[Dixielandjazz] Bechet's Main instrument.

[Marek Boym]

Try the recordings with Johnny Windhurst.  Bad recording quality,
great music!  Or those with Jonah Jones or Sidney deParis.
Cheers

On 15/11/2007, Steve Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Bechet was unique. He was a great clarinetist. Studied briefly, if you could
> call it that, with Lorenzo Tio, (as did Jimmie Noone). Bechet also taught
> Noone for a while when he was 13 and Noone 15.
>
> He was arguably soloing in a band setting, better than, and before Louis
> Armstrong later stunned the jazz world as an soloist. Louis was credited as
> changing jazz from ensemble oriented to solo oriented, but Bechet got there
> first.
>
> He was the first person to play Jazz on Soprano Saxophone. Just as Coleman
> Hawkins did with the tenor, Bechet invented the jazz role for Soprano.
>
> He mentored Alto Saxophonist Johnny Hodges (who admired him greatly) for a
> while. Hodges was playing Soprano in Boston when he met Bechet who was
> dating his older sister in the early 1920's. Hodges later played in the warm
> up band for Bechet's in NYC before finally joining Ellington. You can hear
> Bechet's influence in Hodges' playing.
>
> Good question might be: "What was Hodges' main instrument? Similar situation
> as he started on one (Sop) and then gravitated to another (Alto).
>
> Bechet's soprano style is one that takes the place of cornet/trumpet in a
> small OKOM jazz band. Many of his records are quintet with either trombone
> or clarinet as the other horn plus rhythm. Once in a while, he would play in
> a 6 piece setting with a forceful trumpet player like Armstrong or Wild Bill
> Davison and the results were usually a careful dance around each other. He
> was a lead player and guarded that role jealously.
>
> In the late 30s or early 40s he appeared at Nick's in NYC with two electric
> guitars in the rhythm section. One of the first jazz musicians to realize
> the potential of that instrument in small band jazz.
>
> Bechet: Innovator, master musician, genius etc., didn't read music and was
> virtually self taught. Hell of a player.
>
> His Main instrument? Well, his legacy is "Soprano", not unlike  Ellington's
> main instrument legacy. (not Piano, but Orchestra)
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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