Pete Fountain, clarinetist 1930 - 2016

Pete Fountain, New Orleans jazz clarinetist who appeared on “The Lawrence Welk Show” and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” has died. He was 86. Fountain died of heart failure on Saturday, 8 August 2016, in New Orleans, his son-in-law and manager Benny Harrell confirmed to the AP. 
VARIETY 

Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr. (July 3, 1930 – August 6, 2016), known professionally as Pete Fountain, was an American clarinetist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He played easy listening, jazz, Dixieland, pop jazz, honky-tonk jazz, pop, and Creole music. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Pete Fountain - Crazy

Lois Best Herman, 98, was 'Original Champagne Lady' for Lawrence Welk's orchestra

Lois Herman, of Mendota Heights, Welk’s “Original Champagne Lady” and later the featured singer in a 35-year run at the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul, died Oct. 28 of heart failure. She was 98. Her cheery voice and engaging stage presence turned heads and launched a 60-year musical career that included once playing the organ for President Ronald Reagan. She was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, as was her late husband, Jules, whom she met when he played trumpet in Welk’s band. NYTimes Obit
 VIDEO: Here’s a 1939 film clip that shows Lois Best Herman singing and smiling next to a very young Lawrence Welk as his orchestra plays on. 

Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader

WIKIPEDIA

During the 1930s, Welk led a traveling big band that specialized in dance tunes and "sweet" music (during this period, bands which played light, melodic music were referred to as "sweet bands" to distinguish them from the heavy, loud, rhythmic swing bands of artists like Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington). Initially, the band traveled around the country by car. They were too poor to rent rooms, so they usually slept and changed clothes in their cars. The term "Champagne Music" was derived from an engagement at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, when a dancer referred to his band's sound as "light and bubbly as champagne." The hotel also lays claim to the original "bubble machine," a prop left over from a 1920s movie premiere. Welk described his band's sound, saying "We still play music with the champagne style, which means light and rhythmic. We place the stress on melody; the chords are played pretty much the way the composer wrote them. We play with a steady beat so that dancers can follow it


The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known to his large number of radio, television, and live-performance fans (and critics) as "champagne music". In 1996, Welk was ranked #43 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.