Pete Fountain - New Orleans, LA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 29° 56.851 W 090° 03.808
15R E 783433 N 3316597
One of dozens of plaques honoring prominent citizens of New Orleans located outside of the entrance to the Hilton Hotel.
Waymark Code: WMQ38G
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/10/2015
Views: 2
All of the dozens of citizen memorials here have a relief panel which depicts musicians on a keyboard, horn and bass and the name of the person honored. This one reads:
"PETE FOUNTAIN
Music"
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Pete Fountain (born Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr., July 3, 1930), is a world-renowned American clarinetist based in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He has played jazz, Dixieland, Pop Jazz, Honky-Tonk Jazz, Pop, and Creole music.
Early life and education
His name was originally Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr., was born on White Street, between Dumaine and St. Ann, in a small Creole cottage style frame house. His father later changed his own name to Peter Dewey Fountain, and Junior followed suit.
He started playing clarinet as a child at McDonogh 28. As a child, young Pete was very sickly, frequently battling respiratory infections due to weakened lungs. He was given expensive medication but it proved to be not very effective. During a pharmacy visit, Pete's father began a discussion with a neighborhood doctor who was also there shopping and talked with him about his son's condition. The doctor agreed to see the boy the following day. After a short exam, the doctor confirmed the weak lung condition and advised the father to try an unorthodox treatment: purchase the child a musical instrument, anything he has to blow into. The same day, they went to a local music store and, given his choice of instruments, Pete chose the clarinet (after first wanting the drums, which his father declined per the doctor's orders). At first, Pete was unable to produce a sound from the instrument, but he continued to practice and eventually not only made sounds and eventually music, but greatly improved the health of his lungs.
He took private lessons but also learned to play jazz by playing along with phonograph records of first Benny Goodman and then Irving Fazola. Early on he played with the bands of Monk Hazel and Al Hirt. Fountain founded The Basin Street Six in 1950 with his longtime friend, trumpeter George Girard ."