Sidney Bechet was born on this day in 1897. The erratic saxophonist/clarinettist/composer was one of jazz’s first important soloists, even beating Louis Armstrong in the recording studio by several years. Bechet moved to Paris, France, in the ’50s. There, he found a home and cemented his legendary status. He also recorded many of his most celebrated compositions there, including “Si tu vois ma mére” (English translation: “If You See My Mother”) from 1953. This remains one of his most beloved works, not least of all because Woody Allen used it on his own filmic letter to the French Capital, 2011’s Midnight in Paris.
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