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Re: Pete Fountain's

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-01 17:01

Early in his career in New Orleans, Pete Fountain played a stencil clarinet called an O'Brien. It was a large bore instrument similar to the Selmer Center Tone. When he joined the Welk Orchestra on TV, he first switched to the Leblanc LL and then to the large bore (15.0 mm) Leblanc Dynamic H clarinet that the company further customized for him. They added an articulated G# mechanism and gold plated keys, among other modifications. That clarinet eventually became the Pete Fountain model and later something much like it was called the Big Easy clarinet. From the time Fountain left Welk, I believe the only clarinets he played in public for the remainder of his long career were the big bore Fountain model (based on the earlier Dynamique and Dynamic H) and maybe occasionally the Leblanc LL. He remained loyal to the Leblanc line as far as I know. In New Orleans, Tim Laughlin still has one of Fountain's big bore clarinets.

Post Edited (2020-07-01 23:08)

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