Treat It Gentle

Sidney Bechet's life was like his playing, passionate, robust and competitive. The first jazz soprano saxophonist, Bechet's reputation was such that, when he died in 1959, three thousand mourners attended his funeral in Juan-les-Pins. He composed and recorded many classic songs with artists including Clarence Williams, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and can be credited, among the many young turks of New Orleans, with inventing jazz. This program takes US on a journey from Bechet's birthplace near Storyville, New Orleans, to New York, London and Paris where he found stardom.