Bechet - Spanier Big Four: Four or five times. (1940). 

Wie immer das vergnugen ist ganz meinerseits !!!! Schone abend lieber Henriette !!!!! Grusse von Henk !!!!

Ik wens je een hele fijne Woensdag !!!!! Geniet van de Zon en pas goed op jezelf !!!! Groetjes van Henk !!!!

Thank you my most precious Jytte !!!!!!

Francis Joseph *"Muggsy" Spanier* (November 9, 1901 - February 12, 1967) was an American jazz cornetist based in Chicago. He was a member of the Bucktown Five, pioneers of the "Chicago style" that straddled traditional Dixieland jazz and swing. Spanier was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. At thirteen, he began playing the cornet and played with Elmer Schoebel in 1921. He borrowed the sobriquet of "Muggsy" from John "Muggsy" McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants baseball team. In the early 1920s, he played with the Bucktown Five. In 1929, he became a member of a band led by Ted Lewis, then spent two years with Ben Pollack. After an illness, he assembled the eight-man group Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band. In 1939, the band recorded several sessions of Dixieland standards for Bluebird Records, that were later called The Great Sixteen and influenced a Dixieland revival. The band's members included George Brunies (later Brunis - trombone and vocals), Rod Cless (clarinet), George Zack or Joe Bushkin (piano), Ray McKinstry, Nick Ciazza or Bernie Billings (tenor sax), and Bob Casey (bass). His other most important ventures were the quartet he co-led with Sidney Bechet (the 'Big Four') in 1940. From 1940 until 1941 he played with Bob Crosby. In the 1950s, he moved to the West Coast and joined Earl Hines's band from 1957 until 1959. After touring Europe, he retired in 1964. Songs The Ragtime Band's theme tune was "Relaxin' at the Touro", composed by Spanier and Joe Bushkin, named for Touro Infirmary, the New Orleans hospital where Spanier had been treated for a perforated ulcer early in 1938. At the point of death, he was saved by Dr. Alton Ochsner who drained the fluid and eased his weakened breathing. One of Spanier's Dixieland numbers is a song he composed entitled, "Oh Doctor Ochsner." "Relaxin' at the Touro" is a fairly straightforward 12-bar blues, with a piano introduction and coda by Joe Bushkin. The pianist recalled, many years later: "When I finally joined Muggsy in Chicago (having left Bunny Berigan's failing big band) we met to talk it over at the Three Deuces, where Art Tatum was appearing." Muggsy was now playing opposite Fats Waller at the Sherman hotel and we worked out a kind of stage show for the two bands. Muggsy was a man of great integrity. "We played a blues in C and I made up a little intro. After that I was listed as the co-composer of 'Relaxin' at the Touro'". Personal life In 1950, in Chicago, Spanier's second marriage was to Ruth Gries O’Connell. He became the stepfather of her sons, Hollywood film writer and director Tom Gries (died 1977) and Charles Joseph Gries, later professionally known as Buddy Charles, a pop and jazz vocalist and pianist in Chicago. When Spanier was performing at a concert in Chicago in 1956, Buddy Charles was performing at the nearby Black Orchid nightclub. Spanier was heard to exclaim "that's my boy." Muggsy Spanier died in Sausalito, California, in February 1967, after years of ill health. He was 65. *Carmen Mastren* (born Carmine Nicholas Mastrandrea, October 6, 1913 - March 31, 1981) was an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, and violinist who was a member of the Tommy Dorsey orchestra from 1936 to 1941. Mastren became a professional musician in 1934 when he joined the Wingy Manone and Joe Marsala band. During the 1940s, he spent four years as a guitarist and arranger for Tommy Dorsey. After his time with Marsala, he was a studio musician, recorded with Sidney Bechet, then entered the U.S Army. He was a member of the Glenn Miller Air Force big band. From the early 1950s to 1970, he worked as a studio musician for NBC. He recorded one solo album, on which he played banjo instead of guitar. During the 1940s Mastren worked as musical director and conductor for Morton Downey, and from 1954 to 1970 Mastren played for _The Today Show, The Tonight Show_ and _Say When!!_ on NBC. Mastren died at age 68 from a heart attack on March 31, 1981, at his home in Valley Stream on Long Island, New York. *Wellman Braud* (January 25, 1891 - October 29, 1966) was an American jazz upright bassist. His family sometimes spelled their last name "Breaux", pronounced "Bro". Biography Born in St. James Parish, Louisiana, Braud settled in New Orleans, in his early teens. He was playing the violin and the upright bass and leading a trio in venues in the Storyville District before 1910. He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1917. In 1923, he visited London with the Plantation Orchestra, in which he doubled on bass and trombone. Next, he moved to New York City, where he played with Wilber Sweatman's band before joining Duke Ellington. It has been observed by Branford Marsalis that Braud was the first to utilize the walking bass style, that has been a mainstay in modern jazz, as opposed to the 'two-beat' pattern the tuba plays in the New Orleans style. His vigorous melodic bass playing, alternately plucking, slapping, and bowing, was an important feature of the early Ellington Orchestra in the 1920s and 1930s. Braud's playing on Ellington's regular radio broadcasts and recordings helped popularize the slap style of string bass playing, as well as encouraging many dance bands of the time to switch from using a tuba to an upright bass. Like many of his contemporary New Orleans bassists, Braud doubled on tuba, and he recorded with that instrument on some sides with Ellington. In 1936, Braud co-managed a short-lived Harlem club with Jimmie Noone, and recorded with the group Spirits of Rhythm from 1935 to 1937. He played with other New York bands including those of Kaiser Marshall, Hot Lips Page, and Sidney Bechet, and returned for a while to Ellington in 1944. In 1956, he joined the Kid Ory Band. In the late 1950s, he joined Barbara Dane's trio alongside pianist/cornetist Kenny Whitson, turning down opportunities to return to Duke Ellington's band or tour with Louis Armstrong. He is a distant relative of the Marsalis brothers on their mother's side. He died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 76. Duke Ellington subsequently paid tribute to Braud, including the composition ‘Portrait of Wellman Braud' on his 1970 album _New Orleans Suite._

*Sidney* Joseph *Bechet* (May 14, 1897 - May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic temperament hampered his career, and not until the late 1940s did he earn wide acclaim. Bechet spent much of his later life in France. Early life Bechet was born in New Orleans in 1897 to a middle-class Creole of color family. Bechet's father Omar was both a shoemaker and a flute player, and all four of his brothers were musicians as well. His older brother, Leonard Victor Bechet, was a full-time dentist and a part-time trombonist and bandleader. Bechet learned and mastered several musical instruments that were kept around the house (he began on the cornet), mostly by teaching himself; he decided to specialize in the clarinet (which he played almost exclusively until about 1919). At the age of six, he started performing with his brother's band at a family birthday party, debuting his talents to acclaim. Later in his youth, Bechet studied with Joseph "King" Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Freddie Keppard, Lorenzo Tio, "Big Eye" Louis Nelson Delisle, and George Baquet. Musical development Bechet played in many New Orleans ensembles using the improvisational techniques of the time (obligatos with scales and arpeggios and varying the melody). While working with Louis Armstrong, Bechet was one of the first musicians to develop the Swing style of jazz; he influenced the widening difference between jazz and ragtime. Bechet liked to have his sound dominate in a performance, and trumpeters reportedly found it difficult to play alongside him. He performed in parades with Freddie Keppard's brass band, the Olympia Orchestra, and in John Robichaux's dance orchestra. From 1911 to 1912, he performed with Bunk Johnson in the Eagle Band of New Orleans and in 1913-14 with King Oliver in the Olympia Band. From 1914 to 1917, he was touring and traveling, going as far north as Chicago and frequently performing with Freddie Keppard. In the spring of 1919, he traveled to New York City and joined Will Marion Cook's Syncopated Orchestra. Soon after, the orchestra traveled to Europe, where they performed at the Royal Philharmonic Hall in London. The group was warmly received, and Bechet was especially popular. While in London, he discovered the straight soprano saxophone and developed a style unlike his clarinet tone. Bechet was the first influential soprano saxophonist, leading to its rising popularity as a jazz instrument. His saxophone sound could be described as emotional, reckless, and all-encompassing. He often used a broad vibrato, similar to some New Orleans clarinetists at the time. In 1919, a Swiss classical music conductor, Ernest Ansermet, wrote a tribute to Bechet. It was one of the earliest (if not the first) articles about a jazz musician written by an expert in the field of classical music, linking Bechet's music with that of Bach. Bechet's first recordings were made in 1923 and 1924. The session was led by Clarence Williams, a pianist and songwriter, better known at that time for his music publishing and record producing, and his "Blue Five" (which included Louis Armstrong). Bechet recorded "Wild Cat Blues" and "Kansas City Man Blues." The former is in a ragtime style with four 16-bar themes, and the latter is a 12-bar blues. In 1924, Bechet worked with Duke Ellington for three months and made a significant impact on Ellington's early jazz style. Duke Ellington called him "the epitome of jazz." However, he never learned how to read music in his lifetime of being a musician. Bechet in France On September 15, 1925, Bechet and other members of the Revue Nègre, including Josephine Baker, sailed to Europe, arriving at Cherbourg, France, on September 22. The revue opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on October 2. The show was an example of negrophilia in France at the time. He toured Europe with multiple bands, reaching as far as Russia in mid-1926. In 1928, he led his small band at Chez Bricktop (run by the popular Ada "Bricktop" Smith) in Montmartre, Paris. In France, Bechet found that he was appreciated by a wider audience and had more general freedom than he did in the United States. He was imprisoned in Paris for eleven months. In his autobiography, he wrote that he accidentally shot a woman when he was trying to shoot a musician who had insulted him. He had challenged the man to duel and said, "Sidney Bechet never plays the wrong chord." After his release, he was deported to New York, arriving soon after the stock market crash of 1929. He joined with Lorenzo Tio and also came to know trumpeter Roy Eldridge. In 1932, Bechet returned to New York City to lead a band with Tommy Ladnier. The band, comprising six members, performed at the Savoy Ballroom. He played in Noble Sissle's orchestra, which toured in Germany and Russia. Later life In 1938, "Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)," commonly known as "Hold Tight," was composed by Bechet's guitarist Leonard Ware and two session singers with claimed contributions from Bechet himself. The song became known for its suggestive lyrics and then for a series of lawsuits over songwriter royalties. In 1939, Bechet and the pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith led a group that recorded several early versions of what was later called Latin jazz, adapting traditional méringue, rhumba and Haitian songs to the jazz idiom. On July 28, 1940, Bechet made a guest appearance on the NBC Radio show The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, playing two of his showpieces ("Shake It and Break It" and "St. Louis Blues") with Henry Levine's Dixieland band. Levine invited Bechet into the RCA Victor recording studio (on 24th Street in New York City), where Bechet lent his soprano sax to Levine's traditional arrangement of "Muskrat Ramble." On April 18, 1941, as an early experiment in overdubbing at Victor, Bechet recorded a version of the pop song "The Sheik of Araby," playing six different instruments: clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, piano, bass, and drums. A hitherto unissued master of this recording was included in the 1965 LP Bechet of New Orleans, issued by RCA Victor as LPV-510. In the liner notes, George Hoeffer quoted Bechet: _"I started by playing The Sheik on piano and played the drums while listening to the piano. I meant to play all the rhythm instruments but got all mixed up and grabbed my soprano, then the bass, then the tenor saxophone, and finally finished up with the clarinet."_ In 1944, 1946, and 1953, he recorded and performed in concert with the Chicago jazz pianist and vibraphonist Max Miller; private recordings from Miller's archive have never been released. These concerts and recordings are described in John Chilton's biography Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz. With jobs in music difficult to find, he opened a tailor shop with Ladnier. They were visited by musicians and played in the back of the shop. In the 1940s, Bechet played in several bands, but his financial situation did not improve until the end of that decade. By the end of the 1940s, Bechet had tired of struggling to make music in the United States. His contract with Jazz Limited, a Chicago-based record label, was limiting the events at which he could perform (for instance, the label would not permit him to perform at the 1948 Festival of Europe in Nice). He believed the jazz scene in the United States had little left to offer him and was getting stale. In 1958, Bechet performed as a soloist and with various other renowned musicians including Buck Clayton and Sarah Vaughn in memorable, spirited concerts in the United States Pavilion at Expo 58, the World's Fair in Brussels, Belgium. Permanent settlement in Paris In 1951, he migrated to France permanently, after his performance as a soloist at the Paris Jazz Fair caused a surge in his popularity in that country, where he easily found well-paid work. Also, in 1951, he married Elisabeth Ziegler in Antibes. Bechet in 1954 In 1953, he signed a recording contract with Disques Vogue that lasted for the rest of his life. He recorded many hit tunes, including "Les Oignons," "Promenade aux Champs-Élysées," and the international hit "Petite Fleur." He also composed a classical ballet score in the late Romantic style of Tchaikovsky called _La nuit est une sorcière_ ("The Night Is a Witch"). Some existentialists in France took to calling him le dieu ("the god").

Autobiography Shortly before his death, Bechet dictated his autobiography, Treat It Gentle, to Al Rose, a record producer and radio host. He had worked with Rose several times in concert promotions and had a fractious relationship with him. In his autobiography, Bechet's view of himself was starkly different from the one Rose knew. "The kindly old gentleman in his book was filled with charity and compassion. The one I knew was self-centered, cold, and capable of the most atrocious cruelty, especially toward women." Though other internet sources have picked up the claim that Bechet dictated his autobiography to Al Rose, the autobiography itself- _Treat It Gentle_ (Twayne, 1960)-notes that "Among those who helped record and edit the tapes on which this book is based are Joan Reid, Desmond Flower, and John Ciardi." The "Foreword" to the book by Desmond Flower explains in detail how the material from the various interviews was put together into book form, and there is no mention of any involvement by Al Rose in the interviewing or editing process. Although embellished and frequently inaccurate, _Treat It Gentle_ remains a staple account for the "insider's view of the New Orleans tradition." Sidney Bechet died in Garches, near Paris, of lung cancer on May 14, 1959, on his 62nd birthday. He is buried in a local cemetery. Two other major jazz musicians died that year: Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Legacy In 2013, a crater on Mercury was named after Bechet. In the novel _Steppenwolf_ by Hermann Hesse, Bechet was the inspiration for the character "Pablo." Bechet's music has been included in the soundtracks of about 60 films, including the following: Flirting (1991), JFK (1991), Chocolat (2000), The Quiet American (2002), and Midnight in Paris (2011). Philip Larkin wrote a poem called "For Sidney Bechet." It can be found in _The Complete Poems._ It is written about on the Philip Larkin Society website. Van Morrison mentions Sidney Bechet in the song "See Me Through Part II (Just A Closer Walk With Thee)" from the 1990 album _Hymns to the Silence:_ "...Sidney Bechet on Sunday afternoons in winter/Sidney Bechet, Sunday afternoons in winter..." In Antibes, France, a small one-block park is named Sidney Bechet Square in his honor. The park contains a monument with a bust of Bechet and a plaque that reads, "To Sidney BECHET, one of the world's greatest jazz musicians, so honored by his new home. - Sidney J. BARTHELEMY, Mayor of New Orleans, April 16, 1994." A fictionalized Sidney Bechet appears in two episodes of George Lucas's _The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles_ portrayed by Jeffrey Wright. Additionally, in an interview with Woody Allen, when asked what "dead person he would like to have dinner with," he responded, " ... I guess maybe Sidney Bechet." Bechet continues to live on in the movies of Allen. Sidney Bechet was Catholic. Bechet was known for having an abrasive attitude, which has been compared to that of Coleman Hawkins. They were both incredibly sure of their relative importance in the music industry during a time in which jazz was losing popularity. They were stubborn and lacked patience with younger artists with less experience or knowledge of the jazz industry. Bechet briefly took time off from the music industry in 1938 when he opened a tailor shop in New York. Bechet had three wives: Elizabeth Ziegler (1951-death), Marie-Louise Crawford (1934-1942), and Norma Hale (1918-1929). Awards DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, 1968 Bechet was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1983. Awarded a blue plaque outside his former London home in 2014

Goodmorning Henri !!!!! Thank you for the names of the composers and the names of the ,,Big Four" ! And ofcourse for the info about the session and the record company !!!! And for the majestic lists from the vocal and instrumental versions of this number !!!! You are AMAZING !!!!

Thank you for allthese informations about Muggsy Spanier, Carmen Mastren and Wellman Braud ! And all the further info !!!!! Greatful greetings from Henk !!!!!

Ja hier is het ook niet al te best Jos !!!!

@@henkgloudemans8886 ze zeggen dat we nog een paar mooie dagen krijgen.. dus nog wat geduld nodig