Sidney Bechet, Tommy Ladnier & The New Orleans Feetwarmers

Before delving back into the Swing Era, I’d like to take a look at some of the work of one of jazz’s most important figures - Sidney Bechet. Bechet was one of the people that I highlighted somewhere around the beginning of this blog, a pivotal figure in bringing the original New Orleans sound to the industrial cities in the north. He was, at the time, the only guy who could hold a candle to the solos and improvisations of Louis Armstrong in the 1920’s. When I spoke of him last he had finished up some recordings with Clarence Williams (including some great stuff with Armstrong) and had taken to the road in Europe never to set foot into the recording studio for the rest of the decade. Click the link above for a refresher.

The 1930’s were, however, to prove lean times for Bechet. He hooked up with The Noble Sissle Orchestra on his travels, playing with them through Europe and later in the States. The songs he played on with that band are not strictly jazz, they were more in keeping with the sweet pop tunes of the time. However the work provided a steady enough pay packet for him during the difficult times of the Great Depression.

More notably for us was the collaboration with his friend and fellow New Orleanian, Tommy Ladnier, in forming The New Orleans Feet Warmers. Together they produced an absolutely scintillating set of tunes during a recorded session in 1932.

Sidney Bechet:

Tommy Ladnier:

Here is the highlight of those sessions – “Shag”.

Raucus, freewheeling, uninhibited and showcasing the spectacular improvisational talents of Sidney Bechet, this has to be one of the most important songs in jazz history. It is obviously rooted in the New Orleans and Chicago styles that each of the band members would have all been very familiar with. But the song clearly utilises the new jazz rhythm section that was coming out of Kansas City (for example, a piano solo recorded in the 1920's would have had to be recorded in isolation, here the solo is augmented with bass and drums). Also prevelant is Wilson Myers' superb scat singing, highlighting the influence Louis Armstrong was having over practically all vocal styles post the Hot 5 & 7 recordings. The width of Bechet’s vibrato on the soprano sax is truly extraordinary. His solos mercilessly soar in, out, above and over the track. Check it out. True jazz.

Unfortunately the band was to be shortlived as they weren't received well commercially. Ladnier and Bechet turned their hand to opening a tailor shop in Harlem. Unsurprisingly it wasn't a success (perhaps due to the proprieters' propensity to indulge in all night jam sessions..).