SwingDJs

Have we discussed him already? I was wondering what albums you guys would recommend. The only one I have is the Ken Burns Jazz album.

Yeah, that's the same with me, I only have the Ken Burns Jazz and I would love to get more Bechet albums but am unsure of which ones to get.

Harrison

That's a pretty good one.

I also like "The Fabulous Sidney Bechet" and "Shake 'em Up!" (a 2-disc set). There's also this 5-disc set that I got for 5 Euro in Germany. It's called "Hall of Fame" and it's excellent. It's hard but possible to find it on the internet. I dunno how much shipping would be though. Look up a record shop called Zweitausendeins (it means "two thousand-one," incidentally).

If you get "The Fabulous Sidney Bechet" and the Proper Box Set on him, you should be covered for a good intro to his stuff.

Runnin' Wild with Wild Bill Davison is fairly sick...some of it is actually in the soundtrack of "The Spirit Moves"...I really need to get more Bechet...

I downloaded Shake 'em up! a while back. I haven't gone through it completely, but I've played "I wish I could Shimmy like my sister Kate" and it went over well.

I also love "Blues Improvisation" off of Up A Lazy River

there are some references to Bechet scattered around in various threads - Ken Burns Jazz, Proper Box and Fabulous Sidney Bechet were all mentioned.

at Jitterbug Weekend between Faulty and I we played 5 or 6 songs off the Ken Burns Jazz CD within 2 hours. Not sure too many people noticed because the collection spans several eras and feels. Awesome CD and I am going to get the Proper Box next.

My favorites on the Ken Burns Jazz are Summertime, Love for Sale, Sweet Lorraine, Dear Old Southland and Viper Mad.

When a Soprano Meets a Piano with Martial Solan is a real nice mellow Bechet album, probably a good intro to his stuff fer people that are freaked out by the dixie-ness of his usual surrounds..

I was watching the Ken Burns jazz thing and the narrator said that when Sidney Bechet's New Orleans Feetwarmers played at the Savoy, attendance was low because "the lindy hoppers could not dance to his music."

Any thoughts on this by anybody?

Well, he formed the Feetwarmers around what, 1932, '33-ish?

The musical style of the Feetwarmers wasn't exactly "modern Lindy Hop" music anymore, it was really out of vogue.

-FF

How did Sidney pronounce his own last name? How did contemporaneous announcers pronounce it?

We Americans francicize it--we assume it's a French name and pronounce it "besh-AY"

The French I've talked to about him (dancers and non-dancers alike) assume because he's American, it's "BEK-ett" or perhaps "BESH-ett."

Conventional Wisdom is "BASH-AY."

Love, love, love Sidney Bechet.

Kalman

Kalman - Although we may disagree about the danceability of bebop, we are fully aligned here! I NEVER dj a set without including Bechet!!!! I've now got something like 8 or 10 of his CDs and am always on the lookout for pieces that I don't already have!

Ryan wrote:If you get "The Fabulous Sidney Bechet" and the Proper Box Set on him, you should be covered for a good intro to his stuff.

I agree with Ryan 100%. The Proper Set covers recordings from the 20s thru 1950. For $20 it is a great bang for the buck:

http://www.propermusic.com/code/products.asp?recid=1960#

Highly Recommended

Doug wrote:Kalman - Although we may disagree about the danceability of bebop, we are fully aligned here! I NEVER dj a set without including Bechet!!!! I've now got something like 8 or 10 of his CDs and am always on the lookout for pieces that I don't already have!

I DJ bebop - just very select songs.

Kalman