Editing Pete Fountain (section)

==Early life and education==
LaFontaine was born to Pierre, Sr. and Madeline, in a small [[Creole cottage]]-style frame house on White Street (between Dumaine Street and St. Ann Street) in [[New Orleans]].<ref name=CloserWalk>{{cite book |last1=Fountain |first1=Pete |others=with Bill Neely |title=A Closer Walk, the Pete Fountain Story |url=https://archive.org/details/closerwalkpetef00foun/page/2/mode/2up?q=%22white+street%22 |publisher=Henry Regnery |location=Chicago |year=1972 |pages=2–3 |access-date=September 20, 2024 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Pete was the great-grandson of a [[France|French]] immigrant, François Fontaine, who was born in [[Toulon]], circa 1796, and came to the U.S. in the early 19th century, and died on the [[Mississippi]] [[Gulf Coast of the United States|Gulf Coast]] circa 1885.<ref name= latimes>{{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Randy |title=New Orleans jazz clarinet great Pete Fountain dies at 86 |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-pete-fountain-dies-obituary-20160806-snap-story.html |access-date=October 3, 2016 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=August 6, 2016}}</ref> Pete's father, a truck driver and part-time musician, changed the family name to Fountain.<ref name=theguardian/><ref name=death/>

He started playing clarinet as a child at the McDonogh 28 school located on [[Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans|Esplanade Avenue]]. As a child, young Pete was very sickly, frequently battling respiratory infections due to weakened lungs. He was given expensive medication but it proved ineffective. During a pharmacy visit, Pete's father began a discussion with a neighborhood doctor who was also there shopping and talked with him about his son's condition. The doctor agreed to see the boy the following day. After a short exam, the doctor confirmed the weak lung condition and advised the father to try an unorthodox treatment: purchase the child a musical instrument, anything he has to blow into. The same day, they went to a local music store and, given his choice of instruments, Pete chose the [[clarinet]] (after first wanting the drums, which his father declined per the doctor's orders). At first, Pete was unable to produce a sound from the instrument, but he continued to practice and eventually not only made sounds and eventually music, but greatly improved the health of his lungs.

He took private lessons but also learned to play jazz by playing along with [[phonograph]] records of first [[Benny Goodman]] and then [[Irving Fazola]]. By the time he reached his teens, he was playing regular gigs in the nightclubs on [[Bourbon Street]].<ref name="Keepnews (Fountain)">{{cite news |last1=Keepnews |first1=Peter |title=Pete Fountain, a Clarinetist Known for His High-Spirited New Orleans Jazz, Is Dead at 86 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/arts/music/pete-fountain-clarinetist-known-for-his-high-spirited-new-orleans-jazz-dies-at-86.html?_r=0 |date=August 6, 2016 |access-date=August 7, 2016 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> According to Fountain:
:When I was a high school senior, my history teacher asked me why I didn’t study more... I answered that I was too busy playing clarinet every night, and when I told him I was making scale — about $125 a week — he said that was more than he made and I should play full time. I guess I was a professional from that point on.<ref name="Keepnews (Fountain)"/>

One of Fountain's early engagements were with the bands of [[Monk Hazel]]. Fountain founded the [[Basin Street Six]] in 1950 with his longtime friend, trumpeter [[George Girard]]. In 1954, after the Basin Street Six folded, Fountain briefly went to Chicago to play with the [[Dukes of Dixieland]], then returned to New Orleans and teamed up with [[Al Hirt]] to lead a band, playing an extended residence at Dan Levy’s Pier 600.<ref name="Keepnews (Fountain)"/>