JAZZ CLASSIC OF THE MONTH
The music at the Super Bowl halftime shows are famous for being pretty forgettable (some would say horrendous) except for those viewers who enjoy overblown spectacles, performers who lip synch to their recordings, inane lyrics, tasteless costumes, and drum machines. But there was one Super Bowl show that was on a different level.
In 1975 for Super Bowl IX which was held in New Orleans, clarinetist Pete Fountain and trumpeter Al Hirt teamed up during halftime, putting on a show that was much more entertaining than that year’s game. During the same week at the Fairmont Hotel, they performed with their individual bands and on three songs together, resulting in the double album Super Jazz.
Hirt and Fountain had teamed up on several exciting recordings during 1955-57 but, other than having minor roles on Dr. John’s 1992 album Goin’ Back To New Orleans, Super Jazz was their only other joint recording despite them being good friends and rival club owners.
Al Hirt, who spent part of the 1960s displaying his virtuosity in pop-oriented recordings, could always play Dixieland quite well. His sextet with clarinetist Pee Wee Spitelara and trombonist George Prejean performs a four-song “Salute To Satchmo,” a rousing “South Rampart Street Parade,” and their depiction of a jazz funeral. Pete Fountain, who retained his popularity for decades while sticking to a fairly set repertoire (he managed to always enthusiastically dig into warhorses as if he had just discovered the joy of the songs), plays six standards at the head of a five-horn octet that includes two trombonists and the great tenor Eddie Miller.
Best are the three numbers (“Perdido,” “Basin Street Blues,” and “Super Bowl Blues”) that have Hirt and Fountain with their entire bands playing together. The two New Orleans stars always brought out the best in each other. This double-LP is worth the search.
Al Hirt & Pete Fountain • Super Jazz
Monument PGZ33485
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
