 The Clarinet BBoard
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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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Author: fskelley
Date: 2015-01-30 05:29
Wow. Thanks for sharing that.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Bob Barnhart ★2017
Date: 2015-01-30 08:40
Starting when I was in Junior High (1965?) my best friend and I would play along with all of Pete's records. Although I'm mainly a classical player and dabble only a bit with [Dixieland] Jazz, I owe Pete a tremendous debt for all that he taught me about playing clarinet that I learned just from listening to him and his "fat sound" and trying to emulate him.
Bob Barnhart
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Author: Clarineteer
Date: 2015-01-30 11:13
I remember seeing a young Pete Fountain on one of the early Lawrence Welk TV shows broadcast in black and white and when the camera was pointing in his direction without him being aware of it he looked completely bored. Made me laugh.
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Author: William
Date: 2015-01-30 19:58
But the TV exposure that Lawrence Welk gave Pete allowed him to be "bored" all the way to the bank. Without Welk, he may never have gained the national notoriety that he did as a clarinetist. As a sidenote, I think my Milwaukee friend, the late Chuck Hedges, was a far better jazz clarinetist that Pete, but never enjoyed the same national spotlight. Pete is good--I'm not suggesting that he is not--but we must realize that there are countless talented musicians "out there" that never get the breaks that Lawrence Welk gave via his weekly TV "a-one-anna-two" music show. And I seem to recall an interview during which Pete expressed his appreciation for the boost the Welk Show gave his career. At least, we should be thankful for Lawrence Welk keeping live music on TV for so many years............
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2015-01-30 20:59
William,
I agree with most of your points. Talent abounds but is not always noticed or appreciated without a special break or onrush of luck. Yet, before Pete Fountain was a regular on the Welk TV show, Welk featured multi-instrumentalist Bill Page on swing clarinet solos with big band but Page did not develop a mass following as a result. Similarly, after Fountain's departure, Welk gave plenty of exposure to clarinetists Don Bonee, Henry Cuesta, and Peanuts Hucko. None of these fine players ever enjoyed the degree of public acceptance or sold nearly the number of records that Fountain did. (Of course, Hucko was already known to traditional jazz fans for his appearances with Armstrong and others, but the public did not rush out to buy Peanuts Hucko records the way they did to buy Fountain's--year after year, decade after decade).
If you are wondering whether Chuck Hedges would have become as widely and enduringly popular as Pete Fountain if Welk had hired Hedges and given him weekly exposure, I guess the answer is, we'll never know. As a biased
New Orleanian who grew up listening to Pete Fountain, I would speculate that the Welk audience would have loved Chuck Hedges' playing just as they did Cuesta's and Hucko's. But when it comes to shelling out money for Hedges' records (which are numerous and of high quality), I doubt Hedges would fare better than Cuesta and Hucko did. Pete Fountain had a spark of some hard- to-pin-down musical affability that made the multitude want to go on buying his records, and the other clarinetists we've mentioned here, despite their undeniable musical talents, probably lacked that endearing, empathetic quality.
Of course I am from New Orleans, and I could be wrong.
I do admit that your brief for Hedges has made me want to go out and buy an album or two of his, though.
Post Edited (2015-01-31 00:00)
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Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-01-30 21:52
Great to see some people here remember Chuck Hedges. Chuck was my repairman for several decades, and he would always invite me to sit in on sax when I walked into a club where he was playing. He was an amazing clarinet player, but could not read music to save his life. Chuck was one of the top Dixieland clarinet players in the country, but I doubt he would have been hired on Welk's band. Pete was not only a great player with that big warm sound, but he had a certain charisma which came across to people, and that is part of his success. I worked with the Stars Of Lawrence Welk twice as the orchestra contractor in Milwaukee, and I have to tell you that those people worshiped Welk even though he was gone. I never saw anything like it. Welk took care of his people. His son is the one who "discovered" Pete in New Orleans, and talked Lawrence into hiring him. After that the success was purely up to Pete.
For those fans of Chuck Hedges, or those who have not heard him, here is a TV broadcast from 1963. Judge for yourself. Chuck was a great player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di0RQ3nXEdY
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2015-01-30 22:08
Yes, "warm sound," "charisma" and "coming across" to people are essential qualities in Pete Fountain's success story. Not just "exposure" or marketing. These qualities make people want to return again and again to performances. I remember before Pete went with Welk. When he played, the audience would start dancing, and after awhile they would stand and listen. He was that kind of player. He could attract attention in the quietest kind of way and keep it all night till the gig's end. Sometimes he looked like a little Cajun leprechaun playing, and he worked a leprechaun's magic on the crowd.
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