Las Vegas Sun

March 30, 2024

Legendary trombonist Fontana dies

Legendary jazz trombonist Carl Fontana died Thursday at a Las Vegas Alzheimer's facility listening to the music that was his life.

Playing at his bedside was a CD he recorded in Las Vegas in 1999, "Live at Capozzoli's," featuring Fontana and fellow trombonist Andy Martin playing such standards as "I'll Be Seeing You" and "Only Trust Your Heart."

The 75-year-old, internationally acclaimed musician -- called "a trombonist's trombonist" by several jazz historians -- followed his heart from the time he was a teenager growing up in Monroe, La., performing in his father Collie's band.

His heart took him down a musical path that would earn him the respect of legions of fans and eventually, in 1957, lead him to Las Vegas.

University of Nevada Las Vegas music professor Ken Hanlon has been working on a biography of Fontana for more than 10 years.

"There's always an argument over who is the greatest," Hanlon, himself a trombonist, said. "But I would tell you, he would be among the top five greatest jazz trombonists of all time, and many people would tell you he was No. 1."

Jazz pianist Gus Mancuso, a friend of Fontana's for more than 50 years, agreed.

"Nobody could play like him. No matter where you went, everyone considered him the No. 1, or in the top three, jazz trombonist in the world."

"Carl worked with everybody," Mancuso recalled. From Woody Herman to "show bands, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka."

"In Europe and the Orient, he's a superstar," Mancuso said.

But Fontana didn't receive the respect in Vegas that he did elsewhere, Mancuso said. "He performed a lot of concerts. Nobody knew when he left town he would do a jazz concert and seminars and clinics. He'd make $5,000 or $6,000, then come back to town and work a jazz gig for $40."

Patrick Gaffey, president of the Las Vegas Jazz Society, agreed that Fontana was under-appreciated locally.

"This is not a jazz town," he said. "But Fontana certainly had claim to be the best living trombone player. He was just so supple, and had such a beautiful sound.

"In the community of trombonists around the world, he was a demigod."

Hanlon said Fontana was known for many things, among them his impeccable sense of timing.

"Everyone in the band honed in on him because if anyone was going to be right it was going to be Carl," Hanlon said. "He was an amazing man. I have never heard him make a mistake."

Fontana's signature tune was "Emily," and "his most famous solo was one he did on Stan Kenton's 'Intermission Riff,' a very simple tune, just three chords, but the solo he played on that was such a musically intelligent solo. It was a landmark."

But, Hanlon said, Fontana's reputation is based not so much on individual tunes.

"He was famous among other musicians because he knew more obscure tunes than anyone else," he said. "People called him from all over the world, 'Do you know what tune XYZ is, I need chord changes from the bridge,' and he would give it to them off the top of his head."

He also was famous for creating the "doodle tongue," a method of playing that increased his speed.

"It was a way of manipulating the air column with the tongue," Hanlon said. "It allowed him to play as fast as a sax player."

Fontana had an undergraduate degree in music from Louisiana State University and was working on a master's degree when he received a call in 1951 from Woody Herman, who asked him to substitute for a trombonist who had to take a some time off.

"Woody was so impressed that he hired Carl when he had an opening," Hanlon said.

Fontana toured with Herman's Third Herd for three years and then moved on to engagements with Lionel Hampton, Al Belletto, Hal McIntrye and Stan Kenton before settling in Vegas.

"One of the main reasons Carl moved to Vegas was that he loved dogs, and here he could let them run," Mancuso said. "We both starved for quite awhile, then I got a job. We both had dogs, and when I bought a case of food for my dog, I bought one for his, too."

Soon after, they landed a gig at the Black Magic nightclub. After that, they two musicians were rarely out of work.

Katie Mathis and her late husband, Jim, had been friends with Fontana since 1946.

Mathis, who is acting as the family spokesman, said she helped care for Fontana in the final months of his life.

"His favorite food was Southern Louisiana gumbo," Mathis said. "The last time he was at my home, I made some and he ate four bowls."

When it was time for him to return to the Alzheimer's center, she said he didn't want to go.

"Tears were running down his face," she said.

Mathis escorted him to various venues around town to perform when he was too frail to drive but still could remember his music.

In 2000 she accompanied him and members of his family on a jazz cruise.

"He wasn't able to play until the last evening," Mathis said. "I guess that was his last big performance."

In January, Mancuso hosted a tribute to the ailing Fontana at the Bootlegger. A couple hundred friends and admirers attended. Dozens of musicians from around the world sent letters.

Fontana attempted to play his beloved trombone at the tribute, but by that time his disease had weakened his body to the degree that he could barely hold the instrument to his lips and he could not expel the air it required to bring forth a note.

Mathis, 82, has known Fontana since he was 16, and it was hard for her to watch her friend deteriorate in recent months. During the past week he began wasting away and was unable to swallow, she said.

"We prayed for him to go ahead and pass on," Mathis said.

Mathis said the last thing to go in an Alzheimer's patient is the hearing.

"He heard everything," she said. "We reminisced with him, read him letters from all over the world. We knew he was hearing us because his eyes followed us."

She said his youngest son, Scott, placed a small CD player beside his bed and it was playing the Fontana album when he died at noon Thursday.

In addition to his son Scott, Fontana is survived by a daughter, Felicia Valenti, and another son, Mark; eight grandchildren and two brothers, Dr. George Fontana and Mickey Fontana, both of Monroe.

Mathis said Fontana is to be cremated.

A memorial service is pending at Palm Mortuary Northwest.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the Las Vegas Jazz Society, P.O. Box 60396, Las Vegas, NV 89160.

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