After 48 Years, Skip Parsons Leaves The Fountain for the Last Time

Photograph by Dan Hogan

It’s the end of an era – a very rich and long era in Local music scene terms…

In the delicate here-today, gone-tomorrow balance between musicians and club owners, longevity and loyalty are oh-so rare commodities. Tempers flare. Bands break up. Clubs close.

So it is with great sadness that we report that clarinetist-bandleader Skip Parsons’ monthly engagement at The Fountain in Albany is no more.

Skip Parsons Riverboat Jazz Band began playing at John Romano’s New Scotland Avenue restaurant way back in 1971, taking over the second weekend of each month with Friday and Saturday night gigs for nearly a half century.

Recently The Fountain cut back the band’s long-running residency to just one night a month, instead of two.

Following the band’s gig earlier this month, Parsons decided it was time to make the break with The Fountain.

“Related to all the uncomfortable incidents there lately, it has become obvious that the new ownership would just as soon we be on the other side of the door,” Parsons wrote in a email to fans. “It’s too bad it had to end this way. It was sure a good run, with a lot of good memories. I am thankful for all that, but things finally reached the end of the road.”