Bechet tune1951Try our new player

In September 1958 I worked for three months in a the laboratorium of a beetsugar factory in Compiegne, France. Having finished at the school for sugarindustry in Amsterdam it was sort of a temporary job during their annual sugar campaign. With some friends I visited Paris several times and although I was aware of it, I never went to “Le Vieux Colombier” where Sidney Bechet played on a regular basis. Fortunately I had seen Bechet once performing with the Dutch Swing College Band in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw several years before.
Although only a short clip, we hear part of a rather unknown composition of Bechet called “Promenade aux Champs Elysees”. The film clip gives an idea of Paris and the Champs Elysees in that period.