Bonaparte's Retreat - Basin Street Six - 504 Records

Bonaparte's Retreat - Basin Street Six

1988 504 Records LP.16 Mono

Side 1
1. Waiting for the Robert E. Lee
2. South Rampart Street Parade
3. Angry
4. Bonaparte's Retreat *
5. Original Dixieland One Step
6. Land of Dreams
7. Mahogany Hall Stomp
8. Royal Garden Blues

Side 2
1. Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay
2. Up A Lazy River
3. Milenburg Joys
4. Margie *
5. High Society
6. I'm Going Home
7. Farewell Blues

Liner Notes:

George Girard (trumpet & vocal*)
Pete Fountain (clarinet)
Joe Rotis (trombone)
Roy Zimmerman (piano)
Bunny Frank (string bass)
Charlie Duke (drums)

Recorded New Orleans circa 1950
Bonaparte's Retreat located on Decatur Street Nola

All tracks previously unissued with the exception of 'High Society' which has been included for completeness.

Liner Notes: Tom Stagg

Photographs:
'Bonaparte's Retreat' Mike Dine
'Basin Street Six' Courtesy of the New Orleans Jazz Club
Collection of the Louisiana State Museum

Tape Mastering: Charlie Crump
Jacket Design: Mike Dine
Artwork: Lion Litho
Production: Mike Dine

Sincere thanks to Charlie Crump for his Special ability in obtaining a high standard of sound quality during tape transfer from the original 1950's acetates. Special thanks to Alan Ward for his time and effort in checking that the tracks included on this album are actually unissued t, also thanks to Don Marquis of the Louisiana State Museum and finally to Tom Stagg for writing the liner notes and all his help during the production stages.

A 504 Records Production 1988 504 Records

The story of the Basin Street Six begins with a football game, or to be more precise a series of football games. In the 1940's the white kids in New Orleans were crazy over football, but pocket money was scarce making tickets hard to come by, so the youngsters would go to any lengths to gain entry. For young musicians it was slightly easier, they would group together as a band and dress up in the colours of any local or visiting team, this way they would get into the football stadiums as the 'official' band. This sometimes provided a real service as not all visiting teams could afford to bring along their own band. It was during a football game between Warren Easton High School and Bogalusa that a young clarinet player named Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr. (Pete Fountain) playing in the large and impressive Warren Easton School Band was amazed to see that Bogalusa arrived with only a three piece band. At half-time, being unable to contain himself any longer, Pete introduced himself to the rival trio, Frank Assunto (trumpet) Freddie Assunto trombone) and Willie Perkins (drums), and he was invited to join the group for the second half of the game. Of course the 'Bogalusa Band' were just a bunch of local New Orleans kids working the 'visiting jazz band' pastime.

From this first meeting Pete became good friends with the Assunto's and he would go to their home on General Taylor and Freret Streets a couple of times a week to practice and make plans for bigger ventures and to eventually forming a real band. The four youngsters concentrated on working the football games assisted by a friend Benny Christiano whose father had a pick-up truck. By decorating the truck with coloured crepe paper the same as the school colours the band would start about a block away and when they reached the Stadium they would be waved inside as the 'official' band. Of course the Stadium guards were aware of what was going on but turned a blind eye as the appearance of a band at a football game always attracted a lot of attention.

This still unnamed band played the same three or four tunes all the time, but they all listened to a lot of jazz records. Papa Jac Assunto, Frank and Freddie's dad, worked at Werlein's Music Store on Canal Street at the time, and he brought home records for the lads to listen to and learn from.

So it came to pass one summer Saturday afternoon in 1946, sitting around a picnic table in City Park, the quartet decided to quit the football games racket and start out in the jazz business properly. The lads called themselves the Basin Street Four, named after the Basin Street Blues, a popular tune associated with the old city of New Orleans. The band learned more songs and went out in search of their first gig, Pete Fountain was just sixteen years old when the Basin Street Four opened at the Carnival Lounge on Broad Street. The job lasted just two weeks, Friday and Saturday nights for just ten dollars each for both nights, but the manager of the place was just not selling enough beer to keep the band employed.

A few days later a new residency was found at The Hideaway on St. Bernard, a better class place, the band having their name written in chalk on the Jax Beer Blackboard out front. The band played three nights a week Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, the place packed every night for the two months the gig lasted. Tommy Baldaras another youngster from the Assunto's neighbourhood joined the group on guitar, the band became the Basin Street Five.

The big night spot at the time was the Parisian Room on Royal Street owned and operated by Joe Gemelli and Tony Almerico, all the guys jammed there on Sunday afternoons and the lads continually asked if they could have a spot to prove they could really play jazz. Eventually the owners gave in only on the condition that the band changed it's name, the Basin Street Five became the Junior Dixie Band.

Mixing and playing with older more experienced musicians did nothing but good for the lads, they were soon totally accepted a part of the Sunday afternoon scene and they were readily included when WWL Radio started broadcasting those jam sessions, first locally and then nationwide through the CBS network, billed as the Dixieland Jamboree.

From these Sunday afternoon sessions midweek jobs were added and then jobs all over the City. The Horace Heidt talent radio show came to town with auditions held at the New Orleans Recreation Department. The Junior Dixie Band entered the talent show and then began rehearsing in earnest adding two more youngsters to the band, Johnny Bartell on bass and Stanley Mendelson on piano.

This new seven piece unit romped through their audition playing 'March of the Bob Cats'. The following week the band were on the radio show and won the first local heat, a week later in Louisville, Kentucky they lost to an all girl group singing cowboy songs, it was back to the Parisian Room and the Sunday afternoon jam sessions.

Shortly after the Assunto brothers left the band to form their own Dukes of Dixieland and George Girard and Jack Delaney joined the Junior Dixie Band. Originally Jack Delaney played trumpet with the band but learned trombone when George Girard proved how good a trumpet player he was. This revised band picked up a good paying job at Demiano's Dance Hall on Airline Highway.

Eventually the Junior Dixie Band broke up, most of the musicians hankering to play with bigger names, George Girard joined the Jimmy Archey Orchestra, Jack Delaney went with the Sharkey Bonano Band and Pete Fountain took his own group into the Famous Door on Bourbon Street using a young talented Al Hirt on trumpet.

Later Pete joined Phil Zito's International Dixieland Band at the El Morocco, Joe Rotis was on trombone, Emile Christian bass, Roy Zimmerman piano and George Girard returned to New Orleans to play trumpet, Phil Zito was on drums. This band was successful but eventually the crowds dropped off and many clubs even stopped having bands, the El Morocco job folded and the band went to Biloxi, Mississippi to play for two weeks at the Broadwater Beach Hotel. A job came through in New York but by now the guys were ready to return home to New Orleans and Phil Zito hired new musicians to go north.

It was time to form a new band in New Orleans but dixieland in 1950 was no longer popular and the Basin Street Six was created as the greatest unemployed band in the City - George Girard (trumpet), Joe Rotis (trombone), Pete Fountain (clarinet), Roy Zimmerman (piano), Bunny Franks (string bass) and Charlie Duke (drums). It was George Girard who came up with a regular two nights a week job at L'Enfants on Canal Boulevard, the band had to play dance music mostly. Bill Reed of WWL TV picked up the show as part of his dixieland revival campaign and within three months the Basin Street Six had found their niche as a funny hat band, wearing old Mardi Gras costumes, switching instruments and even dressing up as girls on occasions, a real fun band but still playing good dixieland jazz.

In fact the band was good enough to make their first recording session towards the end of the year for Circle Records. When the TV job closed, L'Enfants returned to having only a dance music policy and late in 1951 the Basin Street Six were again looking for work. Within a week the band opened at Perez's Oasis and then the Silver Slipper Club on Bourbon Street (the same building that housed the Silver Slipper Club became `Your Father's Moustache' during the 60's and 70's but now no longer exists as a jazz venue).

Soon they were playing six nights a week all over the City, the dixieland revival was in full swing. Johnny Edwards replaced Charlie Duke on drums, and a second recording session was made this time for Mercury Records, Down Beat carried a story, the band were now living like celebrities. Blaise D'Antoni, President of the Standard Fruit Company, the largest importer of bananas in New Orleans, bought the band under a ninety-nine year contract, he liked the way they clowned and played.

All the members of the band signed the contract, part of the deal being that the Standard Fruit Company continued to call the band the Basin Street Six. The band opened on a banana boat bound for Honduras, a two week cruise entertaining Mr. D'Antoni's guests. Everybody had a good time but it could not last and the ninety-nine year contract ended after three months, with everyone parting friends. Back in New Orleans the Basin Street Six played the intermission set for a Louis Armstrong concert at the Municipal Auditorium, a fitting accolade for this fine little band. A trip to the Blue Note in Chicago was reluctantly made, none of the men wanted to be away from home for long. There were periods of squabbling and it became obvious that there were feelings of discontent among the fellows, they were falling out over everything. In four years the band had always been run as a cooperative unit, no leader but this had not always been easy as George Girard was really a natural leader with a superstrong personality.

Upon returning from Chicago George quit the band to form his own group, Connie Jones replaced him for a while, Roy Zimmerman and Pete Fountain left a few weeks later. It was 1954, the Basin Street Six were no more, a chapter complete in the continuing story of New Orleans dixieland jazz.

- Tom Stagg, 1988

Acknowledging Pete Fountain and Bill Neely and 'A Closer Walk : The Pete Fountain Story' Henry Regnery Company, Chicago, 1972.

At the time of writing Pete Fountain who was born in New Orleans on July 3, 1930 is the only surviving member of the Basin Street Six. After the break-up of the band in 1954 he was to find fame and fortune, helped on his way by the magic of TV exposure on the Lawrence Welk Show. This led to Pete opening his own club on Bourbon Street, a great attraction for the many tourists who visited the City in their hundreds, and later a gold record award for his hit recording 'Java'.

In his early days Pete was the protege of the great Irving Fazola and was heavily influenced by Eddie Miller when he doubled on tenor saxophone. Today Pete Fountain is still a great tourist attraction at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Poydras Street although his style is far removed from his Basin Street Six days.

As far as the Basin Street Six was concerned Joe Rotis and the rhythm section were all older and more experienced musicians, George Girard only three months older than Pete Fountain was sadly to pass away on January 17, 1957 in his 26th year, his exciting driving style to be heard no more.

- Alan Ward/Mike Dine

Dixieland From The Famous Door - Southland Records

Dixieland From The Famous Door

Second Version of the Cover

Original Version of the Cover

1955 Southland Records S-LP 216

Pete Fountain Related - Pete Played and sat in with many bands at the Famous Door and is rumored to be a guest on some of these tracks.

Side One
Sharkey and his Kings of Dixieland
1. When the Saints Come Marching In
2) Chime Blues
3) Monday Date (Vocal by Jack Delaney)
4) Somebody Else is Taking My Place (Vocal by Jackie Blaine)

George Girard and his New Orleans Five
5) I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
6) Roses of Picardy

Side Two
Santo Pecora and his New Orleans Rhythm Kings
1) Tail Gate Ramble
2) A Good Man is Hard to Find
3) Missouri Two Beat
4) World is Waiting for the Sunrise

George Girard and his New Orleans Five
5) I'm Sittin' On Top of the World
6) I'm Goin's Home

Liner Notes:

Band One
Sharkey and his Kings of Dixieland

SHARKEY BONANO, Trumpet
JACK DELANEY, Trombone
HARRY SHIELDS. Clarinet
STAN MENDELSON, Piano
ABBIE BRUNIES, Drums
CHINK MARTIN JR., String Bass
CHINK MARTIN SR., Tuba

I KNOW SHARKEY
Yeah, I know him since both of us were kids.... Wanted to be a clarinet player... In fact, he would have been a great clarinet player, too... But the way things worked out, well, you see Sharkey had a brother-in-law, John Quarella who used to have this pavilion on Lake Pontchartrain at Milneburg, and there was a band in the place. Frank Christian used to play cornet, but one night he didn't show up for work and little Sharkey went on the stand, and he's been blowin' up a storm ever since.

It's always been my ambition to put Sharkey on records, not the way records are usually made, but the way he sounds on the job. So I just caught him at a regular New Orleans style jam session, with first rate equipment and took down what he put out. I was lucky, to, because Jack Delaney was sitting in on trombone and Harry Shields on clarinet... and with Abbie Brunies on drums and Happy Mendelson, piano and the great Chink Martin on bass to make up as fine a rhythm section as New Orleans can produce, I got what I was after, plus. Naturally, the boys were delighted when they heard the playback - and I can confidently say that you will be, too, because lucky accidents like this don't happen every day.

- JOE MARES, JR.

...AND I KNOW JOE
It's a pleasure to work with Joe Mares, because he's a real New Orleans boy, who knows the real jazz sound like I know my brown derby. Where jazz is concerned he's always ready to try out an idea, to gamble on a new tune, to make a break for a musician down on his luck.

Anyway, recording for Joe, a guy can relax. Doesn't have to hurry through a session - and sometimes, you know how it is, a session doesn't come out. Well, that's the time that, instead of putting out second rate stuff, he'll just stick the tape away in his safe and make another session. This time he caught us by surprise, though, and really got four sides done the way that makes us feel good. Joe's got it down here the way we like to hear ourselves - and even Jack, who usually hates to hear himself on records, had that happy look when Joe played these sides back for us. Besides that, he's a genius when it comes to balancing an out-fit so that you can hear all the instruments. There's a flavor about Joe's records that goes beyond the music itself, and somehow recreates the New Orleans atmosphere.

I can tell you that I'm personally more than delighted with what Joe's produced on this LP. He's a great guy to work with.

- SHARKEY

Band Two
SANTO PECORA and his New Orleans Rhythm Kings
SANTO PECORA, Trombone
GEORGE GIRARD, Trumpet
LESTER BOUCHON, Tenor Sax
RAYMOND BURKE, Clarinet
ARMAND HUG, Piano
ABBIE BRUNIES, Drums
CHINK MARTIN, String Bass

Here is the King of the Tailgate Trombone, Santo Pecora, in all his rugged glory, finally presented to the world's jazz fans the way he really sounds, here, at home in New Orleans. Thirty active musical years have developed this brassy genius to the very peak of his talent. Today, still a young man, he retains his full, almost juvenile, vigor, a constantly expanding, ingeniously original flow of ideas, and a flawless mechanical facility. It only remained for Joe Mares, the Casey Stengel of the Jazz business, to get him down on wax with such fidelity as to show every facet of this great jazzman clearly and in full color. Santo's right to his kingdom will be amply authenticated by his "World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Tailgate Ramble."

Since Southland, geographically, is right here in the heart of Jazz, Joe Mares can always surround each featured Jazz celebrity with a plethora of superb musicians. How well he's done justice to Santo in this respect will be evident when you hear Lester Bouchon convert the tenor saxophone into a true Dixieland instrument in his extravagantly lush treatment of "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". Bouchon, after a quarter-century, still too shy to appear comfortably in public, relaxes for Joe and gives him as haunting a solo as you'll ever hear recorded.

A current star in his own right, with a lip developed by his nightly stint on Bourbon Street, where he entertains packed houses regularly with his fully developed lead trumpet, George Girard carries this session along in masterly fashion. This twenty-five year old wonder boy has established himself already as one of New Orleans' outstanding jazzmen. Raymond Burke wraps up this superior front line with his tasteful, sensitive clarinet, so easily identifiable to all jazz fans, for the simple reason that there's no other sound in the entire jazz idiom that remotely resembles Raymond's. To establish the truly "all-star" character of this ensemble, Joe Mares has supplied a rhythm section consisting of Armand Hug, on piano, who's solo work is already thoroughly familiar, on many labels, to fans from New Orleans to Patagonia, plus Abbie Brunies, youngest of the famed clan of Brunies, and finally, the old-time master of bass, Chink Martin, who does things with a bass on these four tunes that you'll continue to refer to as long as you collect records. The musicians, other than the ones who appear in this album, that have heard these records, agree that they're among the very finest ever recorded in New Orleans.

Band Three
GEORGE GIRARD and his New Orleans Five
GEORGE GIRARD, Trumpet
JACK DELANEY, Trombone
RAYMOND BURKE, Clarinet
JOHNNY SENAC, String Bass-Tuba
ABBIE BRUNIES, Drums
STANLEY MENDELSON, Piano

Out in the front of the New Orleans five is the youthful sensation from whose gleaming trumpet pours the whole tradition of the Crescent City. At twenty-five, he's respected around town not only for his superb musicianship, fine driving lead and exciting solos, but also for his obvious and natural leadership. George Girard is one of the keystones on which New Orleans is building it's musical future.

George has been fronting his own group for the last thirty months and has spent twenty-four of these at The Famous Door here in New Orleans and Southland is the first to pin down George and his New Orleans Five on wax. Tutored by some of the greatest of the old-timers he's the true mid-century representative of all that is wonderful in our great music. One hearing will add him to your roster of great New Orleans hornmen.

On the New Orleans Five tracks you hear a veritable Cavalacade of great New Orleans jazzmen built around the lead trumpet of George Girard. You hear the unique ideas of Raymond Burke on clarinet; Mr. Dixieland of 1955 of New Orleans Jack Delaney on that fine singing trombone; On piano, a young man with old ideas Stanley Mendelson. Bassman Johnny Senac whom you'll hear on the New Orleans Five sides, not only on string bass, but with his nostalgic tuba comes forth a polished, full grown jazzman to take his place in the ranks of the top Crescent City jazz musicians. The late Abbie Brunies heard on drums here, lays down a solid beat and plays more honest-to-goodness drums than you can find anywhere else in this modern, hide-beating generation. There's a remarkable amount of fine Dixieland jazz on this long playing record - and it's all New Orleans.

- JOE MARES, JR.

"Southland Records" wishes to thank the Record Changer, Down Beat, Jazz Journal, Second Line, and all the people who wrote such wonderful things about Southland Long Playing efforts. We are pleased to be able to present another album produced by the same high musical and technical standard.

- JOE MARES, JR.

Pete Fountain - Coral Records

Pete Fountain "Cheesecake" Cover from Mexico

I saw this on eBay, didn't get a chance to bid on it. If you have this or any unusual covers and can scan them, please let me know so we can post them here.

Pete Fountain And Al Hirt - Coral Records

Pete Fountain And Al Hirt

7 Inch 45 RPM EP

1962 Coral Records EC 81189 Stereo 7" EP

Note, the back cover is blank. This EP was used in juke boxes. Liner notes are excerpts from the LP.

Side One
1. Farewell Blues
2. March Of The Bob Cats

Side Two
1. At The Jazz Band Ball
2. Jazz Me Blues

Liner Notes:

PETE FOUNTAIN and AL HIRT

Personnel:
Pete Fountain, clarinet
Al Hirt, trumpet
Eddie Miller, tenor sax
Jack Sperling, drums
Ray Bauduc, drums
Stan Wrightsman, piano
Morty Corb, bass
Bobby Gibbons, guitar

In recalling the story of New Orleans jazz, historians have dwelt endlessly on the legendary facts and figures of the tenderloin. An ordinance sponsored in 1897 by a local alderman named Story, setting topographical limits on the sporting-house district, led to the birth of an area that was to become known internationally as Storyville, and from then until 1917, when the district was shut down, the events took place that were commemorated in songs about Basin Street and Mahogany Hall.

Less celebrated in the annals of the Crescent City's music is French Quarter's Bourbon Street, a thorough-fare that has become, especially in the past two decades, New Orleans' equivalent of the now-fabled 52nd Street in Manhattan. Long after Storyville's coda was sounded, long after the first jazz pioneers had moved on to Chicago and Los Angeles and New York, Bourbon Street with its nest of small clubs provided a pied-a-terre for dozens of small, bristling combos that kept the city's musical tradition alive.

As you walk down this narrow street, if you know any of the history of Bourbon Street you will sense music in the air, before and after as well as during working hours. Passing by the Famous Door, the Dream Room, Antoine's and all the other sites where jazz has been played, you are reminded of the days when the late Irving Fazola blew his last chorus on the street back in the '40s; of Eddie Miller and the other local men who went on to spread the Dixieland word via the Bob Crosby orchestra; of Louis Prima, Sharkey Bonano, Wingy Manone and the many others for whom Bourbon Street was home.

Pete Fountain and Al Hirt are two symbols of Bourbon Street jazz who in the past few years have carried their message into unexpected channels. Today each leads his own group, bringing the jazz tradition to sophisticated night clubs from Las Vegas to New York and to national television shows. Pete has his own club, the highly successful French Quarter Inn at 800 Bourbon Street, while Al, between national tours, can be found at 600 Bourbon Street, at his and Dan Levy's Pier 600 Club, where he was discovered in 1960.

Some of the music in this EP was recorded when Pete and Al, not yet known to the general public, were working jointly in an exciting little group. March of the Bobcats is a product of this period. This composition, as the credits indicate, was a product of the Bob Crosby band and lends itself ideally to Al's plunging, no-holds-barred horn. The trombone soloist, Abe Lincoln, though born in Lancaster, Pa., is a son of New Orleans in spirit and has recorded with everyone from Bobby Hackett to Bob Scobey. Eddie Miller's warm tenor sound follows, as personal and persuasive as when he was a key Crosby man (1936-42). Solos by Al and Pete are next, the former showing great finesse without the showmanship that was to come later.

On this and the other tunes featuring Al Hirt and Pete, you will hear the remarkably intense beat of a double rhythm section. Stereo listeners will find drummer Jack Sperling on the left; pianist Stan Wrightsman left and center; drummer Ray Bauduc center; bassist Morty Corb center and right; guitarist Bobby Gibbons right.

Farewell Blues, a tune recorded in 1922 by the Friars Society Orchestra, has some inspired muted trumpet by Al followed by some typically fluent Fountain and a solo spot by Stan. Notice how, in the open horn solo before the final ensemble, AI Hirt hints at the iron lip he was to develop as one of his most commercial assets in the next couple of years.

At The Jazz Band Ball again shows off Al's potent lead and reminds us of Stan's elegant qualifications as a real two-handed pianist. Eddie Miller, Al, Pete and Morty all have solos and the ensemble generates a stimulating eight-beat feeling.

Jazz Me Blues, by the Pete-and-Al combine, is taken at a relaxed medium trot and swings consistently with the help of Eddie Miller, Abe
Lincoln and Stan Wrightsman.

As this album attests, you can take the musicians out of Bourbon Street but you can't take the Bourbon Street out of men like Pete and Al. The buoyant, spirited music for which they have become roving ambassadors is a contagiously happy reminder of the street where it lived - and still lives, as often as the Fountains and Hirts have a chance to hurry back home.

- Leonard Feather

Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert - MCA Records

Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert

7 Inch 45 RPM EP

1967 MCA Records EP 3000 Stereo / EPM 3000 Mono

The back cover is blank. This EP was used in juke boxes. Liner notes are excerpts from the LP.

Side One
1. A Swingin' Safari
2. Spanish Eyes

Side Two
1. Strangers In The Night (A Theme From The Universal Picture "A Man Could Get Killed")
2. Danke Schoen

Liner Notes:

New Orleans is Pete Fountain's stamping ground; Hamburg, Germany, is home base for Bert Kaempfert. Thousands of miles separate them, yet this album shows how closely they are linked by the common denominator of great popular music.

PETE FOUNTAIN PLAYS BERT KAEMPFERT is a natural - the kind of album excitement that makes you wonder why it wasn't done before. For this is a superb blending of unique talents.

Recorded in Europe with musicians from the Bert Kaempfert orchestra, it has the sparkling essence of the Bert Kaempfert "sound." Along with that, there's the Pete Fountain touch - the inspired playing of a towering figure in today's music. Put these talents in unison, and you've got something rare indeed: creative musicality working every memorable moment.

The clarinet, by the way, is another bond between them. Bert learned to play it in addition to the sax, accordion and piano. He can therefore better appreciate Pete's virtuosity on the "stick" - and his desire to salute Pete's mastery of the clarinet inspired a tune specially dedicated to his fellow artist. Its very title, For Pete's Sake, is a measure of his affection and respect for the fabulous Fountain.

A new Pete Fountain album is eagerly awaited by fans everywhere. The songs and "sound" of Bert Kaempfert are a hit parade in themselves. Put the two together and you've got a winner. So stop holding this album; put it in a record player, and get a piece of the action. PETE FOUNTAIN PLAYS BERT KAEMPFERT is wonderful listening.

South Rampart Street Parade - Coral Records

South Rampart Street Parade

7 Inch 33 1/3 RPM EP

1963 - Coral Stereo CRL 7-98120
7" 33 1/3 RPM EP

Note, the cover used for this EP doesn't have the right catalog number or songs listed. It is the standard cover printed for the LP. The back cover is blank. This EP was used in juke boxes. Liner notes are excerpts from the LP.

Side 1
1. South Rampart Street Parade
2. Basin Street Blues
3. Farewell Blues

Side 2
1. The Darktown Strutters' Ball
2. Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet
3. Over The Waves

Liner Notes:

Personnel:
Pete Fountain, clarinet
Jackie Coon, trumpet
Moe Schneider, trombone

Four-piece Trombone Team:
Lew McCreary (trombone)
Bill Schaefer (trombone)
George Roberts (bass trombone)
Dick Nash or Dick Noel (trombone)

Percussion:
Godfrey Hirsch, vibraharpist
Jack Sperling, drums (snare, cymbal and foot bass drum)
Nick Fatool, field drum
Paul Barbarin, vertical bass drum, cymbal

Rhythm:
Bobby Gibbons, banjo
Phil Stephens, tuba
Morty Corb, bass

SOUTH RAMPART STREET PARADE
PETE FOUNTAIN And His Mardi Gras Strutters

Shrovetide, the period before Ash Wednesday, is a gay and active time of year in New Orleans. This pre-Lenten season culminates, there and in other southern cities, with the processions, masquerade balls and other entertainments associated with Mardi Gras, a day sometimes called Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday.

Every Shrove Tuesday morning in recent years, at 9 a.m., a group of musicians and their non-musician friends have gathered at a tavern on St. Charles Street to launch one of the Crescent City's most colorful ceremonies. Pete Fountain, the founder of this marching society, has gone to some lengths to assure its vivid visibility. Special uniforms, brightly sprayed shoes and plumed hats are among the accouterments that draw undivided attention to the strutting members of the Half Fast Walking Club, as it is officially called.

"I was going down there for this year's parade", says Bud Dant, "to take part in it myself - I played mellophone - and to get a first hand view of the club. Pete's followers included a wide variety of personalities from all walks of life. One member of the parade was Cliff Arquette (Charlie Weaver), who brought along an old Civil War cornet. There was no real semblance of order in the parade, though none of us could go very far astray because the crowd kept us hemmed in".

"We marched for about four hours, all the way up St. Charles Street to Canal, and past the reviewing stand, in front of the Mayor and the television cameras. We played a lot of the same tunes you hear in this album, though of course without the organized sound that the music has here."

The most important link between the actual parade as it took place that day and the music as it is heard in this album is the strong, marching-music element of percussion. Taking part in these sessions was a remarkable quartet of drummers. One was Godfrey Hirsch, regularly Pete's vibraharpist. Here he plays a marching drum. Jack Sperling, drummer on most of the Fountain albums, plays snare, cymbal and occasionally a foot bass drum. Nick Fatool plays a field drum, which is a somewhat thicker snare. And Paul Barbarin, who led a ten-piece band in the parade, plays a vertical bass drum, with a little brass-rim of a cymbal on top. He marched into the studio with this drum, the legend "Onward Brass Band Of New Orleans" inscribed on it, and never sat down through the entire recording.

On Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet and Farewell Blues this percussion team backs up a Dixieland ensemble comprising Jackie Coon on trumpet, Pete on clarinet and Moe Schneider on trombone. On all the other tracks a four-piece trombone team was added, consisting of Lew McCreary, Bill Schaefer, George Roberts (bass trombone) and Dick Nash or Dick Noel.

The rhythm section throughout is composed of Bobby Gibbons, banjo; Phil Stephens, tuba; and Morty Corb, bass.

The tempo accorded to the opening track, the Ray Bauduc-Bob Haggart South Rampart Street Parade, establishes both mood and pace for the entire set. It is neither too slow nor too fast; it just conforms, in fact, to the name of the club. Pete's lower register clarinet hits a fittingly mellow groove on the chorus. The arrangement was written by Don Bagley.

Matty Matlock's arrangement of the Paul Barbarin original The Second Line follows, with Pete riding over the ensemble in a buoyant manner recalling the best of the old Bob Crosby band. Heinie Beau's arrangement of Basin Street Blues pits Pete's melodic statements against the trombone section and places the fine ensemble lead of Coon in sharp focus.

Farewell Blues, an informal performance guided by Dant but virtually a head arrangement, offers more traditional-style Dixie, with impressive work by Schneider, Coon and Fountain.

The Darktown Strutters' Ball, another Beau score, was composed in 1917 by Shelton Brooks of Some Of These Days fame. Moe Schneider's Teagarden-like facility, Pete's purity of sound and style, and Phil Stephens' tuba break are noteworthy points.

Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet, a head arrangement, has an opening statement by Coon, a beautifully meshed Dixieland ensemble, and solos by Fountain, Schneider and Coon, with the percussion section in command.

Over the Waves, a Heinie Beau arrangement, makes ingenious use of Phil Stephens' tuba for a half chorus of melody (to Pete's obbligato) and an amusing coda.

If the music on these sides has the same stimulating effect on you as on this listener, I guess we'll have a date to meet next Mardi Gras morning. Look for those plumed hats, in the vicinity of a tavern on St. Charles Street. And don't forget the struttin' starts at nine - so you'd better be ready about half-
past eight.

- Leonard Feather

Pete Fountain's French Quarter Inn - Memorabilia

Pete Fountain's French Quarter Inn Postcard

Pete Fountain's French Quarter Inn
Postcard circa 1966 Postcard

One of the plushest and most popular clubs in New Orleans is the French Quarter Inn. - Its elegant brick and wrought iron facade occupying a prominent corner on the fabled, fabulous Bourbon Street, The proprietor and main attraction is jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain who entertains nightly.