Musical Centennial Sister Cities To Honor Jazz Legend
Submitted By N.O.V.A.
Times Picayune 	01- 29-1997


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New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial and French Consul General Nicole Lenoir announced
plans Tuesday for a Sidney Bechet centennial celebration focusing on the life and
music of the New Orleans-born clarinet and soprano saxophone jazz great.

The May 1-6 celebration will coincide with the final weekend of the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival. A variety of concerts and performances of Bechet's
music will be presented in connection with Jazzfest.

Members of the Bechet family from New Orleans and Paris will attend the unveiling
of a bust of the musician in Armstrong Park during the celebration.

The bust, to be cast in Juan-les-Pins, France, which is the Vieux Carre's sister
city, is sponsored by the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Antibes Jazz Festival
and municipal officials of Juan-les-Pins.

A conference on Bechet's career in the United States and France will be held May 6
at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre.

A brass band parade from Jackson Square to Congo Square, featuring the Olympia
Brass Band, Original Liberty Jazz Band and Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, will
begin May 6 at 6 p.m.

Other events will include:

A teachers workshop Feb. 22 at the Louisiana State Museum for elementary and
secondary school teachers.

Performances of Bechet's music by European and American jazz ensembles April 25-27
at the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette.

Bechet, born May 14, 1897, in the 7th Ward, studied music in the Central City
area, said Alvin Batiste, a jazz musician, teacher and member of the citizens
commission overseeing creation of the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park.

Bechet first traveled to Europe in 1919 and during the 1920s traveled back and
forth between Europe and the United States, developing a style of playing that
became a cornerstone of the New Orleans jazz sound.

In 1924, he worked with Duke Ellington and opened his own club, the Club Basha, in
Harlem. In 1924 and 1925, he made several recordings with Louis Armstrong that
were influential in defining the New Orleans jazz style.

Bechet dropped out of public notice in the 1930s, as "hot music" became less
popular, and for a while managed a tailor's shop. But New Orleans jazz became
popular again in the late 1930s, and he made several more successful recordings.

Bechet returned to Europe, where he was greeted as a pop star, in 1949 and decided
to settle in France in 1951. He died there in 1959.

The centennial is being coordinated by a steering committee of scholars, musicians
and other professionals. Among the 32 organizations participating in the
celebration are the Alliance Francaise, Arts Council of New Orleans, Hogan Jazz
Archive at Tulane University, Jazz Studies Division at the University of New
Orleans, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, WWOZ-FM Radio and the Ethel and
Herman Midlo Center at UNO.