Sidney Bechet Tribute Concert

The 2023 Healdsburg Jazz Festival Tribute To Sidney Bechet

Louis Armstrong usually gets the credit as jazz’s first great soloist, but before Satchmo, there was soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet (1897–1959), a player so commandingly virtuosic that until the mid-1920s only Armstrong could contend with him as an equal. Dr. Michael White, a clarinetist and dynamic force on the traditional New Orleans jazz scene for over four decades, brings the Original Liberty Jazz Band featuring Big Chief Donald Harrison to celebrate Bechet’s music and legacy. As budding young players, Dr. White and Harrison first played together in the OLJB. Harrison went on to a celebrated stint in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messenger alongside Terence Blanchard, who became his co-leader in one of the 1980s definitive bands.

Leading his groups since the 1990s, he honed his influential nouveau swing sound while his devotion to New Orleans traditions led to Harrison receiving the nation’s highest jazz honor in 2022, the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy. A similarly distinguished New Orleans advocate, Dr. White has long championed Bechet’s music. This concert focuses on classics written or recorded by Bechet, including “Si Tu Vois Ma Mere,” “Egyptian Fantasy,” “Moulin A Café,” “Maple Leaf Rag,” “Blame It On the Blues,” and 1952 original “Petite Fleur” (which became an international pop hit for UK clarinetist Chris Barber in 1959).

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All information is obtained from the event sponsors directly or from public sources.