Friday, October 10, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Carl Fontana dies; trombonist for Woody Herman

Musician, who moved to Las Vegas in 1958, performed with jazz greats but never bragged

Carl Fontana played for Woody Herman's "Third Herd" band and went on to work with Lionel Hampton and other greats. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

Carl Fontana, who some jazz musicians had considered the greatest living trombonist, has died. He was 75.

Some Las Vegans who knew Fontana described him Thursday as a musician's musician, a homebody with a musician's off-the-wall sense of humor and a terrible interviewee because he did not boast.

"There's an old expression musicians say: There are guys who talk about how they play, and there are guys who let their horn do the talking," said Ken Hanlon, director of the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"The minute he picked up his horn, it was obvious who was in charge."

Hanlon knew Fontana and interviewed the musician for a biography he continues to work on.

Hanlon said Fontana was born in Monroe, La., in 1928, to a father who was a plumber, a saxophonist, a violinist and a big-band leader.

Fontana earned a bachelor's degree in music at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and he began to work on a graduate degree in music when he was called to work with Woody Herman's "Third Herd" band. He went on to work with Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton and Kai Winding, among other greats.

Fontana moved to Las Vegas in 1958. He would become most known for a solo he played in a Herman song, "Intermission Riff."

"What was remarkable about the tune is it only had three chords. It was a simple tune, one of those things the band just made up off the top of their head," Hanlon said.

"He played this solo, and nobody could believe he could take something so simple and weave it with the texture and the musicality it had. It really, truly is a masterpiece."

Hanlon, a trombonist himself, said, "I can play that one, but there were (Fontana) solos after that, that I don't know anybody could play."

Fontana came to be called "Captain Kut-Cha" and was a master of timing, Hanlon said.

But it was his technique, "double tonguing," that few others could duplicate. That technique involved Fontana performing incredibly fast -- as fast as a saxophonist -- by mastering the pronouncement of a second musical syllable when his tongue hit the "backstroke" in his mouth.

Fontana performed around Las Vegas and would star in annual trombone concerts at UNLV, until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease just more than two years ago, Hanlon said.

Fontana was "taciturn, reticent, not a bragger," said Patrick Gaffey, supervisor of the Winchester Center, who interviewed the musician for the Las Vegas Jazz Society's newsletter.

"Carl, before his illness, had a legitimate claim to being the best living trombonist," Gaffey said. "The fluidity of his style and the incredible beauty of his tone and his really brilliant note choices always made him a joy to listen to."

He also was "just about the worst interview I ever had," Gaffey said. "To get him talking about anything, no, he'd just sit there and look at you."

Why?

"I don't know. He just didn't seem to be a talker. I guess maybe he reserved all this expression for his instrument," Gaffey said.

"I don't think he liked to be compared to other trombone players. When I asked him about his influences, he said (he) wasn't particularly influenced by other people," Gaffey said.

His death marks the loss of another great trombonist who lived in Las Vegas, Gaffey said.

"There was Bill Harris. He's been called the father of modern jazz trombone," Gaffey said. "And Turk Murphy, another highly respected trombonist. ... It just is remarkable that this has been a great town for jazz trombonists."

Fontana "wasn't as famous as he should have been," Gaffey said. "That was partly because he wasn't much of a talker, wasn't flamboyant. He was just all about playing the trombone."

Among Fontana family members who live in Las Vegas are a daughter, two sons and two grandchildren, Hanlon said.