Word: clarinetist
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SIDNEY BECHET: THE COMPLETE VICTOR MASTER TAKES (Bluebird). THE COMPLETE SIDNEY BECHET ON BLUE NOTE (available from Mosaic, 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, Conn. 06902). Born in New Orleans in 1897, clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was one of the most talented and influential jazz musicians who ever blew a horn. As Louis Armstrong did for the trumpet, Bechet turned the soprano sax into a powerful solo voice. If Armstrong went on to achieve greater fame, Bechet had the more interesting life: affairs with Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith and Tallulah Bankhead; deportation from Britain; gunfights in Paris; and finally, ascension...
Meanwhile, Wynton found a shepherd to help guide him back to the source: New Orleans clarinetist Michael White, 35. Unlike Marsalis -- unlike most blacks of his generation -- White took an interest in the city's old-time musicians, learned to play their style and eventually became a regular with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The two men started bumping into each other at airports and music festivals a few years ago and developed a close friendship...
Sancton's jazz interest has given him an insider's edge as a journalist. Last year he was able to trade notes with the subject of a profile he was working on, film director (and fellow clarinetist) Woody Allen. Several months ago, Tom began doing research for a piece on Marsalis. "But the more I looked at today's jazz scene," he says, "the more I realized that there was a bigger story there: Wynton's success was the springboard for a jazz renaissance in which a whole new generation of talented young players was taking the music...
...Time, written and directed by Vernel Bagneris, long-legged, loose-jointed Papa Du (Bagneris) leads his squabbling trio of red-hot mamas through a re-creation of black vaudeville in the 1920s. Sandra Reaves-Phillips is a standout as Big Bertha, and the five-piece band, led by clarinetist Orange Kellin, delivers up a joyous mix of blues and ragtime that leaves the audience shouting...
PROFILE: Actor, director, clarinetist...