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Pete Fountain

Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-01-30 02:59

Sometimes I think it is chance, fate, luck and hard work that make a player great. When I was in college my jazz band director took a year off to play trombone with Pete. One day he was in Milwaukee for a concert, so a friend and I met our teacher at the hotel they were staying at. We were invited into a room for a party LeBlanc had for him, and he had just been to the factory in Kenosha to pick out a new clarinet. I got to meet him and got a little insight into how he ended up where he did.

My teacher who played trombone with him mentioned that as a kid Pete had asthma, and his doctor suggested he play a woodwind instrument. It was about the only thing back then that helped. I found out that Pete practiced 4 hours every day, and then played his gig. This was about 1969 and he was at his peak I think. His sound was gorgeous, you could tell he was having fun playing, and I realized that it does take hard, consistent work to be successful. If he did not have asthma as a kid we probably would never have heard of Pete or got to hear his great tone and playing. Strange how life works out.

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