Soprano saxist Sidney Bechet

Soprano saxist Sidney Bechet was born on this day in 1897 in New Orleans and died on this day 62 years later in France. He played in bands led by King Oliver and Noble Sissle before making his name as a trail-blazing composer/performer with fans on both sides of the Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/BxWyDFwcpa

— jazzartsgroup (@jazzartsgroup) May 14, 2019

The Young Sidney Bechet

by Mark Berresford
(from the liner notes of The Young Sidney Bechet 1923 – 1925 on Timeless Records)

The October 1920 edition of The Dancing World, an English publication owned by and ran to primarily publicise the Hammersmith Palais de Danse, carried an article by Benny Peyton, leader of The Jazz Kings, then resident at the Hammersmith Palais and Rector's night club. In it he wrote: "I would like to mention Mr. Sidney Bechet, our clarionetist (sic), and it is no exaggeration to say that he is in a class by himself. Bechet is regarded by many who are competent to judge, as the most original and possibly the greatest of known clarionet (sic) players (at least of dance music) in the world, in saying which I would like to emphasise this is a statement of fact. He is, in many respects, the pride of our band and the envy of his rivals."

Praise indeed, if somewhat publicity-minded, for a musician who had already been lauded by the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet, in a famous critique, regarded by most jazz scholars as the first serious writing on jazz. The subject of Ansermet's article was the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, a vast organisation of African-American instrumentalists and vocalists, presided over by conductor/composer Will Marion Cook. Buried between the symphonic pieces and plantation ballads was some genuine jazz, most notably Bechet's instrumental feature Characteristic Blues, with which Ansermet was so impressed. 

Sadly, Bechet's playing at that time was unrecorded, or at least unissued; rumour has it that the Jazz Kings recorded High Society and Tiger Rag for Columbia, but the results were rejected. In view of the evidence of the band's repertoire being preserved in another Dancing World article, and consisting almost entirely of popular dance tunes of the day, it seems likely that the wish was the father of the thought!

read more: http://www.redhotjazz.com/bechetarticle.html

Sidney Bechet - Tin Roof Blues (1949)

Sidney Bechet & Claude Luter 1952 - Les Oignons

La Chaux-de-Fonds, Sidney Bechet (ss) & Claude Luter (cl) & Son Orch.:
Guy Longnon, Claude Rabanit (t)
Bernard Zacharias (tb)
Christian Azzi (p)
Roland Bianchini (b)
Claude Philippe (bj,g)
Moustache Galepides (d)

: 3:46 Les Oignons for this clip (taped from ARTE-TV) and for several other following Sidney Bechet clips and film excerpts I am some helpless because I thought there were already more updated on you tube - but now for me hard to be found. Is it possible that any copyrightholders had consisted to cancel them on yt. I hope they will permit such non-commercial use for jazz research. In other cases single film-clips have been uploaded but without of context with film-credits and other jazz-performers in the same film.

Sidney Bechet was the first jazz musician to use soprano saxophone extensively....

Photo: Hulton Archive

Sidney Bechet was the first jazz musician to use soprano saxophone extensively, and is widely regarded as the grand master of the instrument. Born and raised in New Orleans, Bechet was a contemporary of Louis Armstong -- and, in a fair world, would be held in similar regard. A jazz pioneer and innovator in New Orleans jazz and blues, Bechet was making revolutionary work even early in his career.

Although Billie Holiday did the first jazz version of "Summertime" in 1936, Bechet's was the first instrumental cover of the Gershwin/Heyward classic; it remains one of the best. And you can't beat his choice of sidemen: Meade Lux Lewis (piano), Teddy Bunn (guitar), Sid Catlett (drums) and Johnny Williams (bass). Together, they take a song that was written in Tin Pan Alley and make it sound as if it was born in Storyville.

From: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130401558&sc=nl&cc=jn-20101017