[Dixielandjazz] The "Dukes..." and Pete. etc.

[Charles Suhor]

> Bryce, John (CCPS) wrote:
>
>> Good question.  So would I.
>>
>> Pete Fountain was with them [the Dukes] 1950 to 1955.  There's an LP, 
>> but not sure about
>> a CD
>>
>> Jack Bryce
>>
>>

Actually, Pete left the Dukes early on, joining drummer Phil Zito's 
International City Dixielanders (with George Girard, Joe Rotis, and 
others) around mid-1949 for a Columbia recording session and a gig at 
the El Morocco on Bourbon St. He stayed with basically the same group 
when they left Zito and became the Basin St. Six, 1950-53. Internal 
dissension prompted Pete to go with a rhythm section only, playing the 
Famous Door as Pete Fountain and His Three Coins. He then played 
briefly on the road with the Dukes on the road (I don't know if he 
recorded with them) but returned to N.O. and worked for a while, as did 
Al Hirt, for a pesticide company. The local revival had given way to 
R&B and other music.

Incidentally, Frank Assunto was grateful for the big break of Sid 
Frey's first Audio-Fiedlity recordings, but he considered them corny. 
In a 1970 interview for New Orleans magazine he told me, "I kept 
fighting with Sid Frey so bad about this album that I was really mad 
when we got to the session. I said, 'If he's willing to pay that kind 
of money for a jazz band. let's give him what he thinks he's going to 
get...om-cha, oom-cha...Let's tuba and banjo  him to death.' And that's 
what we did--and we built a monster."

The article is reprinted in "Jazz in New Orleans--the Postwar Years 
Through 1970" (pp. 160-64) and the info on Zito, Fountain, the Basin 
Street Six, etc., is also there (130-132), plus vintage articles on 
Pete (1961) and others who played a part in the popular local revival.

Charlie Suhor