A sonic exploration and tonal analysis of contemporary creative music in a myriad of improvisational/composed settings, textures, and expressions.
Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions
and categories of what constitutes the generic and stylistic definitions of ‘Jazz’, ‘classical music’, ‘Blues.’
'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual
artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what
music is and could be.
So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay
homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Sidney Bechet (1897-1959): Legendary, iconic, and innovative musician, composer, arranger, ensemble leader, producer, and teacher
Sidney Bechet was the first important jazz soloist on records in history (beating Louis Armstrong by a few months). A brilliant soprano saxophonist and clarinetist with a wide vibrato that listeners either loved or hated, Bechet's
style did not evolve much through the years but he never lost his
enthusiasm or creativity. A master at both individual and collective
improvisation within the genre of New Orleans jazz, Bechet was such a dominant player that trumpeters found it very difficult to play with him. Bechet wanted to play lead and it was up to the other horns to stay out of his way.
Sidney Bechet studied clarinet in New Orleans with Lorenzo Tio, Big Eye Louis Nelson, and George Baquet
and he developed so quickly that as a child he was playing with some of
the top bands in the city. He even taught clarinet, and one of his
students (Jimmie Noone)
was actually two years older than him. In 1917, he traveled to Chicago,
and in 1919 he joined Will Marion Cook's orchestra, touring Europe with
Cook
and receiving a remarkably perceptive review from Ernst Ansermet. While
overseas he found a soprano sax in a store and from then on it was his
main instrument. Back in the U.S., Bechet made his recording debut in 1923 with Clarence Williams and during the next two years he appeared on records backing blues singers, interacting with Louis Armstrong and playing some stunning solos. He was with Duke Ellington's early orchestra for a period and at one point hired a young Johnny Hodges for his own band. However, from 1925-1929 Bechet
was overseas, traveling as far as Russia but getting in trouble (and
spending jail time) in France before being deported.
Most of the 1930s were comparatively lean times for Bechet. He worked with Noble Sissle on and off and had a brilliant session with his New Orleans Feetwarmers in 1932 (featuring trumpeter Tommy Ladnier).
But he also ran a tailor's shop which was more notable for its jam
sessions than for any money it might make. However, in 1938 he had a hit
recording of "Summertime," Hugues Panassie featured Bechet on some records and soon he was signed to Bluebird where he recorded quite a few classics during the next three years. Bechet worked regularly in New York, appeared on some of Eddie Condon's Town Hall concerts, and in 1945 he tried unsuccessfully to have a band with the veteran trumpeter Bunk Johnson (whose constant drinking killed the project). Jobs began to dry up about this time, and Bechet opened up what he hoped would be a music school. He only had one main pupil, but Bob Wilber became his protégé.
Sidney Bechet's
fortunes changed drastically in 1949. He was invited to the Salle
Pleyel Jazz Festival in Paris, caused a sensation, and decided to move
permanently overseas. Within a couple years he was a major celebrity and
a national hero in France, even though the general public in the U.S.
never did know who he was. Bechet's
last decade was filled with exciting concerts, many recordings, and
infrequent visits back to the U.S. before his death from cancer. His
colorful (if sometimes fanciful) memoirs Treat It Gentle and John
Chilton's magnificent Bechet biography The Wizard of Jazz (which traces his life nearly week-by-week) are both highly recommended. Many of Sidney Bechet's recordings are currently available on CD.
Along with his fellow New Orleanian, Louis
Armstrong, Bechet was one of the first great soloists in jazz. His
throaty, powerful clarinet and his throbbing soprano are among the most
thrilling sounds in early jazz. He went from being a pioneer of jazz in
the 1920s to a national hero in France, where he spent the final decade
of his life. In his teens he made his name playing in some of New
Orleans's up-and- coming bands, and he played there and in Chicago with
King Oliver. Sidney Bechet was born in New Orleans in May 1897, of
Creole ancestry, grew up in a middle class environment. His father,
Omar, who was a shoemaker, played the flute as a hobby. Indeed, music
had an important role in the Bechet household, as Sidney's four brothers
also played instruments. His brother, Leonard, played the clarinet and
trombone, and it was to the former instrument that eight- year-old
Sidney was attracted. Leonard, whose main interest was the trombone,
passed along his clarinet to his younger brother. At first, Sidney
played in the family musicales - waltzes, quadrilles, and the polite
music of the middle class. But as he grew into adolescence, Sidney was
attracted to the syncopated music played in the dance halls and brothels
in the Storyville District. As a boy, he would watch the street parades
in which jazz bands played and was so attracted to the music, that he
often played hooky from school. As he became more proficient on the
clarinet, Sidney played in local jazz bands, such as the Young
Olympians. His playing so impressed Bunk Johnson, the legendary cornet
player, that Sidney was invited to join Johnson's band, the Eagle Band.
Sidney gained much experience, playing in dance halls, and for picnics,
and parties.
Bechet left New Orleans for the first time when he was
19, traveling to Chicago with pianist, Clarence Williams and his variety
show. He recorded a few sides there with Williams in 1923 for the Okeh
label, released under the name of Rosetta Crawford accompanied by King
Bechet Trio. Bechet plays some very soulful clarinet and saxophone on
these sides. He then joined up with King Oliver. Bechet's big break came
in 1919 when the composer-conductor Will Marion Cook asked him to join
his Southern Syncopated Orchestra for an engagement in London where he
came to the attention of the noted Swiss Conductor, Ernst Ansermet, who
conducted the music of Stravinsky for the Ballets Russa. Ansermet wrote
in a Swiss musical Journal, “The extraordinary clarinet virtuoso Bechet
is an artist of genius!”
Though starting out as a clarinetist,
Bechet eventually became even better known as a virtuoso of the soprano
saxophone. He first tried to play on a beat-up old soprano sax he
purchased in a pawn shop. Such was the difficulty of the soprano sax; an
instrument extremely difficult to play in tune that he gave up and
obtained his money back from the pawnbroker. A year latter in London, he
purchased a brand new instrument and tried again. This time he was
successful and succeeded in making the soprano saxophone an important
voice in jazz.
Much of Bechet's subsequent career was spent
abroad. In 1925 he played in Claude Hopkin's band, which was
accompanying a revue starring Josephine Baker. Bechet also played in
bands led by Noble Sissle in London and Paris, and later, in the United
States.
In 1932, Bechet and his friend, trumpet player Tommy
Ladnier, formed their own band, the New Orleans Feetwarmers. The New
Orleans Feetwarmers 1932 sides are the epitome of Hot Jazz. Bechet’s
soprano sax playing is nothing short of amazing on the song “Shag”.
Ernest Meyers's scat singing solo on that same song has to be one of the
finest examples of Jazz singing ever recorded. Unfortunately the
records didn't sell well. When engagements for the Feetwarmers became
scarce, Ladnier and Bechet opened a dry cleaning shop in Harlem. In the
Forties Bechet worked regularly in New York with Eddie Condon and tried
to start a band with Bunk Johnson. Bechet was a popular figure of the
Dixieland revival of the late Forties often recording with Mezz Mezzrow.
Bechet
returned to France in 1952 and was warmly received there. While in
France he recorded hit records that rivaled the sales of pop stars.
Bechet was one of the great soloists of early Jazz. He lived a very rich
life, always managing to “make the scene” where it was “happening”,
whether it be in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Berlin or Paris.
Much
of the latter part of his life, he spent in France. Many of his
compositions are inspired by his love for that country. They include
“Petite Fleur”, “Rue des Champs Elysees”, and “Si tous vois ma mere”.
Other compositions include “Chant in the Night”, “Blues in the Air”,
“Bechet's Fantasy”, and his ode to his Brooklyn home, “Quincy Street
Stomp”
. It was in Europe that he achieved his greatest success
and where eventually made his home, but he never forgot the New Orleans
tradition that nurtured and inspired him. Bechet died in Paris, France,
on his 62nd birthday, May 14, 1959.
Sidney Bechet played both the
clarinet and soprano saxophone with a broad vibrato, a characteristic
that gave passion and intensity to his playing. Bechet has left a
profound mark on the way the clarinet and the soprano saxophone are
played today in jazz. He has influenced countless musicians including
Johnny Hodges, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Bob Wilber and Branford
Marsalis, among others. Sidney Bechet was a great improviser, with a
passion for life as well as music.
In July 1997, The Sidney Bechet Society was formed to perpetuate the name and fame of Sidney Bechet.
Sidney Bechet was a unique figure in jazz history. A masterful
soprano-saxophonist and clarinetist, he recorded the first significant
jazz solos (other than pianists). Bechet, whose fiery personality was
sometimes a liability, was a dominant player who preferred that the
trumpeter in his bands state a simple melodic lead so he could create
virtuosic counter-melodies around him. If the trumpeter failed in the
task or tried to challenge him, Bechet could easily wipe him out with
his powerful tone which had a wide but perfectly-controlled vibrato. He
was not going to play second fiddle to a mere trumpeter! All of the
musicians in his groups ended up being in the supporting cast anyway,
supporting the brilliant Bechet.
Growing up in New Orleans
He was born May 14, 1897 in New Orleans. Growing up surrounded by
music (his older brother Leonard played trombone), Sidney tried out a
variety of instruments as a toddler, settling on the clarinet. At the
age of six, he was already strong enough to perform with his brother’s
group (the Silver Bells Band) at a party. At eight, he sat in with
cornetist Freddie Keppard’s band, faring quite well and quickly gaining a
strong reputation in the Crescent City. He took a few lessons from a
trio of clarinetists (Lorenzo Tio, Big Eye Louis Nelson, and George
Baquet), soon surpassing each of them even if he never learned to read
music. By the time he was 15, he had worked with Keppard, Buddie Petit’s
Young Olympians (1909), John Robichaux (1911-12), Bunk Johnson in The
Eagle Band and next to King Oliver in The Olympic Band. Considered the
top clarinetist in New Orleans, Bechet also doubled on cornet during the
era (though unfortunately he never recorded on it) and he gave clarinet
lessons to Jimmie Noone who was actually two years older.
Set to Traveling
Sidney Bechet always looked back with pride at his New Orleans years,
but by 1914 he had the itch to explore a larger world. He began working
with traveling shows and carnivals, traveling throughout the South. In
1917 he arrived in Chicago where he took jobs with transplanted New
Orleanians King Oliver, Freddie Keppard and clarinetist Lawrence Duhe.
By the spring of 1919, Bechet was in New York where he joined Will
Marion Cook’s Southern Syncopated Orchestra for their groundbreaking
tour of Europe. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band had recently introduced jazz to
London, causing a sensation. Although it was more of a show band with
large productions, Will Marion Cook’s 27-piece orchestra enjoyed a
similar success performing at London’s Royal Philharmonic Hall for five
months. Bechet was showcased on a clarinet feature during
“Characteristic Blues” that consistently brought down the house. The
Swiss classical conductor Ernest Arnsermet wrote a very perceptive
review of Bechet’s playing in the October 1919 issue of Revue Romande.
Ansermet raved about Bechet’s originality and predicted that there was a
good chance that the music world of the future would be following in
his footsteps. Sidney Bechet had a particularly colorful life in the 1920s. A
dispute over wages resulted in him being among several musicians that
left Will Marion Cook later in 1919. At that time he bought his first
soprano saxophone. Bechet would double between soprano and clarinet
throughout the rest of his life, with the louder and more forceful
soprano becoming his main instrument. Bechet mostly played in London
with a combo led by drummer Benny Payton for the next three years, also
visiting France. With Peyton he made his first recording (“High Society”
and “Tiger Rag”) in early 1920, but it was never issued. In Sept. 1922,
shortly after putting together his own group, Bechet was arrested and
charged with assaulting a woman who was probably a prostitute. He spent
two weeks in jail and was deported back to the U.S.
Early Recordings
Soon Bechet was acting as a saxophone-playing Chinese laundryman (!) in How Come,
a traveling show that prominently featured Bessie Smith. Bechet
recorded “Sister Kate” in January 1923 on what would have been Smith’s
first record but that too went unreleased. He spent part of the year
back with Will Marion Cook in an American vaudeville production, but
more importantly, he began to record regularly. On July 30, 1923 on his
first released recordings, Bechet was in the spotlight all the way
throughout “Wild Cat Blues” and “Kansas City Man Blues,” taking
innovative solos. A master at playing blues, Bechet was utilized on a
variety of sessions organized by pianist Clarence Williams including with blues singers Sara Martin, Mamie Smith,
Rosetta Crawford, Margaret Johnson, Virginia Liston, Sippie Wallace,
and Alberta Hunter. He uplifted swinging numbers featuring Williams’
wife Eva Taylor and starred, often next to Louis Armstrong,
with Clarence Williams’ Blue Five and the Red Onion Jazz Babies. The
competitive playing of Armstrong and Bechet made musical history. While
Armstrong took honors on an uptempo “Cake Walking Babies From Home,”
Bechet could not be topped on “Mandy, Make Up Your Mind” which has his
only recording on the bass sarrusophone!
The 20’s
In 1924 Bechet worked with the Black And White Revue, James P.
Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith and several months with Duke
Ellington’s Washingtonians. Although he never recorded with Ellington,
the two were lifelong mutual admirers. Bechet became the early mentor
for altoist Johnny Hodges (who occasionally doubled on soprano until
1940) when both worked with James P. Johnson. After having an unsuccessful period running his own Club Basha in New
York, Bechet was ready to roam again. He went to France in Sept. 1925
with La Revue Nègre, the show that made Josephine Baker into a star.
During the next few years, Bechet traveled and performed all over Europe
including in Paris, Berlin and even Russia. However a shooting incident
with banjoist Mike McKendrick resulted in him being jailed in Paris for
11 months during 1928-29. Deported after his release, he spent time
playing in Berlin, appeared in a film, and in late 1930 headed back to
New York.
The 30’s
Sidney Bechet worked on and off with Noble Sissle’s show band during
1931-37. While he always had a few features and was happy to be back on
records again (having not recorded during 1926-30), the music was not
that satisfying. Bechet departed and led the New Orleans Feetwarmers
during part of 1932. The band, which also featured trumpeter Tommy
Ladnier, recorded a very exciting session that was highlighted by
uptempo romps on ‘I’ve Found A New Baby,” “Shag” and “Maple Leaf Rag.”
But the group did not last more than a few months, the Depression was at
its height, and Bechet tour a temporary detour. He operated the
Southern Tailor Shop with Ladnier in New York. But because they spent
more time having jam sessions in the back room than they did working on
tailoring, that venture soon closed. Bechet returned to Noble Sissle’s
orchestra (1934-38), having a low profile in a jazz world that was
filled with big bands and swing.
Revival
In 1938 a greater interest in early jazz performers resulted in
Bechet appearing on records by singers Trixie Smith and Leola Wilson. He
soon led his first record date in six years, was the star of Mezz
Mezzrow’s “Really The Blues” session, and reunited with Ladnier in a new
version of the New Orleans Feetwarmers that appeared at John Hammond’s Spirituals To Swing
concert at Carnegie Hall. 1939 included a hit version of “Summertime”
for the Blue Note label, and a memorable record date with Jelly Roll
Morton. Signed to the Victor label, Bechet made many of his most famous
recordings during 1940-41 including “Old Man Blues,” “Nobody Knows The
Way I Feel This Morning,” the haunting “Egyptian Fantasy,” and “I Know
That You Know.” He also recorded two classic matchups with cornetist
Muggsy Spanier in a pianoless drumless quartet with guitar and bass, had
a reunion with Louis Armstrong in 1940 that resulted in competitive
recordings of four songs, and he made his famous “One-Man Band” session
of Apr. 19, 1941. On the latter, Bechet played clarinet, soprano, tenor,
piano, bass and drums via overdubbing (a revolutionary idea at the
time), resulting in unusual versions of “The Sheik Of Araby” and “Blues
Of Bechet.” After the Victor contract ended, Bechet recorded many worthy
sessions for Mezz Mezzrow’s King Jazz label and for Blue Note including
a set in 1945 with Bunk Johnson. With the New Orleans revival movement in full swing, Bechet worked
steadily during the first half of the 1940s including making appearances
on a few of Eddie Condon’s famed Town Hall radio broadcasts. While he
was perfectly comfortable playing swing tunes like “One O’Clock Jump”
and Duke Ellington’s “Stompy Jones,” it was Bechet’s goal to perform an
old-time New Orleans band like the ones from his childhood. He persuaded
Bunk Johnson to join his new band but Bunk’s excessive drinking and
erratic playing resulted in the group not lasting more than a few
months. Things began to slow down by 1948 with the rise of bebop and rhythm
and blues. Bechet continued working while also thinking about becoming a
music teacher. He put up a sign at his home but only attracted one
student, Bob Wilber, who became his protégé. Bechet began to become
restless again.
Paris
In May 1949, Sidney Bechet returned to Paris to perform at the
International Jazz Festival, where he was one of the main hits along
with Charlie Parker. Bechet so enjoyed the adulation of the crowd that
within a year he had permanently settled in France. While few in the
United States outside of the jazz fans knew who Bechet was, in France he
became a household name. Large audiences were attracted to his music,
his enthusiastic playing and his brilliance. He was considered a
national hero and a celebrity. In France during most of his final decade, Bechet performed the New
Orleans jazz standards, Dixieland tunes and ballads that he most
enjoyed. He never lost his enthusiasm for the music or his ability to
come up with creative and surprising ideas. Still very much in his
musical prime, he used young French players (often from either
clarinetist Andre Reweliotty or Claude Luter’s band) who were in awe of
him and did not mind him completely dominating the music. While he
mostly performed on the European continent, there were occasional
reunions with touring Americans (including a very exciting session with
trumpeter Jonah Jones) and Bechet made a few visits to the U.S. until
1953. Recording mostly for Vogue during his last period, he had hit
records with “Les Oignons” and “Petite Fleur,” and showed on a quartet
project in 1957 with modern jazz pianist Martial Solal that he was quite
capable of playing sophisticated tunes. He appeared in several French
movies and, despite not knowing how to read music, composed a classical
ballet (La Nuit est sorciere). In 1958 he completed his memorable and
poetic autobiography Treat It Gentle. Bechet’s last hurrah was at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 where
he led an American group featuring Buck Clayton and Vic Dickenson. Soon
afterwards, he was stricken with lung cancer. His final recordings (from
Dec. 12, 1958) are of spirited versions of four Christmas-related songs
and a remake of “Les Oignons.” He passed away on his 62nd birthday, May
14, 1959. Sidney Bechet was such a dominant force on the soprano-sax that for
many years hardly anyone else in jazz played that instrument. He ranks
with Louis Armstrong as the most technically skilled and gifted of all
New Orleans musicians.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a
regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many
jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat,
Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor
for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy
Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 800
liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow
was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music
Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los
Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag and Jazz Inside.
Sidney Joseph Bechet, the American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and
composer, was born on May 14, 1897, in New Orleans, Louisiana. One of
the first important jazz soloists, his recordings precede those of Louis
Armstrong, three years his junior, with whom he would later play duets.
Noted for well-conceived improvisations and a wide vibrato on both
clarinet and soprano sax — due in no small part to his love of operatic
tenors, especially Enrico Caruso — Bechet, though initially making the
clarinet his primary instrument, may well have been the first well-known
jazz saxophonist and the first great soprano saxophonist, giving it a
prominent place in jazz. Bechet’s compositions include jazz and pop-tune
forms, as well as extended concert works. Unlike Louis Armstrong, who grew up, sometimes with his mother and a
series of “stepfathers,” sometimes with his grandmother, and sometimes
in reform school, Bechet, of Creole ancestry, grew up in a middle class
environment. His father, Omar, was shoemaker and an amateur flutist; his
four brothers pursued other musical instruments. His brother Leonard (a
dentist) played trombone and clarinet. When eight-year-old Sidney
gravitated toward the latter, Leonard made him a present of it. Even in Sidney’s youth he mastered any instrument he tried; indeed,
he had started out on cornet. But, John Chilton tells us in his
biography, Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz (London:
Macmillan, 1987) that George Baquet, a noted clarinetist, who had
coached young Sidney from time to time beginning in 1907, found that
Sidney, who had already developed his own fingerings for the instrument,
took in everything Baquet had to say about “embouchure, reeds,
mouthpieces, and legato and staccato playing, but any talk about reading
music ...and studying harmonies seemed to be quite pointless.” Sidney
could follow all that without studying chord names or poring over the
written score. He remained a non-reader his entire life, depending
solely upon his ear.
As part of his research for his book Mr. Jelly Roll, Alan Lomax
recorded, in April 1949, first-hand recollections by Sidney’s brother
Leonard Bechet, Albert Glenny, Johnny St. Cyr, Alphonse Picou, and Paul
Dominguez, Jr., about early New Orleans jazz and Creole music. They
recounted that older Creoles had avoided jazz and favored the polite
music of their own Down-town dance halls, just as they spoke French or
their own patois and attended plays in French in order to maintain their
culture. Alphonse Picou was a good clarinetist, Leonard Bechet relates,
but he played a cooler “High Society,” not “hot” jazz. Creole society
wanted “respectful,...not jazz, [but] nice, music,” so its musicians
hesitated to play jazz, the music of “rough, ignorant,... Up-town” New
Orleans. So Sidney and his family performed waltzes, mazurkas, polkas,
quadrilles, and schottisches. But the jazz he heard in street bands as a
boy and the syncopated music of Up-town dance halls and the brothels of
Storyville fascinated him. He played clarinet in the Young Olympians
and was so good that Bunk Johnson, the famous cornettist, invited him,
sometime between 1911 and 1913, to play in his own Eagle Band, which
played dance halls, parties, and picnics, and soon Sidney was featured
by some of the top combos in the city. In 1914, he joined Bill Johnson’s
New Olympia Band, and played alongside the legendary cornettist Joe
“King” Oliver, with whom he later regularly played pool. Eventually, the Up-town people played so well that they filled the
halls, and the Creoles began to mix their music with jazz. According to
Leonard, Sidney “learned you had to play real hard when you
played for Negroes...and when you played with Negroes.” You had to have
“that drive,... like they’re killing themselves.” Liking Bechet’s music,
the tough pimps of the community protected him from its dangers, one
pimp, in particular, making sure that Sidney dressed well by buying him
expensive clothes. At the age of nineteen, Bechet left New Orleans for Chicago with
pianist Clarence Williams. In 1918 he joined Lawrence Duhé’s band, which
included Lil Hardin (later to be Louis Armstrong’s wife) as pianist,
and “King” Oliver. For Duhé, Sidney was “the featured hot man.” By then
he had already played with many traveling shows, but his career was
launched in 1919 when conservatory-trained, African-American
composer-conductor Will Marion Cook (memorably portrayed in Josef
Škvorecký’s novel, Dvořák in Love) asked Sidney to
join his Southern Syncopated Orchestra for a performance in London.
There, Bechet met the eminent Swiss conductor of the Ballets russes,
Ernest Ansermet, famed for his performances of Ravel and Stravinsky. Bechet’s temper was legend: in September of 1922 he was deported from
England, after being arrested for a brawl with some women in a London
hotel room. It was not the first (or last) time he was in difficulties
because of a battle with or about a woman. In December 1928 in Paris, he
had a confrontation over a woman with banjoist Gilbert “Little Mike”
McKendrick at Bricktop’s (Ada Smith’s) café. When Bechet later shot at
McKendrick, missing and wounding some bystanders, he was arrested and
deported from France. In 1924 Bechet recorded with Louis Armstrong and the “Clarence
Williams Blue Five.” In 1925 he joined Claude Hopkins’s band, which
accompanied Josephine Baker. In Paris, London, then the United States,
he played with Noble Sissle’s group (“Loveless Love,” “ Polka Dot Rag,”
and “Dear Old Southland” were some recordings that came of that
association). The short-lived New Orleans Feetwarmers, formed by Bechet
and his friend, trumpeter Tommy Ladnier, made some recordings in 1932
and had a few dates at New York’s Savoy Ballroom, but when its gigs
dried up, the two went into the dry cleaning business. The Southern
Tailor Shop had jam sessions in its back room, but it did not last long
either. In 1934 Sissle asked Bechet and Ladnier to join his band. Bechet
accepted, but Ladnier remained in the tailor shop; when Bechet went
back to visit, the shop had disappeared. Four days after a March 3rd 1940 benefit for the California migrant
workers, folksinger Josh White assembled a trio that included bassist
Wilson Myers and Sidney Bechet, clarinet, for one of his first
recordings for the two-year-old Blue Note label, a recording designed
for the white listener for whom jazz was serious, not dance, music. In a
1950 interview with British music critic Dennis Preston, White (who had
also started out in his career playing with pianist Clarence Williams)
opined that like his own Sidney Bechet’s music overlapped the categories
of jazz and folk. In contrast to the then-new genre of bebop (which he
disliked), he said, “Bechet’s music — that’s folk. Like my own music, it
isn’t confined to any one thing. There’s a lot that sounds like
Hungarian gypsy in Sidney’s playing” (quoted in Elijah Wald’s Society Blues, page 174.) In the Josh White’s hit “Careless Love,” recorded as part of the 78 album, Harlem Blues, Bechet’s
accompanying clarinet is quite discreet behind the vocal, but comes to
the fore in when it solos. “Milk Cow Blues” from that same album starts
out with Bechet on the soprano sax, but switches to clarinet to fit
better with White’s tunings and against Myers’s bowed bass. Bechet was one of the first jazz musicians to be appreciated by
classical audiences and critics and to be rated on a par with Louis
Armstrong by the New Orleans jazz aficionados, not to mention by Duke
Ellington (whose lead alto sax player, Johnny Hodges, had, in his teens,
studied with Bechet). Ellington said that Bechet was “the very epitome
of jazz.... [E]verything he played in his whole life was completely
original. I honestly think he was the most unique man ever to be in this
music.” Bechet appeared on several radio shows associated with Alan Lomax,
such as the one with Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Woody Guthrie, Hally
Wood, Pops Foster, and Cisco Houston and the Coleman Brothers, on a
Columbia Broadcasting System program (March, 10 1947), Hootenanny: A musical carpet of American folk music, hosted
by John Henry Faulk, written and directed by Alan Lomax, and announced
by Bill Rogers. It is reproduced on “Folk Music Radio” (Radiola series
16, release 133) and can be found in our library, VIA-308. (3-10-47). On April 19, 1941, at RCA Studios on 24th St, in New York City, in an
early instance of overdubbing, Bechet recorded the “Sheik of Araby.” He
tells us (in the liner notes of George Hoefer) that he “started by
playing ‘The Sheik’ on piano, and played the drums while listening to
the piano. I meant to play all the rhythm instruments, but got all mixed
up and grabbed my soprano, then the bass, then the tenor saxophone, and
finally finished up with the clarinet.” Bechet also worked on recording
and concert projects with the Chicago jazz pianist and vibraphonist Max
Miller in 1944, 1946, and 1953, but those sessions, part of the Max
Miller archive, have never been released. In 1945, Bechet moved to 160 Quincy Street, in Brooklyn, New York,
and began to teach music. Bob Wilber, then still in high school, became
Bechet’s star pupil, learning both clarinet and soprano sax, and when
Wilber finished high school, he moved into the house. In 1981 Wilber and
his wife, soprano Pug Horton, formed a sextet, the Bechet Legacy, to
continue the tradition. Bechet relocated to France in 1950 and married Elisabeth Ziegler
(whom he had met in 1928) in Antibes in 1951. Much of his later life
Bechet spent in France, his affection for that country being reflected
in such titles as “Petite fleur,” “Rue des Champs Elysées,” and “Si tous
vois ma mere,” while “Quincy Street Stomp” clearly refers to his
Brooklyn days. Shortly before his death in Paris on his 62d birthday, May 14, 1959, Bechet dictated his autobiography, Treat It Gentle (London: Cassell, 1960). His influence extended far: among the existentialists of Paris, he was le dieu; the British poet Philip Larkin wrote an ode to Bechet in The Whitsun Weddings; Sugar
Blue, the well-known harmonica player, claims he took his name from
Bechet’s recording, “Sugar Blues”; Hermann Hesse, exposed to jazz and
its world in the music and person of Bechet in the 1920s, may have used
him as the prototype for the saxophonist, Pablo, in his novel, Steppenwolf; and Woody Allen, a clarinetist himself, refers often to Bechet in his 1997 documentary, Wild Man Blues and named one of his children after him.
Sidney Bechet (May
14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist,
and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz,
beating trumpeter Louis Armstrong to the recording studio by several
months. His erratic temperament hampered his career, and not until the
late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim.On September 15, 1925, Bechet and other members of the Revue Nègre,
including Josephine Baker, sailed to Europe, arriving at Cherbourg,
France, on September 22. The revue opened at the Théâtre des
Champs-Élysées, Paris, on October 2nd. Bechet toured Europe with various
bands, reaching as far as Russia in mid-1926. In 1928, he led his own
small band at the Bricktop’s Club in Montmarte, Paris.
Bechet was jailed for 11 months in Paris when a woman passerby was
wounded during a shoot-out. The most common version of the story, as
related in Ken Burn’s documentary film Jazz, is
that the shoot-out started when another musician-producer told Bechet
that he was playing the wrong chord. Bechet challenged the man to a duel
and said, “Sidney Bechet never plays the wrong chord. In the 2016 film La La Land, the character played by Ryan
Gosling tries to persuade the character played by Emma Stone that jazz
is not “relaxing”, saying: “Sidney Bechet shot somebody because they
told him he’d played a wrong note, that’s hardly relaxing
Arthur
Leipzig's portrait shows Sidney Bechet at the legendary New York
nightclub Jimmy Ryan's, playing the soprano saxophone, the instrument
for which Bechet was most celebrated. Together with Louis Armstrong, he
helped to bring New Orleans jazz to the world. Although no less
talented, Bechet never attained the popularity that Armstrong achieved
in America, in part because of his often bristly personality. Yet
critics and fellow musicians recognized his musical genius and respected
his commitment to "doing it your own way." As one reviewer wrote in
1919, when Bechet was only twenty-two, his "'own way' is perhaps the
highway [on which] the whole world will swing along tomorrow." To
Armstrong, his playing was like a "jug full of golden honey." After a
lifetime of touring, Bechet moved in 1951 to Paris, where he enjoyed a
wide following.
Clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was one of the first great soloists of traditional New Orleans jazz.
Renowned for his lyrical, swinging phrases, emotional blues
sensibility, and ample use of vibrato, Bechet continues to exert vast
influence on the traditional jazz scene in New Orleans and elsewhere. He
is especially lionized in his adopted homeland of France. Born in New Orleans on May 14, 1897, Bechet grew up in a middle-class Creole family who preferred mainstream European music to the African-Caribbean sounds that were then evolving into jazz.
The latter was often dismissed as low-class, underscoring a common
dichotomy within the New Orleans black community at the time. “Us Creole
musicians,” Bechet’s older brother Leonard stated, “always did hold up a
nice prestige.” Even so, Bechet’s family was very supportive of his
budding talent, which became apparent at an early age. One childhood
incident is especially instructive. When Bechet was ten, his mother
threw a birthday party and hired a band that included the great jazz
cornetist Freddy Keppard. The band also featured a respected clarinetist
named George Baquet, who arrived late. Sidney, too shy to perform in
public, played along from another room, and everyone assumed they were
hearing Baquet, the adult professional. Baquet was soon giving Bechet
lessons, as were other prominent figures, including Lorenzo Tio, Jr.,
and Louis “Big Eye” Nelson. Although an avid pupil, Bechet was resistant
to formal training. As an adolescent, Sidney Bechet began performing in public with his
brothers’ Silver Bell Band. Next he joined the Young Olympians, a
venerable outfit that is still active at this writing, and then moved
on, yet again, to play with cornetist Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band, a group once led by Buddy Bolden.
Soon Bechet was working with Clarence Williams, a Louisiana
pianist/composer/entrepreneur whose work encompassed blues, ragtime,
early jazz, and show tunes. Williams took the teenaged Bechet on a tour
that eventually led to a European tour in 1919 with violinist and
composer Will Marion Cook. Bechet’s masterful, articulate improvisations
were praised by the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet, who called him “an
extraordinary clarinet virtuoso” and praised his “extremely difficult”
solos for their “richness of invention, force of accent, and daring in
their novelty and the unexpected.” This was a remarkable endorsement at a
time when jazz was largely scorned in classical music circles. Bechet returned to America and in 1923 recorded with Clarence Williams’s Blue Five, a band that also included Louis Armstrong
on a 1924 session. During this period, Bechet also worked briefly with
Duke Ellington’s orchestra. He then went back to Europe, building a
reputation as an accomplished musician with a wild personality. Jailed
in Paris after a shooting incident, Bechet was deported from France in
1929. He went to Berlin and appeared in the musical film Einbrecher.
Returning to the United States, Bechet began working with bandleader
Noble Sissle, of Shuffle Along fame, in 1930. During much of the 1930s, Bechet based himself in New York. He formed
a band called The New Orleans Feet-Warmers that featured another
Crescent City expatriate, trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. The group’s inspired
recordings included “Shag” and “Shake It and Break It,” although none
sold especially well. Bechet and Ladnier also worked, for a time, with
Noble Sissle. When gigs became sparse, the two became partners in a
tailoring business. In 1938 Bechet scored a hit with an interpretation of “Summertime.”
In 1941, he made one of the first overdubbed recordings when he played
the clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, piano, bass, and drums
on a rendition of “The Sheik of Araby.” The late forties saw a revival
of interest in traditional New Orleans jazz,
especially in Europe. Smoothing over his old legal difficulties, Bechet
began performing again in France with increasing frequency. He was
received as a cultural icon and an elder statesman of jazz; by the early
1950s Bechet was a French resident. Perhaps his best-known recording
from this era was a reworking of the old Creole song “Les Oignons.” Despite flagging health, Bechet performed and recorded tirelessly in
France. He also gave a series of extensive oral history interviews to
journalist Joan Reid. Transcripts of these conversations and subsequent
interviews by Desmond Flower and John Ciardi were edited by the latter
two into the compelling autobiography, Treat It Gentle. The book was published following Bechet’s death on May 14, 1959. As with Louis Armstrong and other traditional jazz musicians,
Sidney Bechet’s music was out of vogue for some time, but it has
enjoyed a well-deserved renaissance. At this writing his legacy is
preserved by clarinetists such as his former student Bob Wilber and New
Orleans clarinetists who include Dr. Michael White, Tim Laughlin, and
Evan Christopher.
Sidney Bechet was born on this date in 1897 in New Orleans. He was an African American jazz musician and composer. A young and primarily self-taught Bechet was highly influenced by
trumpeter Freddie Keppard. In 1917, he moved to Chicago, and two years
later traveled to New York and Europe with an orchestra led by Will Marion Cook.
While in London, Bechet discovered the soprano saxophone. He enjoyed
living in London, but his fondness for the city ended as a result of an
assault charge, leading him back to New York where he worked with Duke Ellington and James P. Johnson.
A future trip to Russia, Germany, and France resulted in a similar
legal encounter: Bechet spent 11 months incarcerated in Paris for a
shooting incident. Back in New York, Bechet developed a close working relationship with
trumpeter Tommy Ladnier, the two remaining a notable presence on 52nd
Street up to the time bebop overtook the scene. But Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
did not entirely smother his career: Bechet kept traditional jazz
afloat through collaborations with Eddie Condon, Vic Dickenson, and Bunk Johnson.
Bob Wilber, one of the most vocal proponents of Bechet's playing,
became a live-in student during the 1940s, though the ensuing decade
showed less and less interest in Bechet's style. To his surprise, Bechet's appearance at the French Salle Pleyel Jazz
Festival was a monumental success, with the adoration leading him to
move permanently to Paris in the early 1950s. Many consider the
clarinetist/soprano saxophonist as the first great jazz improviser; he
was certainly a major influence on the development of swing. Bechet,
though, never created a strong following stateside due to the restless
musician's refusal to build a fan base through a lengthy association
with a dance band. Bechet was a defining figure in creating the vocabulary for his
instruments, giving lessons to figures as diverse as Jimmie Noone and
Johnny Hodges. Not until John Coltrane took up the soprano did Bechet
have any equals on the instrument. His ability to construct highly
melodic solos on very little chordal backing made him a hero among
outside players. Bechet died of cancer in Paris on his birthday in 1959.
Reference:
Jazz People
by Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York
Copyright 1976
SidneyBechet: The Almost-Forgotten Jazz Immortal Who was the New Orleans jazz pioneer who did most to make this music a
unique art form? When this question is asked, the name of Louis
Armstrong invariably comes to mind, and rightly so. But there is
another jazz musician whose name deserves to be coupled with Armstrong
as the greatest of the New Orleans Jazz players. His name is Sidney Bechet. Bechet
was born in New Orleans in May 1897, just three years before his
compatriot, Louis Armstrong. Although the two boys grew up in the same
city, their home environments were worlds apart. Armstrong grew up in
dire poverty, living alternately with his mother and a succession of
“stepfathers” and his grandmother, and spending time in a reform school. Sidney Bechet, who was of Creole ancestry, grew up in a middle class
environment. His father, Omar, who was a shoemaker, played the flute as a
hobby. Indeed, music had an important role in the Bechet household, as
Sidney’s four brothers also played instruments. His brother, Leonard, played the clarinet and trombone, and it was to
the former instrument that eight-year-old Sidney was attracted.
Leonard, whose main interest was the trombone, passed along his clarinet
to his younger brother. At first, Sidney played in the family musicales – waltzes,
quadrilles, the polite music of the middle class. But as he grew into
adolescence, Sidney was attracted to the syncopated music played in the
dance halls and brothels in the Storyville District of New Orleans. As a boy, he would watch the street parades in which jazz bands
played. Young Sidney was so attracted to the music, that he often played
hooky from school. And as he became more proficient on the clarinet,
Sidney played in local jazz bands, such as the Young Olympians. His
playing so impressed Bunk Johnson, the legendary cornet player, that
Sidney was invited to join Johnson’s band, the Eagle Band. Sidney gained
much experience, playing in dance halls, and for picnics, and parties. Bechet left New Orleans for the first time when he was 19, traveling
to Chicago with pianist, Clarence Williams and his variety show.
Bechet’s big break came in 1919 when the composer-conductor Will Marion
Cook asked him to join his Southern Syncopated Orchestra for an
engagement in London. Here Bechet came to the attention of the noted Swiss Conductor, Ernst
Ansermet, who conducted the music of Stravinsky for the Ballets Russa.
Ansermet wrote in a Swiss musical Journal, “The extraordinary clarinet
virtuoso Bechet is an artist of genius!” Sidney Bechet eventually became even better known as a virtuoso of
the soprano saxophone. He first tried to play on a beat-up old soprano
sax he purchased in a pawn shop. Such was the difficulty of the soprano
sax, an instrument extremely difficult to play in tune, that Bechet gave
up and obtained his money back from the pawnbroker. A year latter in London, Bechet purchased a brand new instrument and
tried again. This time he was successful and succeeded in making the
soprano saxophone an important voice in jazz. Bechet played both the clarinet and soprano saxophone with a broad
vibrato, a characteristic that gave passion and intensity to his
playing. Much of Sidney Bechet’s subsequent career was spent abroad. In 1925
he played in Claude Hopkin’s band, which was accompanying a revue
starring Josephine Baker. Bechet also played in bands led by Noble
Sissle in London and Paris, and later, in the United States. Some of the
numbers performed and recorded by Bechet with Nobel Sissle are Loveless Love, Polka Dot Rag, and Dear Old Southland. In 1932, Bechet and his friend, trumpet player Tommy Ladnier, formed
their own band, the New Orleans Feetwarmers. When engagements for the
Feetwarmers became scarce, Ladnier and Bechet opened a dry cleaning shop
in Harlem. Bechet became quite adept at pressing and altering clothes. Sidney Bechet’s association with Brooklyn began in 1945 when he moved
into a house at 160 Quincy Street. To augment the unstable income of a
jazz musician, Bechet began teaching music. The adolescent that became
his star pupil and disciple was Bob Wilber, then still in high school.
Bechet taught Wilber the rudiments of both the clarinet and soprano
saxophone. When he finished high school, Wilber moved into the Quincy
Street house with Bechet so that he could have longer and more frequent
lessons. Today, Bob Wilber is a leading exponent of the soprano sax and
clarinet, and with his own group, the Bechet Legacy, he plays in the
Bechet tradition. Much of the latter part of his life, Bechet spent in France. Many of
his compositions are inspired by his love for that country. They include
Petite Fleur, Rue des Champs Elysees, and Si tous vois ma mere. Other Bechet compositions include Chant in the Night, Blues in the Air, Bechet’s Fantasy, and his ode to his Brooklyn home, Quincy Street Stomp. Sidney Bechet died in Paris, May 14, 1959. In July 1997, The Sidney Bechet Society
has been formed to perpetuate the name and fame of Sidney Bechet. To
that end, the Sidney Bechet Society sponsors concerts, symposia,
in-depth studies, a newsletter, change the name of Quincy Street to
Bechet Street and a Website to carry the appreciation of this great jazz
pioneer into the next century.
Sidney Joseph Bechet[1] (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, beating trumpeter Louis Armstrong to the recording studio by several months.[2] His erratic temperament hampered his career, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim.
Bechet was born in New Orleans in 1897 to a middle-class Creole of color
family. His older brother, Leonard Victor Bechet, was a full-time
dentist and a part-time trombonist and bandleader. Bechet learned
several musical instruments that were kept around the house, mostly by
teaching himself; he decided to specialize in the clarinet (which he
played almost exclusively until about 1919). At the age of six, he
started playing with his brother's band at a family birthday party,
debuting his talents to acclaim. Later in his youth, Bechet studied with
Lorenzo Tio, "Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle, and George Baquet.[3] Bechet played in many New Orleans ensembles using the improvisational techniques of the time (obbligatos with scales and arpeggios and varying the melody). He performed in parades with Freddie Keppard's brass band, the Olympia Orchestra, and in John Robichaux's dance orchestra. From 1911 to 1912, he performed with Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band of New Orleans and in 1913–14 with King Oliver
in the Olympia Band. From 1914 to 1917 he was touring and traveling,
going as far north as Chicago and frequently performing with Freddie
Keppard. In the spring of 1919, he traveled to New York City where he
joined Will Marion Cook's
Syncopated Orchestra. Soon after, the orchestra traveled to Europe;
almost immediately upon arrival, they performed at the Royal
Philharmonic Hall in London. The group was warmly received, and Bechet
was especially popular.[3] While in London, he discovered the straight soprano saxophone
and developed a style unlike his clarinet tone. His saxophone sound
could be described as emotional, reckless, and large. He often used a
broad vibrato, similar to what was common among some New Orleans
clarinetists at the time. On July 30, 1923, he began recording. The
session was led by Clarence Williams,
a pianist and songwriter, better known at that time for his music
publishing and record producing. Bechet recorded "Wild Cat Blues" and
"Kansas City Man Blues". "Wild Cat Blues" is in a ragtime style with
four 16-bar themes, and "Kansas City Man Blues" is a 12-bar blues.
In 1919, Ernest Ansermet,
a Swiss conductor of classical music, wrote a tribute to Bechet, one of
the earliest (if not the first) to a jazz musician from the field of
classical music, linking Bechet's music with that of Bach.[4] On September 15, 1925, Bechet and other members of the Revue Nègre, including Josephine Baker, sailed to Europe, arriving at Cherbourg, France, on September 22. The revue opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées[5]
in Paris on October 2. He toured Europe with various bands, reaching as
far as Russia in mid-1926. In 1928, he led his small band at Chez
Bricktop in Montmartre, Paris.
He was imprisoned in Paris for eleven months.[6][7]
In his autobiography, he wrote that he accidentally shot a woman when
he was trying to shoot a musician who had insulted him. He had
challenged the man to duel and said, "Sidney Bechet never plays the
wrong chord."[8] After his release, he was deported to New York, arriving soon after the stock market crash of 1929. He joined Noble Sissle's orchestra, which toured in Germany and Russia.
Bechet in New York, 1947
In 1932, Bechet returned to New York City to lead a band with Tommy Ladnier. The band, consisting of six members, performed at the Savoy Ballroom. He went on to play with Lorenzo Tio and also got to know trumpeter Roy Eldridge.[9] In 1938 "Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)", commonly known as "Hold Tight", was composed by Bechet's guitarist Leonard Ware
and two session singers with claimed contributions from Bechet himself.
The song became known for its suggestive lyrics and then for a series
of lawsuits over songwriter royalties.
In 1939, Bechet and the pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith led a group that recorded several early versions of what was later called Latin jazz, adapting traditional méringue, rhumba and Haitian songs to the jazz idiom. On July 28, 1940, Bechet made a guest appearance on the NBC Radio show The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, playing two of his showpieces ("Shake It and Break It" and "St. Louis Blues") with Henry Levine's Dixieland band. Levine invited Bechet into the RCA Victor recording studio (on 24th Street in New York City), where Bechet lent his soprano sax to Levine's traditional arrangement of "Muskrat Ramble". On April 18, 1941, as an early experiment in overdubbing at Victor, Bechet recorded a version of the pop song "The Sheik of Araby", playing six different instruments: clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, piano, bass, and drums. A hitherto unissued master of this recording was included in the 1965 LP Bechet of New Orleans, issued by RCA Victor as LPV-510. In the liner notes, George Hoeffer quoted Bechet:
I started by playing The Sheik on piano, and played the
drums while listening to the piano. I meant to play all the rhythm
instruments, but got all mixed up and grabbed my soprano, then the bass,
then the tenor saxophone, and finally finished up with the clarinet.
In 1944, 1946, and 1953 he recorded and performed in concert with the Chicago jazz pianist and vibraphonist Max Miller,
private recordings that are part of Miller's archive and have never
been released. These concerts and recordings are described in John Chilton's biography Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz.[10] With jobs in music difficult to find, he opened a tailor shop
with Ladnier. They were visited by musicians and played in the back of
the shop. In the 1940s, Bechet played in several bands, but his
financial situation did not improve until the end of that decade. By the
end of the 1940s, Bechet had tired of struggling to make music in the
United States. His contract with Jazz Limited, a Chicago-based record
label, was limiting the events at which he could perform (for instance,
the label would not permit him to perform at the 1948 Festival of Europe
in Nice). He believed that the jazz scene in the United States had
little left to offer him and was getting stale.[9]
In 1950 he moved to France, after his performance as a soloist at the
Paris Jazz Fair caused a surge in his popularity in that country, where
he easily found well-paid work. In 1951, he married Elisabeth Ziegler in
Antibes.
In 1953, he signed a recording contract with Disques Vogue that lasted for the rest of his life.[9] He recorded many hit tunes, including "Les Oignons", "Promenade aux Champs-Elysees", and the international hit "Petite Fleur". He also composed a classical ballet score in the late Romantic style of Tchaikovsky called La Nuit est sorcière ("The Night Is a Witch"). Some existentialists in France took to calling him le dieu ("the god").[11] Shortly before his death, Bechet dictated his autobiography, Treat It Gentle,
to Al Rose, a record producer and radio host. He had worked with Rose
several times in concert promotions and had a fractious relationship
with him. Bechet's view of himself in his autobiography was starkly
different from the one Rose knew. "The kindly old gentleman in his book
was filled with charity and compassion. The one I knew was
self-centered, cold, and capable of the most atrocious cruelty,
especially toward women."[12] Although embellished and frequently inaccurate, Treat It Gentle remains a staple account for the "insider's view of the New Orleans tradition."[13] Bechet died in Garches, near Paris, of lung cancer on May 14, 1959, his 62nd birthday, and is buried in a local cemetery.[1] Bechet played a jazz musician in three films, Serie Noire,[14]L'Inspecteur connait la musique and, Quelle équipe![15] His playing style was intense and passionate and had a wide
vibrato. He was also known to be proficient at playing several
instruments and a master of improvisation (both individual and
collective). Bechet liked to have his sound dominate in a performance,
and trumpeters found it difficult to play alongside him.[9][2] On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Sidney Bechet among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[16]
American Peoples Encyclopedia Yearbook (1953). p. 542.
Bechet, Sidney (1960). Treat It Gentle. Twayne. Reprint, Da Capo, 1978.
Hoefer, George (1946). Article in Metronome Magazine, December 1946.
THE MUSIC OF SIDNEY BECHET: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH SIDNEY BECHET:
Sidney Bechet - Best Of, 16 Hits, New Orleans Style
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
Sidney Bechet 
.jpg)
