Search - Sidney Bechet :: Spreadin Joy 1940-50

Originally recorded between 1940 and 1950, this reissue showcases the great Sidney Bechet in all his glory. Performing with many different groups and instrumental combinations, including the Spanier Big Four, Bob Wilber's Wildcats, and his own bands, the New Orleans Feetwarmers and the Blue Note Jazz Men, he acts less as a star than as an equal partner. The exception is Bechet's One-Man Band, in which he plays all the instruments himself--clarinet, soprano and tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums, a feat not only of virtuosity, but also of engineering that is possible only in the recording studio and which caused a sensation at the time. The program's 18 numbers are arranged for utmost contrast and variety of tempo, mood, and instrumentation, and the playing is fabulous. The fast pieces are brilliant, wild, unbridled; the slow ballads are heartfelt, tuneful, often plaintive. One number is a dialogue between Bechet and Muggsy Spanier's glorious cornet in which they both imitate human voices. The improvisations are grand, masterful, and endlessly inventive, with the players spurring one another on to ever-greater flights of inspiration and virtuosity. The ensembles are simply uncanny throughout. --Edith Eisler