Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr.(July 3, 1930 – August 6, 2016), better known as Pete Fountain, was an American jazz clarinetist.He played in traditional and contemporary genres of jazz, such as Dixieland, pop jazz, honky-tonk jazz, as well as pop, and Creole music.
Lawrence Welk Orchestra
A talent scout for Lawrence Welk, who saw Fountain performing at the Pier 600, invited him to join Welk’s orchestra in Los Angeles, where he relocated and lived for two years. Fountain became well known for his many solos on Welk’s ABC television show, The Lawrence Welk Show. He was rumored to have quit when Welk refused to let him “jazz up” a Christmas carol on the 1958 Christmas show. Other accounts, including one in Fountain’s autobiography A Closer Walk With Pete Fountain, indicate he in fact played a jazzy rendition of “Silver Bells” on the show which upset Welk, leading to Fountain’s departure in early 1959. In an interview, Fountain said he left The Lawrence Welk Show because “champagne and bourbon don’t mix.”Fountain was hired by Decca Records A&R head Charles “Bud” Dant and went on to produce 42 hit albums with Dant. After Welk’s death, Fountain would occasionally join with the Welk musical family for reunion shows.
Fountain returned to New Orleans, played with the Dukes of Dixieland, then began leading bands under his own name. He owned his own club in the French Quarter in the 1960s and 1970s. He later acquired “Pete Fountain’s Jazz Club” at the Riverside Hilton in downtown New Orleans.
On March 18, 2007, Pete Fountain was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
This Jazz Inspiration Profile of Pete Fountain is sponsored by Sacramento Top 10, the best local list of home improvement contractors, real estate, restaurants and more.