Sidney Bechet

Sidney 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, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic temperament hampered his career, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim. Bechet spent much of his later life in France.
[...] At the age of six, he started to perform 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. 
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 the first musician to develop the Swing style of jazz; he influenced the widening difference between jazz and ragtime. Bechet liked to have his sound dominate in a performance, and trumpeters reportedly found it difficult to play alongside him.
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== Links to Peel ==
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Sidney Bechet was a major influence on the traditional jazz bands Peel listened to during his youth in the 1950s, including Chris Barber's Jazz Band, whose biggest international hit came in 1959 with "Petite Fleur", featuring their clarinettist Monty Sunshine; it was a cover version of a Sidney Bechet tune which had been a success for its composer when he recorded it with Claude Luter's Orchestra in 1952. Bechet was admired by Humphrey Lyttelton and he recorded and toured with Lyttelton's band in the mid-1950s. After that, "Humph" regularly played tracks by Bechet on his radio programmes 
Another Bechet recording, "Blue Horizon", from 1944, gave its name to the record label founded by producer Mike Vernon in 1968 to focus on blues releases; Peel played plenty of Blue Horizon material, from both British artists like early Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack and Duster Bennett and American blues originals. Yet so far only one Sidney Bechet track has been found in a Peel playlist, suggesting that even if Bechet was admired by some artists JP played (such as Van Morrison, who namechecked him in the lyrics of a 1990 song), he wasn't a particular favourite of the DJ.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*None.
== Sessions ==
*None.
== Other Shows Played ==
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*10 June 1986: Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On (LP - Bechet - The Thirties - Big Band Bounce And Boogie series) Affinity
(Please add any missing info)
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
* Official site
* Other
 Category:Artists