Friday, Nov. 10, 2000 | 9:59 a.m.
New Orleans clarinetist Pete Fountain, billed as "Mr. New Orleans and his Jazz Greats," was an annual attraction in the Tropicana Blue Room in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A warm, intimate 400-plus seat showroom, it was also a performing home in Las Vegas for Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner, Benny Goodman, Al Hirt and the Ramsey Lewis Trio, among others. Russ and Sundi Martino were a husband-wife team, piano and vocals, long gone. Fountain's million-record seller back then was an instrumental, "Just A Closer Walk With Thee." Fountain has his own club in New Orleans and still plays Las Vegas once or twice a year at the Orleans.
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