Blue Fountain
The Blues
Pete Fountain
Clarinet Solos with Orchestra Directed by Charles Bud Dant
Coral Stereo CRL 757284
1959
From the back cover: Pete Fountain is back in jazz where he belongs. The clarinetist from New Orleans has returned home "to swing a little," as he engagingly put it." and live the life that I know best."
Though grateful for the exposure and recognition accorded him while the swinging member of the Lawrence Welk TV family, it became progressively apparent to Fountain, during his two-year tenure with the Welk organization, that the association could not be a lasting one. "I guess champagne and bourbon don't mix," he told a writer from Down Beat Magazine.
"Environment plays a large role in a person's development," say certain influential members of the psychiatric fraternity. Fountain's life story is wholly in harmony with this idea. Jazz has been a part of his experience almost as far back as he can remember. His Dad was a jazz musician; jazz was a frequent subject of conversation among friends, and the sound of this music, a constant feature in and around the Fountain home. As you know, New Orleans has always had more than its share of jazz, being one of the chief centers, cradles if you will, of "our" music. Elements peculiar to jazz and jazz performance were/are to be found there without really looking.
Considering the situation in which Fountain was born and bred, it was almost inevitable that he select an instrument basic to the more traditional forms of jazz. At 12, he began his study of the clarinet – a full-time job ever since – with Mr. Allesandro of the New Orleans Symphony. For nearly seven years, Fountain played and studied before working his first professional job. It was a rather affecting experience. Pete replaced his idol, Irving Fazola, at the strip joint, the night of his death.
"I had to lie about my age," Pete told an interviewer. "After a little while the management found out and fired me, so I started gigging around the city, anywhere I could work."
With the exception of a few trips to Chicago to work at Jazz Limited and the Blue Note, Pete stayed close to home. He worked with a number of New Orleans traditional units, and was quite happy with his lot. In 1957, Welk beckoned and this relationship that would thrust the clarinetist into the commercial big time began. It ended in 1959, and Down Beat most succinctly expressed the reason: "Jazz is jazz, and square is square, and never the twain shall meet."
Prior to returning to New Orleans to open his own jazz club. The Bateau Lounge on Bourbon Street, Pete cut this album, in itself an emancipation proclamation. He obtained men that he respects and calls "the Hollywood studio elite"; all of whom feel jazz strongly, are flexible, and in the same tradition/swing idiom as Fountain.
"We got the right cats," Pete enthusiastically declared during our shoe conversation. "The first session to hear the rest. These sessions weren't like recording dates. They were relaxed. All of them should be that way... The real important thing was to get off the ground right away and swing, and I think we did that."
Asked about his style, the general feel of his solos in the presentation, he replied: "I'm trying to combine Fazola's mellow sound with Benny Goodman's drive. Both of these guys are my idols. Yeah, a mellow sound with drive, that gets it!
"Before I forget, I'd like to say a word about the soloists. Eddie Miller, an old favorite of mine, had the tenor solos: John Best and Conrad Gozzo, the trumpet jazz; Moe Schneider was our trombonist; and the mellophone comments were by young Jackie Coon, a West Coast kid who really breaks it up!"
Mention was made of the man with the iron lips and feather lungs, one Conrad Gozzo, "the daddy" of lead trumpet men, and drummer Jack Sperling who seems to fit any musical clime. And then we spoke of the album concept, how appropriate it was considering the situation.
What better way to celebrate a return to jazz than by cutting an album of blues? Pete selected old ones and has some new ones written. All of them, in performance, are blues in feeling; the majority, blues in form, as well. The arrangements by Bud Dant, Frank Scott, Stan Wrightsman, Art Depew and Mort Corb and uncluttered and swinging, show Pete to advantage, and have an unmistakeable traditional flavor.
What this writer finds most impressive in the relaxation and lack of pretension about the program. Though there is a big band involved here, an easily recognized sense of rapport typical of small band playing permeates these performances. But that is as it should be, for large jazz bands are most commanding when functioning as a great small unit would. As drummer Mel Lewis said while a member of the Stan Kenton band: "When we can get 18 men 'walking' like five, the band is truly swinging."
As for Fountain, himself, I think you'll dig him, for he doesn't try to prove anything with his playing. His only desire is to tell a story through his horn, and most often it is more than ample recompense for the time spent listening – Burt Korall
St. Louis Blues
Blue Foutian
Columbus Stockade Blues
Aunt Hager's Blues
Lonesome Road
The Memphis Blue
My Inspiration
Wang Wang Blue
Beale Street Blues
Wabash Blues
Five Point Blues
Bayou Blues
Personnel on: Lonesome Road, Bayou Blues, My Inspiration, Columbus Stockade Blues, Wabash Blues
Trumpets: Mannie Klein, Conrad Gozzo, Art Depew & Shorty Sherock
Trombones: Moe Schneider, William Schaefer, Harold Diner & Peter Lofthouse
Reeds: Jack Dumont, Eddie Miller, Russ Cheever, Babe Russin & William Ulyate
Rhythm: Jack Sperling, drums; Stan Wrightsman, piano & Morty Corb, bass
Personnel on: St. Louis Blues, Aunt Harger's Blues, Five Point Blues, Beale Street Blues
Trumpets: Ray Lion, Jackie Coon, John Best & Art Depew
Trombones: Same as above
Reeds: Jack Dumont, Russ Cheever, Eddie Miller, Babe Russin & Chuck Gentry
Rhythm: Same as above.
