SIDNEY BECHET (1897-1959) was one of the most brilliant exponents of New Orleans jazz. A prodigy on the clarinet, he soloed with Bunk Johnson's orchestra at age eleven, was improvising cornet-clarinet duos with Buddy Petit at age fifteen. Leaving New Orleans in the 1920s, Bechet took his Creole sound and spirit to New York, where he adopted the soprano saxophone, and soon developed the unique style that marked his special artistry. Alternating between clarinet and sax, he played with most of the great performers of jazz history: Joe Williams, Will Marion Cook and his Southern Syncopators, Bessie Smith, Clarence Williams, Buddy Christian, James P Johnson, Duke Ellington and the Washingtonians, Louis Armstrong, Alberta Hunter, Noble Sissle, Tommy Ladnier, Charlie Parker, Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, Ernie Caceres, Jelly Roll Morton, Zutty Singleton, and others (he even appeared with Josephine Baker at the Club Nègre in Paris).

Treat it Gentle tells the exciting Sidney Bechet story in his own words - about his grandfather Omar, the musical rivalries within the Bechet family, his adventures, travels, friends and associates, and through it all - music. Hilarious, touching, warm and real, Bechet's memoirs recreate a man, a music, and an era.

With a Foreword by Desmond Flower and New Preface by Rudi Blesh.

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