Petite fleur
Petite fleur is the title of a jazz standard composed in 1952 by Sidney Bechet and made famous by Chris Barber's Jazz Band in 1959 .
History of origin
The former street musician Sidney Bechet, who grew up in New Orleans , went to France for the Festival International 1949 de Jazz in May 1949 . When it received an unexpectedly large response, he stayed in France and found a second musical home there. He formed the Sidney Bechet All Stars with Guy Longnon (trumpet), Jean-Louis Durand (trombone), Charlie Lewis (piano), Alf "Totole" Masselier (bass), Armand Molinetti (drums) and James Campbell (vocals); he himself played soprano saxophone or clarinet. In this formation, eleven tracks were recorded in Paris on January 21, 1952 under Vogue # 520121, including his own composition Petite fleur (small flower).
More shots
On January 31, 1952, the piece was re-recorded with Claude Luter & Orchestra in the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris (Vogue # 520131). The vibrator-rich soprano saxophone solo by Bechet is striking . The song was then recorded twice with Luter's orchestra before Bechet performed it on March 7, 1954 in Brussels with Michel Attenoux on Belgian radio. On December 8, 1954, he presented Petite fleur during a concert at the Olympia in Paris, again with Luter's orchestra and Benny Vasseur as trombonist.
While searching for authentic material, Chris Barber came across Petite fleur . He recorded the instrumental title for the first time on September 3, 1955, another version from October 10, 1956 appeared on the LP Chris Barber Plays (Vol. 3) . Further versions followed, each with clarinetist Monty Sunshine's vibrator-rich clarinet solo, which is strongly based on the saxophone original and ensures a smooth transition to Dick Bishop's zither-like guitar solo. The version released from the LP Chris Barber Plays (Vol. 3) appeared for the first time as a single in 1958, on which Barber himself cannot be heard. When there was no public response, the Pye Nixa record company decided to re-release it in January 1959 - and with success. Only in England the Bugle Boy Rag appeared as B-side , otherwise the Wild Cat Blues appeared worldwide .
success
In jazz catalog as Pye Nixa # NJ2026 registered, the single entered the British pop charts, where they penetrated up to third place on February 13 1959th Released in parallel in the USA, it reached number five on the pop hit parade and became a million seller . In Germany, it reached second place on the charts after its publication in March 1959. Barber's version of the Creole song Petite Fleur sold over a million copies in the United States alone. An estimated ten million copies of Petite Fleur were marketed worldwide by 1961 . The back of the record, the Wildcat Blues , is sometimes mistakenly ascribed to Bechet, but it comes from Fats Waller and Clarence Williams .
The success of Petite Fleur stands for the popularity of British “Trad” jazz (actually Dixieland ) in continental Europe, which experienced an enormous boom here in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Sidney Bechet could no longer fully enjoy the success of his greatest composition because he died shortly after the hit version was released on May 14, 1959 in Paris.
From fleur Petite least 34 versions were published - including by Petula Clark , The Ventures , Britt Hagen and Manu Dibango . For Sidney Joseph Bechet, a total of 164 titles are protected by copyright at ASCAP , including a large number of French-language songs. Petite fleur paved the way for many pop music-like clarinet instrumental titles such as Stranger on the Shore or Summer Set by Acker Bilk .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joe Meek is mentioned here as the sound engineer responsible for the balance .
- ^ Bill Kirchner, The Oxford Companion to Jazz , 2005, p. 538
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, 125
- ^ Don Wedge (New Musical Express) in Billboard Magazine, April 28, 1962, Trad Jazz Still The Fad in Britain , p. 16
- ↑ Cover info entry
- ↑ ASCAP entry for Sidney Bechet