Bechet, Sidney

(born May 14, 1897, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died May 14, 1959, Paris, France) U.S. saxophonist. He took up the clarinet at age six, later switching to the more powerful soprano saxophone. His emergence as a soloist from the New Orleans tradition of collective improvisation (see Dixieland) established his reputation in the mid-1920s. He produced a large, warm tone with a wide and rapid vibrato. His mastery of drama and his use of critically timed deviations in pitch (“note bending”) had a long-lasting influence, because they were absorbed by his disciple Johnny Hodges. From the late 1940s he was based in Paris.

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