Search - Al Hirt :: Pete Fountain Presents the Best of Dixieland

Essential Dixieland

Tom Andrews | West Chicago, IL United States | 09/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This rare CD is a revelation. The music is well played swinging Dixieland music, played by the best. Al Hirt on trumpet, Pete Fountain on clarinet and also tenor sax, and Bob Havens on trombone. The remastering is excellent. A highlight are the two rare tenor sax solos by Fountain on Wolverine Blues and Washington & Lee Swing. Great stuff!"

Dixieland at its Finest

Jazzbo48 | Atlanta, GA | 09/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was surprised to see this entitled, "Pete Fountain Presents...Al Hirt". These songs were all originally on a 1961 LP (remember those days) "Blockbustin' Dixie: Al Hirt/Pete Fountain", which was a reissue of a 1957 LP entitled "Swinging Dixie From Dan's Pier 600". It claims to be their only recorded appearance together and from the date, it was done before Al and Pete caught on big outside the New Orleans jazz community. I still have this album in my basement and have spent many hours in my youth playing along with these guys (except my hi-fi played everything 1/4 step low - I could only imagine how it would sound in the right pitch until I found this CD.) Needless to say, these arrangements always left me far behind after the first verse. Everyone knows that Pete played with Lawrence Welk, but Bob Havens played with the orchestra, as well. He's the tall guy sitting in the bone section with the slicked-back hair. I understand he currently lives outside Raleigh, NC and is still playing local gigs. Amazing talent and a great group of musicians. If you like dixieland jazz, you can't do better than this."

One of the Greatest New Orleans, French Quarter, Mardi Gras-

Arthur Blenheim | Boston | 01/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great CD of trumpeter Al Hirt's dixieland, Mardi Gras music. Al Hirt used to play at a club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter district, which I have only read about. If you're looking for French Quarter, dixie-style jazz music, this CD is perfect. Trumpeter Hirt is a technical marvel, and this disc of Pete Fountain's, the clarinetist, is great for the people who love Hirt's music, as this disc is a Pete Fountain tribute, the two playing together with four others in a group, to Hirt who had apparently just died before this CD released, according to its liner notes written by Pete. It says Al and Pete used to go fishing together.



Under normal circumstances, I suppose this fact about fishing together would be unimportant; but, it gives me something about Hirt's personal life, as does the part about Al's and Pete's laughably terrible tenure together as pest control exterminators when the jazz scene in Orleans was still scarce early in their relationship.



During my own, personal trumpet-playing years through junior high school--I played about four years--I looked up at Al "Jumbo" Hirt as a kid. And, like Hirt, I also went into the army, although I had other duties than playing a bugle or trumpet there: I had nine years beginning in 1997.



I once saw Al Hirt play live. It was July Fourth, probably around 1989 would be my guess. He came to Ormond Beach, the adjacent city--meaning next to--Daytona Beach in Florida--where I lived and went to school. Needless to say, I will never forget that experience for as long as I live. It was under the Granada Bridge, which is the largest bridge crossing the Intercoastal Waterway River, called the Halifax River in that part of Florida. It runs parallel to the Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach shoreline. Actually, that "beach side" of the river is only a few blocks wide. The largest bridge in the Daytona Beach area is the one that crosses the Halifax River in Ormond Beach: the Granada Bridge. At the foot of the eastern beach-side of the river, there was a large picnic-style festival with cotton candy, watermelon, and other stuff that one finds in a carnival-styled picnic. This festival was called Jazz-Matazz. There were several jazz musicians at the fest, one of them was a local who had come from the area. But, the highlight of this great jazz night was seeing Al Hirt with his band on the podium playing dixieland jazz. As dusk loomed over onto the west, I could see behind me thick crowds of spectators standing on Granada Bridge up to a mile back from where I was sitting, on the grass, and they loved the music. The crowds gathered there once Hirt-and-company started to play: talk about attracting a crowd! And so, Al Hirt played until the merriment of July Fourth fireworks of Ormond Beach went crashing onto the dark sky. Man, what a memorable image I carry from that evening when my dad took me and my younger sister to that fest.



I guess I must've been very busy with the army for those nine years because, in 1999, I didn't even know that Hirt had died. That's a long life from his birth in 1922. But, reading these liner notes somehow changes me. I only just found out he died about a week ago, and hence I picked out a great disc of Hirt jazz in the same memoriam to Hirt that Fountain provides by this release: this is the disc I chose. Knowing of his death makes me feel loss, remorse, and regret; and, I even feel I'm on the verge of tears. But, I know that if I feel the notion of sorrow, that it fits in with Hirt's music somehow. In addition to that, I also have that live performance on the Super Jazz CD, with Fountain and Hirt. In that disc, Hirt talks about something called a "jazz funeral."



A jazz funeral is a New Orleans-style funeral where, instead of ordinary funeral music, dixie and rag music would be played live after the funeral procession, much like having a party. He says the jazz music would start slow to show sympathy to the dead person, but that the music would then crank up into fast dixie-style jazz like a happy party--like in that movie "One Night Stand" with Wesley Snipes. I don't know if Hirt had a "jazz funeral" when he died, but I imagine so; and, I imagine the pain felt by those, like Fountain, for Hirt's death. And, I share in that pain. A marvel who plays as well as Hirt shouldn't have to die; he should get to ramble around forever.



Al Hirt, if you're listenin' from up there, your music has made the world a better place.



Oh yeah, if you dig this Mardi Gras stuff, check out these CDs: Al Hirt at the Mardi Gras (fun stuff!), and Honey in the Horn/Our Man in New Orleans (the 2-album CD). These albums help prove why New Orleans is on the Music Map of the world. The only thing that came even close to the experience I've had with Al Hirt's CDs was when I visited Munich's Hofbraeuhaus while I was stationed in Germany, a restaurant with a live band that really cooks, although it's beer-drinking music of a different kind."