Sidney Bechet honoured in London

[John Wright]

Blue plaque

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11250988/Sidney-Bechet-awarded-blue-plaque.html

[amateur51]

How thoroughly up-cheering!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

How thoroughly up-cheering!

My thoughts too. Made me smile and few things do in these temps of darkness.

BN.

Might this be a start of a London trend? Markers for Philly Joe , Prince Lasha, Clifford Jarvis....and the Brits etc inc. Big Ron C.?

[Padraig]

How thoroughly up-cheering!

Blues plaque, surely.

[Ian Thumwood]

This is a fascinating story. I knew that Bechet toured Europe for much of the 1920's and that this accounted for his relative absence from many Classic Jazz era performances. At one point he was on tour with Will Marion Cook's orchestra which is also very interesting as Cook himself was really a classical violinist who had studied with Dvorak. It was during this tour that the conductor Ernest Ansemet made the first reference to jazz "swinging" - quite intriguing in itself as quite a lot of really early jazz didn't swing even in the Louis Armstrong sense.

I am intrigued as to what Bechet was actually playing and with whom when he stayed in London in 1922. It is incredible to believe that there were clubs in London at that time where you could hear jazz. I know that there was a notorious club in London later on which was run by a woman who inspired a character in the Poliokoff drama last year. Was Bechet performing with fellow expats and what repertoire did they perform?

It's also curious to see reference to Knight who was the inspiration for "M" in Fleming's James Bond books. I quite like reading these books and have read them all apart from "Goldfinger" and "Casino Royale." I find the fact that "M" was actually based on a true character equally staggering - especially as Fleming is an inconsistent writer and "M" is actually the most fully formed character in the series. Bond seems to change character in the short novellas where he seems more in line with Daniel Craig's portrayal whereas the longer stories are flabbier and not so well written. Some of the books like "You only live twice" are so excruciatingly bad that you wonder how they got published whereas something like "From Russia with love" is far more perceptive than I would have credited. I find the Bond books a total enigma and very different from the films. Sometimes Fleming's attitude is very racist and inexcusable yet in something like "The spy who loved me" he almost comes across as a feminist! The villains are a mixed bunch with Scaramanga being the most credible yet Bond himself is pretty sketchy. Not surprised to see that "M" was based on a true individual seeing that he was Fleming's most realistic creation.

In "Live and let die" Bond and Leiter go in to Harlem for old time's sake in pursuit of Mr Big and there is a reference to Leiter being a jazz fan. From the films, I would have supposed that this would have meant he listened to the likes of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Shorty Rogers, etc yet the names that Leiter rattles off include Noble Sissle and Fletcher Henderson. I knew that Fleming wrote most of the novels in the 1950's by which time Bond was described as a WW2 veteran but it was surprising to imagine Bond in his youth hanging out with someone who dug pre-swing era big bands! It did make me wonder whether Ian Fleming was a jazz fan or just very savvy through his own experiences in pre-war New York.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

http://openplaques.org/organisations/nubian_jak

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

http://openplaques.org/organisations/nubian_jak

Its a good list and I see elsewhere that CLR James now has a new library named after him in Dalston.
Hope they don't close that along with the rest. But no Joe Harriot yet? A blue badge on the old Flamingo? All them "blues' down the stairs...










BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

the old Flamingo is now an Irish bistro pub El Senor

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

the old Flamingo is now an Irish bistro pub El Senor

I think there are now more Irish pubs in Cardiff than Welsh ones. Well fake ones anyway.

BN.