Sidney Bechet

How do you heal after the worst war in history?  You find someone who makes music that you can climb into and disappear.  In 1949, that person in France was Sidney Bechet, the New Orleans-born and bred saxophonist (among other instruments).  He had returned to a Europe that he knew well, having first arrived with jazz bands in the mid-1920s, accompanied by celebrities such as the dancer Josephine Baker.  He was in the thick of les années folles, the crazy years, as the French call it.  He blew up a storm on his saxophone from Paris to Russia.

I was wandering around in the park in Juan Les Pins, in sight of the jazz arena where the annual jazz festival takes place, when I saw the statue of Sidney Bechet.  His memory is honoured as he was one of the chief figures to put the town on the jazz map with a festival that has become world famous.  I quote Michael Nelson’s appreciative words:

“In 1950 he (Bechet) went down to Juan-Les-Pins to play at the Riviera version of the Paris Vieux Colombier nightclub;  the beginning of a long love affair with Juan-Les-Pins, where he played every year until his death in 1959.  It was on the Riviera that he made his biggest impact when he married in Antibes a German, Elizabeth Ziegler.

“Thousands turned out  to cheer the wedding procession from the Place Nationale to the town hall in Antibes … Scores of doves were released as the couple left the town hall.  The procession of floats and jazz bands was half a mile long and included a 12-foot model of a soprano saxophone carried by two attendants.  Thirteen gallons of rum were dispensed to warm up the crowd.  So memorable was that wedding that Bechet’s statue has pride of place in Juan-Les-Pins.”

 

 

His style of playing has been called “emotional, reckless, and large” (Wikipedia).   He predated Louis Armstrong in solo saxophone playing, and made a mark on jazz that will not be erased.

Others who followed Sidney Bechet in making Juan-Les-Pins a world venue for jazz – Chick Corea;  Stéphane Grapelli

 

The Jazz Arena

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

April, 2022

 

Source:  Michael Nelson:  The French Riviera A History.  Matador, 2017.

Photograph of Bechet – Wikipedia

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

A traffic circle in Juan-Les-Pins

 

France moments

Those moments that pass us by, yet stick in our memories.  I share a few more.

The hand imprints at the Cannes Film Festival Hall is probably the closest most people will ever come to these famous people.  This is Meryl Streep’s right hand.  In my opinion, she is the greatest actress in American film history.

Also in Cannes, this strange figure of a man that I can’t stop remembering.

Les Amoureux, the famous couple by Peynet, also had a copy placed at the entrance of the museum in Hiroshima.  The charm remains.

A carving on the door at the St Bernadin Chapel in the medieval sector of Antibes.  Shakespeare was alive when hands carved that date and the swirls above it.

The interior of Ste Marguerite Chapel which I see when I go on afternoon walks.

A moment in the Carrefour supermarket, which I call “Ever seen a grown man cry?”

For someone born under the African sun as I was, the scene of the Pre-Alps under winter snow remains magical.

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes  /  Bridgewater, Somerset West 

April, 2022

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers

“The Street of Souls in Purgatory” … inspired by the total strangeness of this street name I came across some fascinating history.  You would, of course, never find anything like this in a Protestant country.  If you are interested look up    Two Street Names  http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com  24.7.2017

Politics

A few more which are, it is hoped, wry comment on a world that so easily leads to corruption, having started in idealism.  

 

 

 

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

March, 2022

 

My drawings, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

Politics

Confinement has meant that I view more television with more politicians, some of my least favourite people.  The way to cope for me is to make drawings of these people and the things they say.  I share some of them.

 

Politics

 

 

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

February, 2022

 

My drawings, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

France moments

There are moments in our lives that remain, the little things, unimportant.  They enrich us as the experience of great paintings, monuments and archiecture enrich us.  It is amazing what staying power these little moments have.  I share some of mine.

This is an impression of Dave Brubek’s right hand, made after he had performed at the annual jazz festival in Juan Les Pins, the sister city of Antibes.  It is those fingers that improvised on Take Five, Blue Rondo al la Turk and Unsquare Dance.  

I call this image Paradise.  It is the cheese counter at the Carrefour supermarket.  I get lost here.

You can get into the Nomade sculpture, as I did, and looking up saw the thin stream of a jet passing over the opening.  A unique moment.

This is Christ suriant, one of the two or three crucifixion scenes where Christ is smiling.  It is in the cathedral on the island of St Honorat, Iles de Lerins, in the bay of Cannes.

The moment of a pigeon sitting on the head of the statue of the Resistance Monument.  Such a small moment.  Such a vast moment.

Near the bridge at Eze, a coastal town with much history, I saw this moving relief.  It touched me especially too, because I had been told that an acquaintance of my partner had taken her own life from the bridge.  The two events have nothing to do with each other, I’m told.

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

February, 2022

 

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers

The image of Christ souriant is not mine, but I have lost the source.  

 

 

 

 

French names

The French, probably others too, will take me to task for being an etymological rummager.  When I see an unusual name, it pricks my interest.  I share French names that I’ve seen in passing on television.  And as always, the facts surprise.

A reason for strange surnames is probably the age of the culture.  In the case of French, we could estimate that the foundation of the language was laid twelve hundred years ago.  Thus, strange names are the inheritance of Europe.  People are proud of their strange surnames  –  it is a point of discussion for those, like me, who are interested.  Sometimes it’s unique and, dare I say it, kind of noble.  These people don’t have an ordinary surnames like Van der Walt.

But I’m proud of the name:  my forebears woke mornings to the perfume of pine needles rather than the smell of soup that had cooked for days.  My name Willem has a proud history:  there are versions of the name in English, Flemish, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish.  I have not investigated the Slavic languages.

 So, a few French names  –  placed here with respect and wonder.  I add a first name – Pierre –  to help with the sense.

Pierre Le Bras  – Arms (as in extensions of our shoulders)

Pierre Dieu  –  It is probably difficult to imagine that there is a family in France who named themselves after God.

Pierre Hannedouche  –  What Hanne means is lost, but douche means shower.  (Could Hanne refer to Hens?  Complicateder and complicateder)

Pierre Bonnebas  –  Literally, “Good under”.  It lets me think of the English surname “Sidebottom”. 

Pierre Sauce  –  A good surname for a cook.

Pierre Clou  –  nail (as in fingernail) or claw

Pierre Levieux  –  The old one.  It lets me think of its opposite in English “Young”.

Pierre Vielledent  –  Old tooth.

Pierre Coeurderoy  –  Heart of the king.  This name remained after 1789 when the Revolution sent history in another direction.  (Just wondering where the word “corduroy” comes from.)

Pierre Enouf  –  This name sounds like un oeuf  –  one egg.  It becomes a pun for some – one egg is enough / un eouf.

©  Will  /  Willem / Gugliemo / Vilhelm, etc.

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

February, 2022

 

See too:  Names – a world of fascination    http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com    27.9.2020

 

I found this on the internet:

Corduroy – late 18th-century. Probably from cord “ribbed fabric” + duroy  denoting a kind of lightweight worsted formerly made in the West of England, of unknown origin.    –    Oxford Languages

What discounts this (?) is the spelling of  coeur   in French, clearly “heart”.  But then,  “king” in French is roi.  

The plot thickens… 

Advertising

My interest in advertising began with the writing of Vance Packard (1914-1996).  The book was The Hidden Persuaders (1957) in which he explores the depth psychology in advertising and in politics.  It is a disturbing book and for a time left me with a disturbing question:  on which side of the Iron Curtain do people have more freedom?

Today I am confronted with television advertising in a developed country (France) where the vast majority of people are literate and, it is hoped, more critical.

Apart from technology, little has changed since Packard.  So it is that I accept the endless stream of advertisements with a generous dollop of irony.  I even have a little rating game that I play:  on a scale of one to five, that ad is a three.

More use is made of hard-drive beat music (the French love British pop), though the beautiful young people, humour, and film technique, often remarkable, are all still there.  The repetition is the heart of the process.  One Saturday night from 8:30 to 12:30 I counted 140 advertisements, with some of them repeated more than ten times.  As always, the reasoning is:  If you are a critical audience, we’ll work with your unconscious mind.

One advertisement stays with me, even though (laugh out loud) I can’t remember the product.  It is of a young woman who is attractive but not obviously sexy, not made up and wearing a plain dress.  She says a few sentences quite shyly in a subdued voice about the product.  Then she smiles, warmly and naturally, close to a little self-conscious giggle.  There is no pounding music, no clever or sudden editing nor the use of filmic dazzlements.  In technical language, it is called “soft sell”.  It is entirely charming in its unexpected simplicity.  And memorable.

©  Will

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

February, 2022  (6.2) 

 

Images from an old advertising pamphlet 

Four poets

Winter clings freshly to my face when I go walking mornings.  And that after months of summer blew away in a few leaves.  I walk along boulevard Robert Desnos, flowing from André Breton and joining Guillaume Apollinaire.  These three streets circle the primary school named after Jacques Prevert.  I am surrounded by the street names of poets, and the avant-garde at that.  Where in my own country are contemporary poets honoured like this?

André Breton  1896-1966

He was the forerunner of the Surrealist movement and in the Manifesto of these otherwise minds he put into words what the essence of their beliefs was:  psychic automatism.  His work was controversial and, understandably, his work was banned by the Vichy government in the war years.  He fled to the United States and returning to France after the war without change to his revolutionary views.  His magnum opus is Fata Morgana (1938), a long poem in which the extended metaphor is the phenomenon of the mirage.

Robert Desnos, also part of the wayward writers, wrote poetry that soon gained fame.  He had a political disagreement with Breton and only in the naming of these streets was there reconciliation.  He joined the French Resistance and was arrested by the Gestapo.

Legend has it that, in the death camps, he read people’s palms and to the enjoyment of the German soldiers, foresaw rosy futures for them.  Soon after the liberation of the camps he died.

Guillaume Apollinaire 1880-1918

Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet of Polish-Italian extraction.  He was also a dramatist, writer of short stories and novels, as well as being an art critic.  He was involved with the theft of the Mona Lisa but was cleared soon after.

As a result he campaigned for the Louvre to be burnt down.  His poem Rain caught my attention when I was young:  the words of the poem are arranged like falling water on the page.  He died in the Spanish ‘Flu.

Jacques Prévert  1900-1977

Jacques Prévert was also active with the Surrealists.  Many of his poems were set to music.  The one that moves me most has been translated as Autumn Leaves.  He wrote film scripts as well as short stories.  His poem Breakfast struck me when I was a teenager, a masterpiece in a pared down style, poetry without imagery. 

And he goes

Into the rain

Without a word to me

Without a glance

And I put my face

Into my hands

And I weep

 

©  Will

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

January, 2022

 

Images

Bréton – wikipedia.org.fr

Desnos –  atlaneastra.fr

Apollinaire – internaute.fr

Prévert – wikipedia

 

See as well:  “Autumn Leaves”    http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com    29.8.2021

Politics

I have been disturbed by the rise of certain strains of politics, almost like a variant virus, in Western Europe and in the United States.  I feel charged to slam a fist down on a table and shout, Can’t you learn from history?  And the philosopher turns in his grave and murmurs When will you see that people don’t learn from history?  I feel helpless:  I’m 10,000 kms from my country.  So, what can I do?  Well, the official Confinement in this country doesn’t leave me with much choice.  How would it be if I shared a few of my cartoons on politics?

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

January, 2022

 

My drawings, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

 

Living history

It is a strange sensation to think that I am writing a kind of time capsule which I will bury until the 9th January, 2022. We don’t always realize that the time we are living through may be considered most significant by future historians. With Covid-19 the story is different. We have lived through this period for almost a year. Where will we be in a year from now? We know full well that things may become far worse than they are.  Much is said about the “Third Wave”, but what of a fourth wave, a fifth?  South Africa and the United Kingdom are linked in a variant of the virus.  In the last 24 hours more than 1,300 people have died in France alone, a record number.  Debates about vaccination rage.   

What awaits us?  Shall we be jolly and optimistic?  As with everyone I have great uncertainty.  The range of this uncertainty is as wide as life and death.  It is not beyond reason to wonder how many of us, myself included, will survive this year?  

Still, I comfort myself.   The world of 1918-1920 and the world of 2020-2021 are very different.  I made some rough calculations which would have to be verified.  The so-called “Spanish ‘Flu” claimed between 50 and 100 million lives.  If I take the lowest figure for deaths, a comparable period shows that they were 13,6 times worse off than we are.  A great factor is communication:  they had newspapers;  we have radio, television and the internet.  Research in virology has made some advances in the last century.  

 Thus, I could have published this post today, but I feel that it will say more in a year.

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

Written 9.1.2021.  Scheduled for 9.1.2022

 

RANDOM HEADLINES from BFM, France’s on-going television news service, on 9.1.21

Curfew at 18h causes upset

Curfew:  the locally-elected are angry

Vaccine:  the objective is to move fast

Vaccine:  Between 25,000 and 30,000 to receive vaccination. Next week the rhythm is accelerated.

Images of empty city streets