Sidney Bechet

Biography

Sidney Joseph 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, first recording in July 1923, a few months after trumpeter Louis Armstrong's recording debut with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. His erratic temper hampered his music career, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim. Bechet spent much of his later life in France.

Early life

Bechet was born in New Orleans in 1897 to a middle-class Creole of color family. Bechet's father Omar was both a shoemaker and a flute player, and all four of his brothers were musicians as well.
His older brother, Leonard Victor Bechet, was a full-time dentist and a part-time trombonist and bandleader. Bechet learned and mastered several musical instruments that were kept around the house (he began on the cornet), 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 performing with his brother's band at a family birthday party, debuting his talents to acclaim. Later in his youth, Bechet studied with Joseph "King" Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Freddie Keppard, Lorenzo Tio, "Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle, and George Baquet.

Musical development

Bechet played in many New Orleans ensembles using the improvisational techniques of the time (obbligatos with scales and arpeggios and varying the melody).
While working with Louis Armstrong, Bechet was one of the first musicians to develop the loose, fluid "swinging" rhythmic style that set jazz apart from ragtime. Bechet liked to have his sound dominate in a performance, and trumpeters reportedly found it difficult to play alongside him.
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 and joined Will Marion Cook's Syncopated Orchestra. Soon after, the orchestra traveled to Europe, where they performed at the Royal Philharmonic Hall in London. The group was warmly received, and Bechet was especially popular.
While in London, he discovered the straight soprano saxophone and developed a style unlike his clarinet tone. Bechet was the first influential soprano saxophonist, leading to its rising popularity as a jazz instrument.
His saxophone sound could be described as emotional, reckless, and all-encompassing. He often used a broad vibrato, similar to some New Orleans clarinetists at the time. In 1919, a Swiss classical music conductor, Ernest Ansermet, wrote a tribute to Bechet. It was one of the earliest (if not the first) articles about a jazz musician written by an expert in the field of classical music, linking Bechet's music with that of Bach.
Bechet's first recordings, "Wild Cat Blues" and "Kansas City Man Blues", were made on July 30, 1923, with pianist Clarence Williams's "Blue Five"; the former is in a ragtime style with four 16-bar themes, and the latter is a 12-bar blues. Louis Armstrong joined the Blue Five the following year, including "Texas Moaner Blues". Armstrong and Bechet recorded together again in January 1925, on "Cake Walkin' Babies from Home", released under the Red Onion Jazz Babies billing. In 1924, Bechet worked with Duke Ellington for three months and made a significant impact on Ellington's early jazz style.
Duke Ellington called him "the epitome of jazz". However, he never learned how to read music in his lifetime of being a musician.

Bechet in France

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 in Paris on October 2. The show was an example of negrophilia in France at the time. He toured Europe with multiple bands, reaching as far as Russia in mid-1926. In 1928, he led his small band at Chez Bricktop (run by the popular Ada "Bricktop" Smith) in Montmartre, Paris.
In France, Bechet found that he was appreciated by a wider audience and had more general freedom than he did in the United States.
In 1928, Bechet was imprisoned in Paris for eleven months. 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." After his release, he was deported to the United States. He joined with Lorenzo Tio and also came to know trumpeter Roy Eldridge.
In 1932, Bechet returned to New York City to lead a band with Tommy Ladnier. The band, comprising six members, performed at the Savoy Ballroom. He played in Noble Sissle's orchestra, which toured in Germany and Russia.

Later life

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×Shake It and Break It31 October 2005 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 47 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11Wild Cat Blues Blues3:022Kansas City Man Blues3:003Mandy, Make Up Your Mind3:114Cake Walking Babies From Home3:185Sweetie Dear2:526Maple Leaf Rag2:577Shag3:088Dear Old Southland2:379Characteristic Blues2:5610Blackstick2:4711Viper Mad3:0312Jungle Drums2:3113Chant in the Night2:2714Jada2:5515Really the Blues3:4016Blues for Tommy4:2717Summertime4:1318Ti Ralph2:2119Limehouse Blues1:0320Pop It2:5621Indian Summer3:1022Lonesome Blues4:0523That's a Plenty4:0824Down in Honky Tonk Town3:0325Shake It and Break It2:39Disc 21Blues in Thirds2:592Muskrat Ramble2:493Blues of Bechet1:554Swing Parade2:255Georgia Cabin3:016Strange Fruit2:347The Mooche3:12812th Street Rag3:029Bugle Call Rag / Ole Miss Blues4:5210After You've Gone4:5711Blue Horizon4:2912Gone Away Blues2:4613Old Stack O'Lee Blues4:1414Dardanella2:4415Bechet's Creole Blues3:1616Les Oignons2:4517Mon Homme3:0118Margie2:2719Apex Blues3:0820Dans Les Rues D'Antibes3:2821Petite Fleur3:1322When You Wore a Tulip2:45" 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 from Miller's archive have never been released. These concerts and recordings are described in John Chilton's biography Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz.
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 the jazz scene in the United States had little left to offer him and was getting stale.
In 1958, Bechet performed as a soloist and with various other renowned musicians including Buck Clayton and Sarah Vaughan in memorable, spirited concerts in the United States Pavilion at Expo 58, the World's Fair in Brussels, Belgium.

Permanent settlement in Paris

In 1951, he migrated to France permanently, 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. Also, 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. He recorded many hit tunes, including "Les Oignons", "Promenade aux Champs-Élysées", and the international hit "Petite Fleur×Petite Fleur1969 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAPetite Fleur3:10BDans Les Rues D'Antibes3:25". He also composed a classical ballet score in the late Romantic style of Tchaikovsky called La nuit est une sorcière ("The Night Is a Witch"). Some existentialists in France took to calling him le dieu ("the god").

Autobiography and death

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. In his autobiography, Bechet's view of himself 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."
Though other internet sources have picked up the claim that Bechet dictated his autobiography to Al Rose, the autobiography itself—Treat It Gentle (Twayne, 1960)—notes that "Among those who helped record and edit the tapes on which this book is based are Joan Reid, Desmond Flower, and John Ciardi." The "Foreword" to the book by Desmond Flower explains in detail how the material from the various interviews was put together into book form, and there is no mention of any involvement by Al Rose in the interviewing or editing process.
Although embellished and frequently inaccurate, Treat It Gentle remains a staple account for the "insider's view of the New Orleans tradition".
Bechet died in Garches, near Paris, of lung cancer on May 14, 1959, on his 62nd birthday. He is buried in a local cemetery. Two other major jazz musicians died that year: Billie Holiday and Lester Young.

Legacy

Popular French singer Patricia Kaas dedicated a song called "A L'Enterrement De Sidney Bechet (The Funeral Of Sidney Bechet)" in which she paid tribute to Sidney Bechet and his work The song was featured on her album Scene de Vie.
In 2013, a crater on Mercury was named after Bechet.

In the novel Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, Bechet was the inspiration for the character "Pablo".
Bechet's music has been included in the soundtracks of about 60 films, including the following: Flirting (1991), JFK (1991), Chocolat (2000), The Quiet American (2002), and Midnight in Paris (2011).
Philip Larkin wrote a poem called "For Sidney Bechet". It can be found in The Complete Poems. It is written about on the Philip Larkin Society website.
Van Morrison mentions Sidney Bechet in the song "See Me Through Part II (Just A Closer Walk With Thee)" from the 1990 album Hymns to the Silence: "...Sidney Bechet on Sunday afternoons in winter/Sidney Bechet, Sunday afternoons in winter..."
In Antibes, France, a small one-block park is named Sidney Bechet Square in his honor. The park contains a monument with a bust of Bechet and a plaque that reads, "To Sidney BECHET, one of the world's greatest jazz musicians, so honored by his new home. - Sidney J. BARTHELEMY, Mayor of New Orleans, April 16, 1994."
A fictionalized Sidney Bechet appears in two episodes of George Lucas's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles portrayed by Jeffrey Wright.
Additionally, in an interview with Woody Allen, when asked what "dead person he would like to have dinner with", he responded, "... I guess maybe Sidney Bechet." Bechet continues to live on in the movies of Allen.

Personal life

Bechet was Catholic.
Bechet was known for having an abrasive attitude, which has been compared to that of Coleman Hawkins. They were both incredibly sure of their relative importance in the music industry during a time in which jazz was losing popularity. They were stubborn and lacked patience with younger artists with less experience or knowledge of the jazz industry.
Bechet briefly took time off from the music industry in 1938 when he opened a tailor shop in New York.
Bechet had three wives: Elizabeth Ziegler (1951–death), Marie-Louise Crawford (1934–1942), and Norma Hale (1918–1929).

Singles

"Texas Moaner Blues", with Louis Armstrong, 1924
"Cake Walkin' Babies from Home", with Red Onion Jazz Babies, 1925
"Got the Bench, Got the Park (But I Haven't Got You)", 1930
"Blues in Thirds×Blues in Thirds26 January 1999 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 24 tracks1Blues in Thirds2:552Ain't Misbehavin'2:513Save It, Pretty Mama2:524Stompy Jones2:475You're the Limit3:106Perdido Street Blues3:007Down in Honky-Tonk Town3:038Old Man Blues2:499Shake It and Break It2:5410Strange Fruit2:3011Wild Man Blues3:1812The Mooche2:5913I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None O' This Jelly Roll3:1314Blues in the Air2:4615China Boy3:5716Dear Old Southland4:0017Egyptian Fantasy3:0018Baby Won't You Please Come Home2:3319Slippin' and Slidin'2:5120I Know That You Know2:3021I'm Coming Virginia2:3722Georgia Cabin2:5623Limehouse Blues2:3424Texas Moaner Blues2:58", 1940
"Dear Old Southland×Dear Old Southland1999 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 19 tracks1Summertime4:132Lonesome Blues4:073Dear old southland4:044Bechet's stealy rider2:555Saturday night blues2:556St. Louis blues4:497Jazz me blues4:188Blue horizon4:289Muskrat ramble3:4210High society3:3811Weary blues4:2212Jackass blues4:4713Days beyond recall4:5214Save it, pretty mama3:1115Menphis blues2:5716Shine2:5817Quincy street stomp2:5718Weary way blues3:2019Careless love3:43", 1940
"Egyptian Fantasy", 1941
"Muskrat Ramble", 1944
"Blue Horizon×Blue Horizon30 July 2002 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 22 tracks1At a Georgia Camp Meeting3:152Shim-Me-Sha Wabble2:433Sister Kate3:044Fidgety Feet2:595Groovin' the Minor2:546I Had It But It's All Gone Now3:177Old Stack O' Lee Blues4:128Darktown Strutters' Ball2:599Revolutionary Blues2:4110Out of the Gallion2:3111Jelly Roll Blues2:5012Laura3:0913Changes Made3:5714Blame It on the Blues2:5415Mood Indigo3:1416St. Louis Blues4:1317Blue Horizon4:2018Rose Room2:3419Love for Sale3:1920Oh, Lady Be Good2:2421What Is This Thing Called Love?3:2922Bugle Call Rag / Ole Miss4:46", 1944
"Dutch Swing College Blues", 1954
"Kansas City Man Blues", 1954
"Petite Fleur×Petite Fleur1969 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAPetite Fleur3:10BDans Les Rues D'Antibes3:25", 1959
"Dans les Rues D'Antibes", 1960
"Premier Bal", 1960
"Who's Sorry Now", 1961
"Weary Blues×Weary Blues1992 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 20 tracks1Black Stick2Viper Mad3When the Sun Sets Down South4Sweet Patootie5Chant in the Night6Jungle Drums7Hold Tight (Want Some Sea Food Mama)8What a Dream9Weary Blues10Really the Blues11Summertime12High Society13Indian Summer14Sidney's Blues15One O'Clock Jump16Preaching Blues17Dear Old Southland18Perdido St. Blues19Shake It and Break It20Wilman Blues", 1979

Albums

A Jazz Masterwork, 1948
Sidney Bechet & Claude Luter, 1950
Jazz Classics Vol. 1, 1950
Jazz Classics Vol. 2, 1950
Sidney Bechet - Bunk Johnson: Days Beyond Recall, 1951
Sidney Bechet, Claude Luter: On Parade, 1951
Sidney Bechet, Claude Luter, Andre Reweliotty et son Orchestre: Bechet-Souvenirs, 1951
Sidney Bechet, Muggsy Spanier: Jam Session, 1952
Sidney Bechet, 1952
Port of Harlem Six, 1952
Soprano Sax Solos, 1952
1941–1944: Sidney Bechet, 1996
French Movies, 2014

Movies

Bechet was featured in three films and played a jazz musician.

Série noire (1955)
L'inspecteur connaît la musique (1956)
Ah! Quelle équipe (1957)