Treat it Gentle

An autobiography of Sidney Bechet, compiled from interviews with John Ciardi and Joan Reid and put into book form by Desmond Flower. It recalls his life in music, his deportation from London and the gunfight that put him into jail in Paris.

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This autobiography was taken down in interviews with John Ciardi and Joan Reid, and put into book form by Desmond Flower. In it, Bechet reacalls his life in music, highlighting his narrative with tales of Sunday afternoon "bucking contests" between black and Creole "musicianers", his deportation from London, and the gunfight that put him in jail in Paris. Unlike most jazz musicians, whose musical lives often end at 40, Bechet remained musically active into his 60s, adapting his style to each successive peak of jazz history, and reaching his peak in the New Orleans Revival of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was a keen observer of the jazz scene and his memoirs feature numerous profiles of the men and women who helped jazz grow and develop: Buddy Bolden, Bessie Smith, Manuel Perez, Clarence Williams, "Duke" Ellington and other jazz personalities.