Contact Me By Email

Atlanta, GA Weather from Weather Underground

Jackie McLean

John H. Armwood Jazz History Lecture Nashville's Cheekwood Arts Center 1989

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Print Story: Auctioneers to Offer Bechet Items on Yahoo! News

Print Story: Auctioneers to Offer Bechet Items on Yahoo! News Auctioneers to Offer Bechet Items

Tue Dec 6, 3:17 PM ET

Sidney Bechet's clarinet, soprano saxophone and love letters were scheduled to go on the auction block Wednesday.

Among the 32 pieces up for sale at the Hotel Drouot auction house: the fake leopard-fur jacket Bechet often wore onstage, estimated at $11,800.

Bechet's musical instruments were expected to bring in about $47,000 each, while golden cuff links decorated with the initials "SB" were estimated at $1,700.

Fans could also purchase Bechet's letters to his wife, Jacqueline, and a plaster mortuary mask modeled on the musician's face after his death in 1959.

Auctioneer Olivier Collin du Bocage said he had talked about the sale with film director-clarinet player Woody Allen, who named one of his daughters Bechet in honor of the jazz great.

Daniel Bechet, a drummer who lives in France, organized the auction. He will finance a foundation dedicated to his father's memory in the south of France from the profits, the auction house said.

Born in New Orleans in 1897, Bechet died in France. He composed the famous "Petite Fleur" and performed with artists including Louis Armstrong and Josephine Baker.

No comments:

Post a Comment