Pete Fountain and Al Hirt - The Early Years - Music Masters

Pete Fountain and Al Hirt - The Early Years

1970 Music Masters MM GS 1046

Side A: (Pete Fountain)
1. South Rampart Street Parade
2. Jazz Me Blues
3. When The Saints Go Marching In
4. Lonesome Trails
5. Thats A Plenty

Side B: (Al Hirt)
1. Faded Love
2. Orange Blossom Special
3. Blue Eyes Cryin In The Rain
4. A Million Miles Away Behind The Door
5. They Call The Wind Maria

Project Co-ordination by Vince J. Rundus
Released by
Music Masters, ltd.
Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Cover art by Terri Lee

Future Sound Marketing Distributors
For Albums, Tapes, Films 1-800-251-3550

I couldn't locate any real information on this LP. Music Masters released another LP billed as a "Pete Fountain TV Special - The Early Years".

Liner Notes:

Music has always been an important part of the American way of life. Almost everybody has a favorite type of music which can mean any number of things to each individual.

One persons favorite music may ease the pain of a lost love, while another person may use his favorite polka band's music to go out dancing and have a good time. Dixieland jazz has always fascinated me because it is so many things to its fans and the musicians who perform it.

In New Orleans you may hear Dixieland Jazz from the extreme settings of a lively Bourbon Street club to a funeral procession. It's amazing virtue is that it is appropriate in almost any setting. Its musicians have proven themselves appropriate in many different settings also.

This album lets you hear two of Dixieland's most commercially successful artists play back to back sets. Pete Fountain's five tunes are from a live performance of traditional standards such as "South Rampart Street Parade" and "When the Saint's Go Marching In". Al Hirt's set includes five studio cuts of some old favorites including Hirt's interpretations of several country classics.

This album will be unique in your record collection as it lets you bring Mardi Gras into your listening room or settle back and relax to Al's trumpet improvizations throughout these time tested standards.

V.J.R. (Vince J. Rundus)

Dixieland Lawrence Welk and Pete Fountain - Ranwood Records

Dixieland Lawrence Welk and Pete Fountain

1980 - Ranwood Records 8149-2

CD Listing
1. China Boy
2. Sweethearts On Parade
3. Blue Moods
4. Should I
5. Pete's Tail-Fly
6. San Antonio Rose
7. Barnyard Blues
8. When My Sugar Walks Down The Street
9. 's Wonderful
10. Tea 'n Trumpets
11. Thou Swell
12. Strike Up The Band

Liner Notes:

It was in the Fall of 1956 that three New Orleans musicians journeyed to the West Coast for the annual Gene Norman-Frank Bull Jazz Festival. They were veteran trumpet-man Al Hirt; a fourteen-year-old phenomenon on trumpet, Warren Luning, Jr.; and another veteran from the New Orleans jazz scene, clarinetist Pete Fountain. Among those in the audience that proceeded to flip over the playing of the New Orleans visitors was young Lawrence Welk, Jr. Forthwith he goes to the old man and says, "Dad, this you've gotta hear!" (Or words of similar import.) So Larry, Sr. put down his accordion, turned off the bubble-machine, and made the trip to the auditorium where the jazz bash was being held; and that night an idea was born. To wit: why not build a dixieland contingent from the Welk Orchestra around Pete Fountain, and feature him regularly, both at the dance sessions and on the weekly television broadcasts?

Thus it was that Pete Fountain left Al Hirt's band a few months after their return to New Orleans to accept an offer from Lawrence Welk that was (in Pete's words) "too good to turn down."

Since joining the Lawrence Welk Orchestra as a featured soloist, Pete has taken advantage of the opportunity to study on the west coast - an opportunity which the mature Pete Fountain realized was a valuable one in keeping with his desire to grow musically. He is almost twenty-eight years old.

Although it is essentially the Welk Orchestra backing Pete in this album, the arrangements are not of the "Champagne Music" style. Neither is it a jazz album. Rather it is designed for dancing, with an easily identifiable beat, and tempos well-suited for dancing.

Two years later he returned to jazz and New Orleans. As he puts it, "champagne and bourbon just don't mix" - but in two years he had become one of the most familiar names in American music, so the time had been well spent, well spent indeed.

The Early Years - Music Masters

Pete Fountain TV Special - The Early Years

1970 Music Masters MM GS 1012-1013

Side One
1. Bugle Call Rag
2. Silver Dollar Blues
3. Moanin' Low
4. Sensation Rag
5. Jazz Me Blues
6. That's A Plenty
7. Margie
8. Up A Lazy River
9. Mahogany Hall Stomp

Side Two
1. South Rampart Street Parade
2. St. James Infirmary Blues
3. When The Saints Go Marching In
4. Creole Cookin'
5. Mumbo Gumbo
6. High Society
7. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
8. Lonesome Trails
9. Farewell Blues

Liner Notes:

Pete Fountain TV Special - The Early Years

Project Co-ordination by Vince J. Rundus
Released by Music Masters, ltd. Charlotte, N.C. 28211
Future Sound Marketing Distributors For Albums, Tapes, Films 1-800-251-3550

I couldn't locate any real information on this LP. It's billed as a TV Special, not a special (as in an Elvis TV special) as in a TV show that Pete performed in, but as an album offered on TV, featuring his Early Years. The cover is a golden textured foil like material, with a drawing of Pete by artist Terri Lee. There are no credits or liner notes. It's a real budget offering. It is a collection of material, early Pete, some live, all in surprisingly good listening quality. Pete wails very nicely and the trumpet player is really good. (It's not Hirt or Frank Assunto, sounds like George Girard) In fact, I compared the tracks and they are from the Basin Street Six sessions. To get 18 tracks on a vinyl LP is rare, so it would be considered a good value. I couldn't find anything about Music Masters Ltd or Future Sound Marketing, so who knows the legitimacy of this recording, if royalties were paid or if it was approved by Pete Fountain. 10 of these tracks appear on the CD Down On Rampart Street, 1993 Quicksilver Label (now out of print) If anyone has information on this compilation, please leave a comment.