Thought people would like to know how these musicians are doing. Especially since many were afraid Fats Domino had drowned during the levee flooding.
Two stories are dated mid-October from the BBC and MS-NBC, and the one on Pete Fountain came out just this week in a Canadian paper. Have a look.
Blues legend Fats Domino, who went missing after Hurricane Katrina, has returned home to New Orleans to collect some of his belongings.
[…]
He was one of a handful of residents sifting through their homes and destroyed belongings in New Orleans’ lower Ninth Ward on Saturday afternoon [October 15].
Domino’s son-in-law, Charles Brimmer, helped the musician load mementos from his career into the car.
Only three of his 21 gold records – for Rose Mary, I’m Walkin’, and Blue Monday – were found, Domino said.
[…]
Brimmer and Domino also recovered some jewellery, including a gold ring, but a picture of Domino with Elvis was “too messed up” to salvage.
Two of his pianos in a bigger, adjoining house were ruined, he added.
According to MS-NBC, Domino, 77, was wearing a captain’s cap, a gold chain and black galoshes. This guy was probably in mourning, but his outfit sure didn’t reflect it. His home, by the way, was also the headquarters of his publishing company. He is considering releasing an album he recorded two years ago called Alive and Kicking, so that his fans are reassured and he can make some money.
Domino was scheduled for a performance in Baton Rouge November 5 “if I’m feeling better.” He’s staying in a nearby hotel to be close to the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood while it rebuilds. Earlier, he and his family had been living in Texas. His ex-wife, by the way, lived next door to him in a house he bought for her.
Domino can’t think of living anywhere else but New Orleans.
Meanwhile, clarinetist Pete Fountain, 75, wants to play again, though his Bay St. Louis, MS, home has been destroyed:
[…]Hurricane Katrina wiped virtually all the treasures away, destroying his plantation-style home and about 10 instruments – even a grand piano. Fountain and wife Beverly survived after multiple evacuations that took them from Cajun Country to Cotton Country when Katrina and Hurricane Rita struck.
“Those two ladies, especially Katrina, really got me,” Fountain said recently in his newly rented home in Hammond, about 80 kilometres northwest of New Orleans. “But I have two of my best clarinets so I’m OK. I can still toot.”
[…]
Fountain, renowned for leading his Half-Fast Walking Club on Fat Tuesday down St. Charles Avenue to the French Quarter, said that tradition will continue. A prominent member in recent years has been actor John Goodman.
“We might walk in our drawers, but we’re going to walk,” Fountain said.
Among Fountain’s losses were photos of Louis Armstrong, with whom he performed, his collection of vintage guns, a Porsche and his part-time gig at Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis because of severe hurricane damage.
He found one of his gold records, covered with mud, and one of the two clarinets was recovered by a neighbour a few blocks from his house.
But Fountain, who planned to give his memorabilia to his grandchildren, said he and his wife consider themselves fortunate to have survived. They still have a home in New Orleans and recently celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary.
I know why John Goodman would dig Fountain. Both of them are large men who like hearty meals and hearty playing.
Are they starting all over again like other New Orleanians? In a way, no. Both are in their mid or late seventies, but they will have gigs as time and health permit. No insurance policies, however, could ever take the place of those photographs and memorabilia.