Sidney Bechet: Clarinet Genius

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Sidney Bechet: The Primal Force and Soprano Pioneer of Early New Orleans Jazz 

Sidney Bechet stands out as one of the most brilliant, intense, and fiercely competitive soloists in the foundational history of jazz music. Possessing a wide, passionate vibrato and an explosive technical delivery, he was one of the few early twentieth-century masters whose improvisational genius could directly challenge the dominance of Louis Armstrong. As a multi-instrumentalist who transitioned from the clarinet to become the first true virtuoso of the soprano saxophone, Bechet infused his lines with an urgent, blues-drenched authority. His turbulent personal life and extensive European travels helped transform jazz from a regional New Orleans phenomenon into a celebrated international art form, cementing his legacy as an immortal pioneer of hot jazz.

 

Sidney Bechet was a musical child prodigy born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1897. Bechet was so musically advanced as a child that he had already played with many of the top bands in New Orleans. Bechet was one of a few jazz musicians of his generation who could rival Louis Armstrong’s brilliance as a soloist.

 

In 1917, Bechet moved to Chicago. After a tour of Europe, Bechet returned to America with a new instrument, the soprano saxophone, and he soon established himself as a master of the instrument. Bechet made his recording debut in 1923 with Clarence Williams. He appeared with Louis Armstrong on a classic session with the Clarence Williams Blue Five that produced superb sides such as “Cake Walkin’ Babies from Home.” 

From 1925 to 1929, Bechet lived and played in Europe. While in Paris, Bechet became involved in a daylight gunfight with another musician that resulted in injuries to innocent bystanders. Bechet was imprisoned for a year as a result and was deported upon release.

 

During the depression, Bechet supplemented his income by running a tailor shop with trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. Bechet and Ladnier subsequently recorded several outstanding sides of New Orleans jazz under the name “New Orleans Feetwarmers.” In 1938, Bechet scored a big hit with his stirring rendition of the standard, “Summertime.”

 

Bechet returned to France in 1952 and continued to record hit jazz records. Bechet died in Paris in 1959

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Bechet’s recordings can be found on a number of fine compilation albums, including the great two-volume "Jazz Classics" (1950) and "Chronological Classics."

 

Technical Catalog Spotlight: Jazz Classics Volume 1 and 2 (1950) 

This essential two-volume archival collection captures Bechet during his spectacular mid-career renaissance with Blue Note Records. The tracking highlights his unmatched authority on the soprano saxophone, most notably featured on his legendary 1939 hit rendition of Summertime, which practically put the fledgling Blue Note label on the cultural map. Supported by an elite group of traditional jazz revivalists, these recordings show off a pristine audio fidelity that beautifully preserves Bechet's piercing, deeply emotional solo style for the high-fidelity era. 

• Released: 1950 
• Label: Blue Note Records 
• Producer: Alfred Lion 
• Core Personnel: Sidney Bechet (Soprano Saxophone, Clarinet), Frankie Newton (Trumpet), Meade Lux Lewis (Piano), Teddy Bunn (Guitar), Johnny Williams (Bass), Sid Catlett (Drums) 
• Key Tracks: Summertime, Blue Horizon, Dear Old Southland 

Technical Catalog Spotlight: Chronological Classics (1923-1936) 

Serving as an indispensable historical reference work, this volume aggregates the earliest studio master sessions of Bechet’s legendary recording career. It features his groundbreaking 1923 acoustic sides alongside the historic, high-voltage 1924 and 1925 collaborations where he went head-to-head with a young Louis Armstrong. Listening to these tracks in sequence reveals the exact technical blueprint of early New Orleans ensemble playing, showcasing how Bechet's driving polyphonic lines helped forge the structural language of modern jazz improvisation. 

• Released: 1990 
• Label: Classics Records (France) 
• Producer: Gilles Pétard 
• Core Personnel: Sidney Bechet (Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone), Louis Armstrong (Cornet), Clarence Williams (Piano), Tommy Ladnier (Trumpet), Charlie Gaines (Trumpet) 
• Key Tracks: Cake Walkin' Babies from Home, Texas Moaner Blues, Maple Leaf Rag 

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Lonnie Johnson Blues

Johnson was one of the best of the early acoustic blues guitarists. He possessed a technical proficiency that separated him from his peers, and he was always in high demand as a session guitarist for blues and jazz recordings. Johnson was a fine vocalist as well, and his prodigious chops made him a hot recording property in the twenties.

The place and date of his birth are the subject of some debate, although many believe his birthplace to be New Orleans. It is known for sure that Johnson was raised in New Orleans and later moved to St. Louis in the twenties, where he began recording for Okeh Records. That label would release his first side, “Mr. Johnson’s Blues,” in 1925. Johnson recorded numerous sides for the label, including “Very Lonesome Blues,” “Lonesome Jail Blues,” Five O’Clock Blues,” “Backwater Blues,” and many others.

Johnson lent his nimble guitar skills to Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recordings in 1927. The next year, Johnson and the white jazz guitarist, Eddie Lang, made some of the first racially integrated jazz recordings. Johnson’s career suffered during the Depression Era of the 1930s when Okeh went bankrupt, and he relocated to Canada. Johnson died in 1970 in Toronto from injuries he had suffered in a car accident.

His work is best experienced through compilation albums:

• Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 1 (1991): Released by Document Records and produced by Johnny Parth, featuring Lonnie Johnson on vocals, acoustic guitar, and violin. Key tracks include "Mr. Johnson's Blues," "Lonesome Jail Blues," and "Very Lonesome Blues."
• Blues in My Fingers (1994): Released by Indigo Records, highlighting his 1928 duets with Eddie Lang (recording as Blind Willie Dunn). Key tracks include "Blues In My Fingers," "Bull Frog Moan," and "A Handful of Riffs."

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Kid Ory Muscrat Ramble

Kid Ory: The Tailgate King and Creole Pioneer of Foundational New Orleans Jazz

 

Kid Ory stands as one of the most structurally vital, historically monumental, and transformative figures in the genesis of American jazz. As the definitive architect of the "tailgate" trombone style, he fundamentally defined the brass grammar of early New Orleans polyphony, using sliding rhythmic counterlines, slurs, and deep glissandos to anchor the frontline improvisations of cornets and clarinets. Ory was not merely a brilliant instrumentalist but a visionary bandleader whose early ensembles served as the premier training ground for nearly every major giant of the hot jazz era. His historic recordings shattered racial and geographic boundaries, effectively documenting the migration of Black southern music into the urban landscapes of the American West and Midwest, cementing his legacy as an immortal pillar of 20th-century music.

 

Kid Ory, born in La Place, Louisiana, in 1886, was the king of the trombone in the early years of jazz music in New Orleans. He started out playing banjo but later switched to trombone. Ory would become known for his “tailgate” style that had the trombone playing rhythmic lines underneath the free soloing of clarinets and cornets. From 1912 to 1919, Ory led an extremely popular band in New Orleans, which had as members King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, and Jimmie Noone. 

Ory moved to California in 1919, and in 1922, King Ory’s Creole Orchestra became the first African-American jazz band to make a recording when they recorded the songs “Ory’s Creole Trombone” and “Society Blues.” In 1925, Ory moved to Chicago, joining the migration of New Orleans jazz musicians who were seeking fame and fortune in the Windy City. In Chicago, Ory played with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven, and later with Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers. 

During the Depression, Ory found himself out of work along with many of his colleagues. For several years he ran a chicken ranch with his brother and returned to music when the New Orleans-style jazz revival happened in the 1940s. He reformed Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band in 1943, and Ory was able to play jazz until he retired in 1966. And he died at a ripe old age in 1973. 

The compilation albums “Ory’s Creole Trombone: Greatest Recordings1922-1944” (1995) and “The Chronological Classics: Kid Ory 1922-1945” (1999) are among the best available compilations of his music. He appears on "The Golden Age of Jazz" with other early jazz legends. 

Technical Catalog Spotlight: Ory’s Creole Trombone: Greatest Recordings 1922-1944 (1995) 

This essential historical anthology preserves the monumental moment that African-American jazz was first committed to shellac. The tracking captures the raw, polyphonic brilliance of his early Sunshine and Nordskog sessions in Los Angeles, highlighting his innovative, sliding tailgate technique. The compilation serves as an invaluable reference work for early American media scholars, beautifully restoring primitive acoustic recordings to demonstrate the sharp ensemble precision and infectious blues energy that Ory brought to the nascent recording industry. 

• Released: May 1995 
• Label: ASV Living Era 
• Producer: Archival Reissue Staff 
• Core Personnel: Kid Ory (Trombone), Mutt Carey (Cornet), Dink Johnson (Clarinet), Fred Washington (Piano), Ed Garland (Double Bass) 
• Key Tracks: Ory's Creole Trombone, Society Blues, Tiger Rag 

Technical Catalog Spotlight: The Chronological Classics: Kid Ory 1922-1945 (1999) 

Serving as a meticulous, definitive chronological reference guide, this archival collection bridges Ory's historic pre-war recordings with his triumphant mid-forties Dixieland revival era. The production elements track his transition from the acoustic recording rooms of the 1920s to the high-fidelity radio broadcast studios of the 1940s. The release carries profound academic weight, preserving his essential comeback sessions for the Crescent and Jazz Man labels that effectively sparked a global reawakening of traditional New Orleans ensemble jazz. 

• Released: 1999 
• Label: Classics Records (France) 
• Producer: Gilles Pétard 
• Core Personnel: Kid Ory (Trombone), Mutt Carey (Trumpet), Barney Bigard (Clarinet), Buster Wilson (Piano), Bud Scott (Guitar) 
• Key Tracks: High Society, Muskrat Ramble, The Girls Go Crazy About the Way I Walk 

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