Irving Fazola - Legacy

Legacy

Fazola was an enormous influence on young clarinetist Pete Fountain, whose style and sound very much followed Fazola’s and who sat in for Faz at the Opera House the night Faz died, specifically requested because he played like Faz. Fountain has Faz's clarinet, but says that the odor of garlic that comes from the horn when it warms up makes it virtually impossible to play even after having been reconditioned by the factory. It was an Albert System clarinet, on which the fingers are stretched out more than on the Boehm System clarinet that Fountain played. The distinctive woody (or "fat") Fountain sound, however, comes from the crystal mouthpiece he has played with since 1949, his first having been Fazola's own, given to him along with the clarinet by Fazola’s mother after Faz's death, because she had heard him play and noted how he played like her son. Pete has played crystal mouthpieces ever since.