Glossary entry for
Bechet, Sidney

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette (ISBN 0 1401-5364-0) describes jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Sidney Bechet (1897-1959) as:

an exceptionally gifted and formally aware musician whose compositional skills greatly outshine those of Louis Armstrong, his rival for canonization as the first great jazz improviser. [...] His melodic sense and ability to structure a solo round the harmonic sequence of the original theme has been of immense significance in the development of modern jazz.

More information available at:

• the Wikipedia page on Sidney Bechet

Van references in:

• "See Me Through Part II (Just A Closer Walk With Thee)" (on Hymns To The Silence)

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