BECHET Sidney (B-40)

American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz music along with Louis Armstrong. Bechet played in many New Orleans ensembles using the improvisational techniques of the time. In 1919, Ernest Ansermet, a Swiss conductor of classical music, wrote a tribute to Bechet, one of the earliest (if not the first) to a jazz musician from the field of classical music, linking Bechet's music with that of Bach. Bechet intensively toured abroad and in 1950 settled in France. He recorded many hit tunes, including "Les Oignons", "Promenade aux Champs-Elysees", and the international hit "Petite Fleur". He also composed a classical ballet score in the late Romantic style of Tchaikovsky called La Nuit est sorcière ("The Night Is a Witch").