Posted in: Jazz by Steve Newman on June 15th, 2009 | 0 Comments
Bechet was one of the great jazz artists of the 20th century.
After a few months of sell-out performances, and just before the Southern Syncopated Orchestra was about to set sail for France, the orchestra broke up due to legal difficulties. As a result the drummer, Benny Peyton, formed a band called the Jazz Kings, with Henry Shapiro on banjo, George Smith violin, Pierre de Cayo piano, Fred Coxito alto saxophone, and Bechet on clarinet and soprano. They played the prestigious Embassy Club in London, and made some records for Columbia, which were over-cut and never released.
When the SSO was reorganised (minus Will Marion Cook), Bechet and the rest re-joined the orchestra and headed for a sell-out gig at the Apollo Theatre in Montmarte, Paris.
And then things went sour.
After returning to London Bechet and another guy got caught up in an incident with a well known prostitute who cried rape. Bechet was deported from Britain. On the trip back Bechet looked at the King’s head on his coins and notes (remembering the time he’d played for him at Buckingham Palace) and threw the lot in the sea.
On his return to New York Bechet freelanced, playing with the likes of Bessie Smith, Clarence Williams and Louis Armstrong.
In 1924 he formed a short-lived band with Duke Ellington, a man he venerated all his life.
1928 saw him return to Paris, where he played with the famous Black Review (enjoyed by Hemingway and others), which included singer and dancer Josephine Baker. Over the next few years he played all over Europe, including a stint in Beriln in 1931.
By the second half of the 1930s, back in New York, Bechet’s style of music – compared with the rising popularity of the swing bands – was suddenly deemed old fashioned. So for a while Bechet gave up music, and with trumpeter Tommy Ladnier, opened what they called a tailors shop (in reality a dry cleaners) in Harlem, which they ran very successfully for several years – until the short revival of New Orleans jazz in the late 1930s.
Bechet made many fine recordings in those last years of the 1930s, most especially with an ailing Jelly Roll Morton.
Throughout World War II Bechet made a series of legendary recordings where he was the first musician to use multi-tracking, playing everything from piano, clarinet, tenor sax and, naturally, soprano. He also made a whole series of the so called V-Discs for the GIs serving in Europe and the Far East.
In 1949, with the rise of BeBop – and feeling out of place – Bechet sailed again for France, taking up residence in Paris, where he played with many local groups – and The Dutch Swing College Band whenever he got the chance – plus composing such hit numbers as ‘Petit Fleur’ and ‘Dans le rues D’Antibes’, which helped pay the rent nicely. Chris Barber’s clarinet player, Monty Sunshine, had a huge hit in the UK with Petit Fleur.
Sidney Bechet died in May, 1959.
His son, drummer Daniel Bechet, still runs a successful band in Paris to this day.
I re-read my old battered copy of Bechet’s book ‘Treat it Gentle’ quite frequently, which is the story, not of a victim of racism and slavery, but of human endeavour and genius.
Join the Sidney Bechet Society.
