Clarinetist Pete Fountain dies

Born Pierre Dewey Fountain, Jr., he was advised to start playing a wind or brass instrument to help in clearing up a chronic weak lung condition that he had as a child.

Pete Fountain, the goateed clarinetist who became a global ambassador of New Orleans jazz with his flawlessly slippery technique and joyful sound, died Saturday of heart failure while in hospice care in New Orleans. He was 86 years old.

“It’s a sad day for his family”, Harrell said.

Fountain was equally famous for embodying the spirit of New Orleans’ biggest celebration – Mardi Gras – with his costumed jazz band walking the parade route each year (with Fountain in recent years riding at the head of the parade in a special bandwagon, his son-in-law and manager Benny Harrell at his side). It’s been celebrated in Louisiana since the late 17th century when it was under French colonial rule.

He also became a favorite of Johnny Carson and made dozens of appearances on “The Tonight Show” during Carson’s long tenure at the helm of the late-night talk show. It stuck as an unofficial theme song, and he even called his autobiography “A Closer Walk“. Real fame came in 1957, when he joined “The Lawrence Welk Show” as a headliner.

“We went from 10,000 square feet to 1,500”, he told the Daily Star newspaper later that year.

“Champagne and bourbon don’t mix”, Fountain quipped about the incident to an interviewer later. “That’s really what you would call downsizing”.

His recording of “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” sold more than a half million copies in 1959.

He appeared almost 40 times at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

In the video above, watch as Satchmo SummerFest director Marci Schramm, jazz clarinetist Thomas Fischer, Louis Armstrong authority Ricky Riccardi, jazz clarinetist Orange Kellin, jazz bassist Al Bernard, jazz cornet player Yoshio Toyama, and jazz guitarist Joe Cushinberry consider Fountain’s contributions. Funeral arrangements are pending.

“I’m too slow and too nervous to steal, so I have to keep tootin'”, he said during a WWL-TV interview.

Fountain grew up listening to Goodman’s records, but Fazola was playing in the French Quarter where Fountain could listen in person. Fountain later teamed up with the Dukes of Dixieland before television brought his talents to an even larger audience.