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).
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
Swing style of jazz; he influenced the widening difference between
jazz and
ragtime. 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. However, he never learned how to read music in his lifetime of being a musician. 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 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 New York, arriving soon after the
stock market crash of 1929. He joined with
Lorenzo Tio and also came to know trumpeter
Roy Eldridge. 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.
Permanent settlement in Paris In 1951, he migrated to France permanently,
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. 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". 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 ==