Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz

by John Chilton

Fifty years after hearing Sidney Bechet (1897–1959) in 1923, Duke Ellington recalled, "I have never forgotten the power and imagination with which he played." The first great jazz soloist, Bechet was a genius of the clarinet and the notoriously difficult soprano saxophone. In a career that spanned five decades and two continents he worked with Bunk Johnson, King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong. He was a giant in early New Orleans jazz and a pioneer of improvisation whose contribution to the music, from the traditional to the avant-garde, has been a vital and lasting one. This biography reveals with insight and precision the man and his music, and illuminates the many events obscured by Bechet's own highly readable but factually suspect autobiography, Treat It Gentle.

Genres: Music, Jazz, Biography, Nonfiction, History

331 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2015

About the author

John James Chilton (16 July 1932 - 25 February 2016) was a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s, he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first few chapters, which paint a vivid picture of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as jazz was emerging in a recognizable form. However, Chilton's detailed explanations of the mechanics of each individual song made it difficult for me to sustain interest in the story. To be fair, this is likely more a reflection of my ignorance of musical composition and structure than of Chilton's narrative abilities!