military Academy. He attended the University of San Francisco on a music scholarship and toured around the Far West and also, as a shipboard musician, on a slow boat to China and back. The Yerba Buena Jass Band - Yerba Buena being an island in the Bay and a symbol of the past since it was, San Francisco's first name - came next. Curiously since it was, after all, a jazz form recreated far from the place and time and circumstances of the original, there was nothing at all "dated" or stale in the Lu Watters music; a traditional form had been extended and done so with enormous vigor and a contagious spirit that is evident in this album.

Bourbon St. Magic - Mardi Gras Records

Bourbon St. Magic

2005 Mardi Gras Records Inc MG 1097

CD Listing
1. Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
2. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
3. Avalon
4. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
5. Lazy River
6. Just One Of Those Things
7. Stranger On The Shore
8. Basin Street Blues
9. Pete's Medley

Liner Notes:

Leader and Clarinet: Pete Fountain
Vibes: Godfrey Hirsch
Piano: John Probst
Guitar: Paul Guma
Bass: Oliver "Stick" Felix
Drums: Paul Edwards

Bourbon St. Magic
1 HOUR OF THE BEST OF PETE FOUNTAIN!

Pete Fountain, Alive In New Orleans - Laserlight Delta Music Records

Pete Fountain

Alive In New Orleans

1998 Laserlight 17 181 Delta Music Records

CD Listing
1. Jazz Me Blue
2. Stranger On The Shore
3. Little Girl
4. When Your Lover Has Gone
5. Struttin' With Some Barbeque.
6. Georgia On My Mind
7. Diane
8. Margie
9. Indiana

Liner Notes:

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

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

Note: Same as LP 1977 First American Records FA-7706 Alive In New Orleans and LP 1977 First American Records FA-7706 Stereo

PETE FOUNTAIN
The clarinet is a musical magic wand all black and silver, sleek and elegant, emitting a round sound that has pleased the ears from the time of Egyptians to Mozart to modern New Orleans style music. The New Orleans clarinet style has been an influence in jazz and popular music since the earliest days of marching bands and jazz groups. George Gershwin recognized the spellbinding power of the clarinet when he gave it the opening lines of "Rhapsody in Blue," one of America's finest pieces of music. The clarinet is two instruments in one. The lower register, known as the chalumeau, yields the warm, deep tone, whereas the upper register emits the shrilling, high notes that are very exciting and very "Dixie" in jazz.

Pete Fountain hails from the heart of Dixieland, New Orleans. He was born in the French Quarter in 1930 and it was there that he learned to play the music he loves. He learned to play the clarinet from his father who could play almost any musical instrument by ear, especially the fiddle. As unlikely as it may sound, Pete had serious lung problems when he was young and he also had a keen interest in music by the age of nine. Because of his many medical bills it wasn't possible for his father to purchase a musical instrument for him until the day a doctor prescribed that a musical instrument be bought and that Pete be made to play so that his lungs would become strong. That was a happy day for Pete Fountain. After a few lessons in school and hours of listening to the records of Benny Goodman he was on his way to becoming a jazz musician and a great improvisor, even though his teachers didn't appreciate his improvisations.

In 1950 he formed "The Basin Street Six," a strictly Dixie jazz band. Unfortunately, Dixie was not popular in 1950, dance music was, so the band had to concede to play a little dance music to keep their job. As fate would have it, a representative from a television station heard the show and wanted the band to play Dixie, as he thought it should be revived and telecast live from the restaurant. It caught on and band's success convinced Fountain that he could make a living from his music.

The biggest break in his career came after a particularly fallow period in 1956 when Lawrence Welk called and asked him to make a guest appearance on the biggest musical show in television history. This invitation changed the course of Fountain's life. After a few years of being a Hollywood television star, his homesickness for New Orleans overwhelmed him and he quit the Lawrence Welk show to return to the heartland of his music and the source of his inspiration.

Back in New Orleans he founded a hot spot called French Quarter Inn in the Spring of 196o where people gathered, with reservations booked far in advance, to hear Pete Fountain's band really cook. So crank up the Victrola and take a walk down Bourbon Street to the tunes of Pete Fountain!

- REBECCA CELEBREZZE