Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet earned recognition as the earliest major jazz soloist preserved on recordings, arriving a few months ahead of Louis Armstrong. Commanding the soprano saxophone along with clarinet, he generated an expansive vibrato that audiences either embraced or rejected outright. His approach stayed largely fixed across the decades, yet he retained his drive and inventive spark without pause. Excelling at both solitary and group improvisation inside New Orleans jazz, Bechet exerted such forceful presence that trumpeters often found themselves crowded out. Determined to claim the lead position, he expected the remaining horns to adjust around him.

He received clarinet instruction in New Orleans from Lorenzo Tio, Big Eye Louis Nelson, and George Baquet, advancing so swiftly that he performed with prominent local groups while still a child. Bechet also passed along lessons on the instrument, one pupil being Jimmie Noone, who happened to be two years his senior. Travel brought him to Chicago during 1917, and by 1919 he had entered Will Marion Cook’s orchestra, accompanying the ensemble on its European circuit and drawing an unusually astute appraisal from Ernst Ansermet. While abroad he purchased a soprano saxophone in a shop, after which the instrument became his central focus. Returning to the United States, Bechet entered the studio for the first time in 1923 alongside Clarence Williams; over the following two years he supported blues vocalists on disc, exchanged ideas with Louis Armstrong, and delivered striking solos. He spent time in Duke Ellington’s fledgling orchestra and briefly employed a young Johnny Hodges in his own group. Between 1925 and 1929, however, Bechet remained overseas, reaching Russia and later facing legal difficulties in France that resulted in imprisonment and eventual deportation.

The greater part of the 1930s proved comparatively sparse for Bechet. He maintained an intermittent association with Noble Sissle and led a notable 1932 session with the New Orleans Feetwarmers that featured trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. At the same time he operated a tailor’s shop whose chief distinction lay in the jam sessions held there rather than any financial return. A 1938 recording of “Summertime” brought him unexpected success; Hugues Panassie included Bechet on further discs, leading to a Bluebird contract that yielded numerous classics over the next three years. He maintained steady employment in New York, took part in several of Eddie Condon’s Town Hall concerts, and in 1945 attempted without success to form a band with veteran trumpeter Bunk Johnson, whose persistent drinking ended the venture. As opportunities diminished, Bechet established a music school he hoped would flourish; although enrollment remained limited, Bob Wilber emerged as his principal protégé.

Bechet’s circumstances shifted sharply in 1949. An invitation to the Salle Pleyel Jazz Festival in Paris generated an immediate sensation and prompted his permanent relocation to Europe. Within a short period he attained widespread celebrity and heroic stature in France, even as the broader American public remained largely unaware of his identity. His final decade encompassed vigorous performances, extensive recording activity, and occasional returns to the United States until his death from cancer. The vivid though occasionally embellished recollections in his memoir Treat It Gentle, together with John Chilton’s detailed biography The Wizard of Jazz, which follows his career nearly week by week, both merit attention. Numerous Sidney Bechet recordings remain accessible on compact disc.