Fountain, Pete(r Dewey, Jr.)

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(b New Orleans, July 3, 1930; d New Orleans, Aug 13, 2016). American clarinetist. His father played drums and fiddle. He began playing clarinet at the age of nine, and by 1948 was a member of the Junior Dixieland Band, which included the Assunto brothers. In autumn 1949 he joined Phil Zito’s International Dixieland Band, and the following year made his first recordings with this group. Fountain was a founding member of the Basin Street Six (1950). The group disbanded in 1954, and in 1955 he formed his own ensemble, Pete Fountain and his Three Coins. He also undertook a seven-month engagement in Chicago with the Dukes of Dixieland. He then returned to New Orleans, where he worked with Tony Almerico (1956–7), Sharkey Bonano (with whom he recorded in 1956), and Al Hirt. From March 1957 to March 1959 Fountain gained great popularity through his appearances on the “Lawrence Welk Show,” broadcast from California. Back in New Orleans, he purchased the French Quarter Inn at 800 Bourbon Street, which opened with his trio in ...