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Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer, renowned as one of the first significant soloists in jazz history and a key figure in the development of early jazz, particularly Dixieland and New Orleans styles. He is especially celebrated for popularizing the soprano saxophone as a lead jazz instrument.Born in New Orleans to a Creole family, Bechet was a child prodigy on clarinet. He began playing professionally in his teens, performing with prominent New Orleans bands. He toured Europe early in his career (1919), experiencing both acclaim and controversy. Known for his powerful, vibrato-rich sound, distinctive improvisational style, and fiery temperament, Bechet was a dominant musical personality. He worked with major figures like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Facing racial barriers in the US, he spent significant periods in Europe, particularly France, where he achieved immense popularity and eventually settled permanently, becoming a national icon.

• Bechet was famously involved in a shooting incident in Paris (1928) after a dispute over chord changes with another musician. Wounded, he was arrested, imprisoned for 11 months, and subsequently deported from France.
• His musical partnership with Louis Armstrong in the early 1920s was highly influential but also reportedly strained due to the clash of two strong personalities and soloists.
• Despite being a major innovator in the 1920s, Bechet experienced periods of obscurity in the US during the 1930s and early 1940s, working outside music at times, before enjoying a major career revival in the late 1940s and 1950s, largely fueled by his success in France.
• He died of lung cancer in Garches, France, on his 62nd birthday (May 14, 1959). His Parisian funeral drew massive crowds.