Sidney Bechet - Legacy and Honors

Legacy and Honors

• In 1919, Ernest Ansermet, a Swiss classical conductor, wrote a tribute to Bechet, one of the earliest (if not the first) to a jazz musician from the classical field of music, linking Bechet's music with that of Bach.
• In 1968, Bechet was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
• The New York Times music writer Robert Palmer wrote of Bechet: "by combining the 'cry' of the blues players and the finesse of the Creoles into his 'own way,' Sidney Bechet created a style which moved the emotions even as it dazzled the mind."
• "Bechet to me was the very epitome of jazz ... everything he played in his whole life was completely original. I honestly think he was the most unique man to ever be in this music." — Duke Ellington.
• The British poet Philip Larkin wrote an ode to Bechet in The Whitsun Weddings.