Sidney Bechet And His Blue Note Jazz Men

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 Cornetist And Trumpeter Louis Armstrong To The Recording Studio By Several Months 1 And Later Playing Duets With Armstrong And Was Perhaps The First Notable Jazz Saxophonist. Forceful Delivery Well-Constructed Improvisations And A Distinctive Wide Vibrato Characterized Bechet's Playing. Bechet's Erratic Temperament Hampered His Career However And Not Until The Late 1940s Did He Earn Wide Acclaim. Bechet Pronounced BAH-Shay By The Family Most Commonly Pronounced Buh-SHAY Was Born In New Orleans To A Wealthy Creole Family. "Discovered" At The Age Of Six Sidney Bechet Quickly Learned The Clarinet By Picking Up His Brother's Horn And Teaching Himself. At A Family Birthday Party Bechet Debuted His Newly Acquired Talents. Later In His Youth Bechet Studied With Such Renowned Creole Clarinetists As Lorenzo Tio "Big Eye" Louis Nelson And George Baquet. Soon After Bechet Would Be Found Playing In Many New Orleans Ensembles Improvising With What Was "acceptable" For Jazz At That Time Obbligatos With Scales And Arpeggios . These Ensembles Included Parade Work With Henry Allen's Celebrated Brass Band The Olympia Orchestra And John Robichaux's "genteel" Dance Orchestra. In 1911-1912 He Performed With Bunk Johnson In The Eagle Band Of New Orleans And In 1913-1914 With King Oliver In The Olympia Band. 2 Although Bechet Spent His Childhood And Adolescence In New Orleans From 1914-1917 He Was Touring And Traveling Going As Far North As Chicago And Frequently Teaming Up With Another Famous Creole Musician Freddie Keppard. In The Spring Of 1919 He Traveled To New York Where He Joined Will Marion Cook's Syncopated Orchestra. Soon After The Orchestra Journeyed To Europe Where Almost Immediately Upon Arrival They Performed At The Royal Philharmonic Hall. The Group Was Warmly Received And Bechet Was Especially Popular Attracting Attention Near And Far. 2 Bechet Was Jailed 3 In Paris France When A Female 4 Passer-By Was Wounded During A Shoot-Out. After Serving Jail Time Bechet Was Deported. The Most Common Version Of The Story As Related In Ken Burns' Jazz Documentary Reports That The Initial Shoot-Out Started When Another Musician/producer Told Bechet That He Was Playing The Wrong Chord. Bechet Challenged The Man To A Duel 3 Critics Citation Needed Assert However That Bechet Was Essentially Ambushed By A Rival Musician. While In London Bechet Discovered The Straight Soprano Saxophone And Quickly Developed A Style Quite Unlike His Warm Reedy Clarinet Tone. His Saxophone Sound Could Be Described As "emotional" "reckless" And "large". He Would Often Use A Very Broad Vibrato Similar To What Was Common For Some New Orleans Clarinetists At The Time. Bechet Returned To New York From Europe In 1922 And On July 30 1923 Began Recording Some Of His Earliest Surviving Studio Work. 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 The "Wild Cat Blues" And "Kansas City Man Blues". "Wild Cat Blues" Is In A Multi-Thematic Ragtime Tradition With Four Themes At Sixteen Bars Each And "Kansas City Man Blues" Is A Genuine 12-Bar Blues. Bechet Interpreted And Played Each Uniquely And With Outstanding Creativity And Innovation For The Time. He Continued Recording And Touring Although His Success Was Intermittent. Bechet Relocated To France In 1950. He Recorded Many Hit Tunes Including "Les Oignons " "Promenade Aux Champ 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 Sorciere" "The Night Is A Witch" . He Married Elisabeth Ziegler In Antibes France In 1951. Existentialists In France Called Him "le Dieu" Citation Needed . Shortly Before His Death In Paris Sidney Dictated His Poetic Autobiography Treat It Gentle. He Died From Lung Cancer On His Sixty-Second Birthday. Career Highlights Bechet Successfully Composed In Jazz Pop-Tune And Extended Concert Work Forms. He Knew How To Read Music But Chose Not To Due To His Highly Developed Inner Ear He Developed His Own Fingering System And He Never Played Section Parts In A Big Band Or Swing-Style Combo. 4 His Recordings Often Have Been Reissued. Some Of The Highlights Of His Career Include 1923 Sides With Louis Armstrong In "Clarence Williams Blue Five" The 1932 1940 1941 "New Orleans Feetwarmers" Sides A 1938 "Tommy Ladnier Orchestra" Session "Weary Blues" "Really The Blues" A Hit 1938 Recording Of "Summertime" And Various Versions Of His Own Composition "Petite Fleur". In 1939 Bechet Co-Led A Group With Pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith That Recorded Several Early Versions Of What Was Later Called "Latin Jazz" Adapting Traditional Meringue Rhumba And Haitian Songs To The Jazz Idiom. On July 28 1940 Sidney Bechet Made A Guest Appearance On NBC Radio's The Chamber Music Society Of Lower Basin Street Show Playing Two Of His Show-Pieces "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 Theretofore Unissued Master Of This Recording Was Included In The 1965 LP Bechet Of New Orleans Issued By RCA Victor As LPV-510. On The Liner Notes George Hoeffer Quotes Sidney As Follows "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 Chicago Jazz Pianist And Vibraphonist Max Miller Private Recordings Which Are Part Of The Max Miller Archive And Have Never Been Released. These Concerts And Recordings Are Covered Completely In John Chilton's Great Book On Bechet. Bechet Was An Important Influence On Alto Saxophonist Johnny Hodges Who Studied With Bechet As A Teenager. In 1968 Bechet Was Inducted Into The Down Beat Jazz Hall Of Fame. The New York Times Music Writer Robert Palmer Wrote Of Bechet That "by Combining The 'cry' Of The Blues Players And The Finesse Of The Creoles Into His 'own Way ' Sidney Bechet Created A Style Which Moved The Emotions Even As It Dazzled The Mind." 4 Tributes In 1919 Swiss Concert Conductor Ernst Ansermet Wrote One Of The Earliest If Not The First Tributes To A Jazz Musician From The Classical Field Of Music Even Linking Bechet's Music With That Of Bach. Renowned Blues Harmonica Player Sugar Blue Took His Name From The Bechet Recording "Sugar Blues". The Former Has Stated "I Needed A Nickname ... All The Good Ones Were Taken! You Know 'Muddy Waters' 'Blind Lemon' 'Sonny Boy' ... Until One Night A Friend And I Were Leaving A Concert — A Doc Watson Concert — When Somebody Threw Out Of The Window A Box Full Of Old 78s I Picked One Up And It Said "Sugar Blues" By Sidney Bechet ... That's It! I Thought It Was Perfect ... So Here I Am". 5 Philip Larkin Wrote An Ode To Bechet In The Whitsun Weddings. Bechet Is Said To Have Served As A Prototype For The Saxophonist "Pablo" In The Novel Steppenwolf By Hermann Hesse Since It Was Almost Certainly Through Listening To His Playing In Europe In The 1920s That Hesse Became Acquainted With The World Of Jazz Music. "Bechet To Me Was The Very Epitome Of Jazz ... Everything He Played In His Whole Life Was Completely Original. I Honestly Think He Was The Most Unique Man To Ever Be In This Music." — Duke Ellington. In The 1997 Documentary Wild Man Blues Film Maker And Clarinet Aficionado Woody Allen Repeatedly Referred To Bechet. One Of His Adopted Children With Soon-Yi Previn Also Is Named Bechet. Raquel Bitton Pays Tribute To Sydney Bechet In Her CD "Paris Blues" Singing PETITE FLEUR 2006 Bechet Portrayed By Jeffrey Wright Appeared As A Character In Two Episodes Of The Television Series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Bechet Performs At An Underground Paris Jazz Club In The Novel Replay By Ken Grimwood. This Appearance Is Slightly Anachronistic As The Scene Takes Place In 1963 Even Though Bechet Died In 1959. Bob Dorough Who Played With Bechet Recorded A Tribute Song Called "Something For Sydney " On His "Right On My Way Home" Album. Discography Singles
"Texas Moaner Blues" Recorded With Louis Armstrong - 1924
"Cake Walkin' Babies From Home" With Red Onion Jazz Babies - 1925 read less