Co-CEO and trustee of the Otto Bremer Trust, Brian Lipschultz shares joint responsibility for the $900 million charitable trust. Outside of the office, Brian Lipschultz is longtime jazz musician and fan. The jazz world recently lost a legend in New Orleans Jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain, who died in early August at the age of 86.
Born Pierre Dewey LaFontaine Jr. in New Orleans on July 3, 1930, Fountain started playing the clarinet when he was a child at the advice of a doctor. Suffering from respiratory issues, the doctor suggested a wind instrument to strengthen his lungs. Aside from that, it gave the world a jazz legend.
Fountain is perhaps most famous for his regular TV appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Lawrence Welk Show. Known for his free-spirited approach to playing, Fountain was famously fired from The Lawrence Welk Show after a particularly loose version of “Silver Bells,” something he’d later joke about with the press.
With nearly 100 albums under his belt, he performed for everyone from the president to the pope.
