120699bk Bechet 3 22/5/03 11:09 am Page 2 6. One O’Clock Jump 2:25 14. Save It Pretty Mama 2:51 Personnel (Count Basie) (Don Redman–Paul Denniker–Joe Davis) Victor 27204, mx BS 046833-1 Victor 27240, mx BS 053434-1 16 November 1938: Sidney Bechet, clarinet, 6 September 1940 (tracks 13-15): Rex Stewart, Recorded 5 February 1940, New York Recorded 6 September 1940, Chicago soprano sax; Ernie Caceres, baritone sax; Dave cornet; Sidney Bechet, clarinet, soprano sax; Bowman, piano; Leonard Ware, electric guitar; Earl Hines, piano; John Lindsay, bass; Baby 7. Preachin’ Blues 3:02 15. Stompy Jones 2:47 (Sidney Bechet) (Duke Ellington) Henry Turner, bass; Zutty Singleton, drums Dodds, drums Bluebird B 10623, mx BS 046834-1 Victor 27240, mx BS 053435-1 5 February 1940: Sidney Bechet, clarinet, soprano 8 January 1941: Henry Allen, trumpet; J. C. Recorded 5 February 1940, New York Recorded 6 September 1940, Chicago sax; Sonny White, piano; Charlie Howard, Higginbotham, trombone; Sidney Bechet, 8. Shake It And Break It 2:54 16. Coal Black Shine 2:43 electric guitar; Wilson Myers, bass; Kenny clarinet; James Tolliver, piano; Wellman Braud, (Friscoe Lou Chicha–H. Quaill Clarke) (John Reid-Sidney Bechet) Clarke, drums bass; J. C. Heard, drums Victor 26640, mx BS 051222-1 Victor 27386, mx BS 058776-1 4 June 1940: Sidney de Paris, trumpet; Sandy 28 April 1941: Gus Aiken, trumpet; Sandy Recorded 4 June 1940, New York Recorded 8 January 1941, New York Williams, trombone; Sidney Bechet, clarinet, Williams, trombone; Sidney Bechet, soprano sax; 9. Old Man Blues 2:47 17. Swing Parade 2:21 soprano sax; Cliff Jackson, piano; Bernard Lem Johnson, tenor sax; Cliff Jackson, piano; (Duke Ellington–Irving Mills) (Sidney Bechet) Addison, guitar; Wellman Braud, bass; Sidney Wilson Myers, bass; Arthur Herbert, drums Victor 26663, mx BS 051223-1 Victor 27574, mx BS 063823-1 Catlett, drums Recorded 4 June 1940, New York Recorded 28 April 1941, New York Original monochrome photo of Sidney Bechet 6 September 1940 (Track 12): Sidney Bechet, from MAXJAZZ / Lebrecht Music Collection 10. Wild Man Blues 3:16 18. I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None Of This clarinet; Earl Hines, piano; Baby Dodds, drums (Jelly Roll Morton–Louis Armstrong) Jelly Roll 3:12 Victor 26640, mx BS 051224-1 (Clarence & Spencer Williams) Recorded 4 June 1940, New York Victor 27447, mx BS 063826-1 11. Nobody Knows The Way I Feel Dis Recorded 28 April 1941, New York Also available in the Naxos Jazz Legends series ... Morning 3:26 19. When It’s Sleepy Time Down South 3:01 (Tom & Pearl Delaney) (Leon Rene–Otis Rene–Clarence Muse) Victor 26663, mx BS 051225-1 Victor 27447, mx BS 063825-1 Recorded 4 June 1940, New York Recorded 28 April 1941, New York 12. Blues In Thirds 2:54 20. I Know That You Know 2:33 (Sidney Bechet) (Anne Caldwell–Vincent Youmans) Victor 27204, mx BS 053431-2 Victor 27574, mx BS 063824-1 Recorded 6 September 1940, Chicago Recorded 28 April 1941, New York 13. Ain’t Misbehavin’ 2:49 Tracks 1-4: Sidney Bechet & His Orchestra (Fats Waller–Andy Razaf–Harry Brooks) Track 12: Sidney Bechet, Earl Hines & Baby Dodds Victor 26746, mx BS 053433-2 Recorded 6 September 1940, Chicago Tracks 5-11, 13-20: Sidney Bechet & His New Orleans Feetwarmers 8.120616 8.120676* 8.120682* Transfers & Production: David Lennick • Digital Noise Reduction: Andrew Lang for K&A Productions Ltd. * Not available in the USA 5 8.120699 6 8.120699 120699bk Bechet 3 22/5/03 11:09 am Page 1 SIDNEY BECHET with bands led by Keppard, Oliver and Lawrence the New Orleans style in transition. Early in 1925, fronted by Ladnier, for RCA’s Bluebird label. 8-15) also featured several of Sidney’s noted Vol.3 Duhé. Bechet worked again with Duke Ellington and also Quickly recognised as one of the great pioneers by contemporaries: that of 4 June highlighting the with James P. Johnson before returning to Paris to a consensus of jazz commentators, Bechet now trumpet of Sidney de Paris, that of September 6, ‘Shake It And Break It’ Original Recordings 1938-1941 Late in 1918 Bechet was ‘discovered’ by violinist- join Josephine Baker in the Revue Nègre in had a new career thrust upon him as the father- the piano of Earl Hines. composer Will Marion Cook (1869-1944) and the September. Thereafter, for the next five years, figure of the New Orleans ‘new wave’ and, With Louis and Jelly Roll one third of the classic six Sidney’s first love was the clarinet, an following year made his first trip across the In later years Bechet was accorded the accolade while his jazz counterparts in the United States rescued at least temporarily from gramophonic New Orleans triumvirate, ‘grand gentleman of jazz’ instrument on which he was largely self-taught and Atlantic as a member of Cook’s Southern that had previously eluded him and the fame of were reaping world renown and financial rewards, oblivion, found himself re-packaged for a younger, Sidney Bechet, the genre’s archetypal prodigy, also which, according to legend, at ten, he was already Syncopated Orchestra. Following so soon after the his Revival recordings preceded him when, in he proceeded on a nomadic and largely obscure more analytically-minded generation of ended his days a living legend. Powerful and playing in the band of the legendary Freddie visit of the all-white ODJB, the arrival in London of 1949, he returned to Europe for the first time in inventive in his frequent interchanges from clarinet Keppard (1890-1933). Respected from the outset pathway. In 1926, he was in Russia, from 1927 he enthusiasts, albeit at first it was the smaller, an all-black band proved both a novelty with eighteen years. In London, for Melotone (Savoy) was active in Europe, mainly France and Germany specialist labels who took the initiative. In 1939 to soprano-sax, he towers as a formative influence by both peers and elders alike as a natural talent he recorded in small ensembles in company with audiences and a personal coup for Sidney. The and on his return to the States, in 1931, he found (with a quintet including Meade Lux Lewis on alongside Louis and Duke Ellington in the (Larry Shields and Jimmie Noone were among his Humphrey Lyttleton and others and, under the Cook band played the Philharmonic Hall where himself half-forgotten, squeezed out by the piano) and 1940 with his Quartet, Bechet pantheon of early jazz. As a player in the pupils) his own training was gleaned intermittently auspices of the Hot Club de Paris, was Bechet’s “extraordinary clarinet virtuoso” playing lucrative recording contracts of his former recorded two sessions (five sides) for Blue Note, ‘embellished’ New Orleans tradition he ranks with from, among others, Lorenzo Tio Jr. (1893-1933), rapturously received at the Paris Jazz Festival. He was extolled by the great classical conductor colleagues. Fighting back, in 1932, with Tommy while two more sessions in 1940, with Chicagoan Johnny Dodds and Jimmy Noone, while as an Big Eye Louis Nelson (1880-1949) and Georges enjoyed belated media stardom and such was the Ernest Ansermet. Later in 1919 Bechet, with other Ladnier (1900-1939), whom he had first met in cornettist Muggsy Spanier (1906-67) made for improviser he stands in direct descent from Baquet (1883-1949). reverence and esteem he received from his young Charles Buddy Bolden (1877-1931) the jazz Southern Syncopated band members, quit Cook Moscow in 1926, he formed the short-lived New the Hot Record Society, spotlighted Sidney’s Bechet’s professional career took off during 1909 French pupils that, from 1951 onwards, he took pioneer whom Jelly Roll Morton rated “the most to join the Jazz Kings, a small ragtime outfit Orleans Footwarmers (they recorded six sides only multi-instrumental capabilities. By 1940 RCA had with a stint in the Silver Bells Band, an outfit up residence in the French capital, where he strove compelling trumpet player I ever heard”. In the fronted by drummer Benny Peyton. This band for Victor in September of that year) but by 1938, returned to the frame (he was after all known to consisting of Sidney, his two brothers and to pass on his technical knowledge. Feted as a midst of such powerful traditions, Bechet was spent a year-and-a-half touring various European upstaged by the more fashionable Swing them from his September 1932 session) and trumpeter Sidney Desvigne (1893-1959). celebrity in Paris, he lived in comfort there until from an early age aware that something precious venues, including Paris (in his final years to orchestras, ran a full-time tailoring repair business stage-managed and stylised his new image for Principally, at this stage, he played only clarinet in his death, on his 62nd birthday, on 14 May 1959. become his second home) and London. In London with his old trumpeter pal by day and jammed at maximum impact. To boost sales, the 1940 ‘S.B. was being entrusted to him and, while outwardly leading New Orleans bands led by Buddy Petit, the band’s activities included two (unpublished) the back of the shop, after hours, just for the love & His New Orleans Footwarmers’ sessions (Tracks Peter Dempsey, 2003 never overtly ambitious (the phantom Fame never Jack Carey, John Robichaux and Bunk Johnson overrode more everyday considerations or his 1920 recordings made for Columbia and a of it. but, like many other musicians of that city, was residency at the Hammersmith Palais during 1921.