NEW ORLEANS -- Clarinetist Pete Fountain, whose Dixieland jazz virtuosity and irrepressible wit endeared him to his native New Orleans and earned him decades of national television fame, died Saturday of heart failure. He was 86.
Benny Harrell, Fountain's son-in-law and manager, said Fountain was in hospice care in New Orleans when he died early Saturday.
With his ready wit and infectious laugh, Fountain was the epitome of the New Orleanian who knew how to "let the good times roll." He was well-known to television fans through his appearances on the Lawrence Welk and Johnny Carson shows. Even his blues had a happy note.
In New Orleans, Fountain opened his first Bourbon Street club in 1960, later moving to a larger location on the bawdy thoroughfare before settling in for a long run at the nearby Hilton on Canal Street in the 1970s.
In a tradition-filled city, his annual trek through the French Quarter with his "Half-Fast Walking Club" was a raucous New Orleans ritual -- one he rarely missed even when he was in failing health.
Fountain, who often split time between the New Orleans area and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, lost his Bay St. Louis, Miss., home when Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. But he stayed upbeat. Late in 2005, after several temporary homes, he settled in Hammond, La., telling The Daily Star newspaper, "We went from 10,000 square feet to 1,500. That's really what you would call downsizing."
Fountain started playing professionally on Bourbon Street in his teens. He once called the street of strip clubs, music joints and bars his "conservatory." In his early years, he toured nationally with the Dukes of Dixieland and the late trumpeter Al Hirt. But he gained fame in 1957 when he joined The Lawrence Welk Show as a headliner.
He expressed deep appreciation for the exposure Welk gave him and his music. Still, Fountain joked that his Bourbon didn't mix with Welk's champagne. There was, for example, the night Fountain overfilled the bubble machine, stranding Welk on live television in a storm of blowing bubbles.
Fountain's freewheeling personality and swinging performances contrasted sharply with Welk's rigidly orchestrated polkas and pop hits. The breakup came in 1959 after Welk chastised him for jazzing up an arrangement of "Silver Bells" in a Christmas performance.
Fountain's recording of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" sold more than a half-million copies in 1959. It stuck as an unofficial theme song, and he even called his autobiography A Closer Walk. His version was so popular that he half-complained that audiences wouldn't let him off the stage without his playing it again.
Fountain and his wife, Beverly, were to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary in October, Harrell said.
A Section on 08/07/2016