Documentary Video

"The First Recording Session of the Sidney Bechet Society - A Tribute To Bechet"

The Video Documentary is of an actual studio recording of the Sidney Bechet Society's first CD entitled

"A Tribute to Sidney Bechet"

Includes interviews with Bob Wilber, George Wein, Vince Giordano, Ed Polcer, Bross Townsend, and Wycliffe Gordon.

This video captures the moment and puts you there.

Presented by The Sidney Bechet Society, Ltd., this fifty-three minute documentary showcases the actual studio recording session of the CD of the same name, A Tribute to Sidney Bechet. Featuring The Sidney Bechet Society Jazz Allstars and including interviews with Bob Wilber, George Wein, Vince Giordano, Ed Polcer, Bross Townsend and Wycliffe Gordon. No other documentary of this kind about Bechet has been produced and it stands as a living testimony to the legacy of the great Sidney Bechet.

Sidney Bechet is considered, along with Louis Armstrong, as the greatest of the New Orleans jazz pioneers. A master of the clarinet, he soon gained recognition as an unequaled talent of the soprano saxophone. Born in New Orleans in May 14,1897 and raised in the tradition and music of that city, the flavor of New Orleans was evident in every one of his performances. Later in life, Bechet found an adopted home for his musical soul in Paris, France. He lived there for the latter part of his life and passed away in Paris on his 62nd birthday on May 14, 1959.

The Sidney Bechet Society was launched in 1997, one hundred years after the birth of Sidney Bechet.  The Society is the brainchild of Eric D.
Offner, attorney and jazz scholar.  Its founding Board of Directors includes well-known jazz musicians, record producers, impresarios, writers, historians and photographers:  Bob Wilber, Jack Lesberg, Arvell Shaw, Dr. Michael White, Bross Townsend, Nat Hentoff, Phil Schaap, Dan Morgenstern, Clement Meadmore, Dick Hyman, Walter Schaap, and William P. Gottlieb. Daniel Bechet, Sidney's only son, is the Honorary President.