Page 246 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

454 ● (MUSIC.) BECHET, SIDNEY.
Sidney Bechet Disques Vogues.
Poster, 403⁄
4 x 31 inches, linen-backed with
a photographic image of Bechet by A
Visak. Paris: Vogues, circa 1930’s-1940
[1,500/2,500]
Sidney Bechet (1897-1959), clarinetist,
soprano saxophone player, and composer was
the youngest of five sons and two daughters of
Omar Bechet, shoemaker and Josephine Michel
of New Orleans, Louisiana. Bechet was raised
as a middle class “Creole” at a time when state
law re-classified Creoles of color as Negroes.
The entire Bechet family was musical and
Sidney began playing when he was about seven
or eight. By his early twenties, he was touring
with the bands of Noble Sissle and James
Reese Europe. Bechet first came to Paris with
Josephine Baker in 1925. Both of them
remained there, and formed the nucleus of what
was to become a substantial black ex-patriot
community. Bechet is generally considered to be
one of the greatest clarinetists and soprano sax-
ophone players of all time.
454
455 ● (MUSIC.) BETHUNE, THOMAS “BLIND TOM.” Songs, Sketch of the Life
Testimonials and Opinions . . . Blind Tom, the Marvelous Musical Prodigy, The
Negro Boy Pianist. 30, [ii], pages. Small 8vo, original pictorial wrappers, several pencil
notes on the cover, suggesting the writer attended the concert. * together with a cabinet
photograph of Blind Tom from the Eisenmann Gallery, New York.
Np, New York, circa 1885 [1,000/1,500]
Tom Wiggin was born into slavery in 1849, with a condition that doctors today would classify
as “autistic savant”—one of only 1000 recorded cases in medical history. Tom’s father,
Domingue Bethune, a field slave and his mother Charity Greene, were purchased by James
Bethune of Columbus Georgia. Tom, a sickly boy, was thrown in at no extra cost. From infancy,
Tom displayed an uncommon talent for music, and by the age of six was entertaining people
from the plantation. By eight, he was publically presented throughout the state by Colonel
James. Soon after that, Bethune hired Tom out to Perry Oliver, a tobacco planter who promoted
him around the country. In 1864, Bethune convinced Tom’s natural parents to appoint him
Tom’s legal guardian. In the end, Bethune and others made a fortune from the talents of Blind
Tom, who, though well fed and clothed never enjoyed the full benefit of his earnings.
456 ● (MUSIC—BLUES.) HOOKER, JOHN LEE Real Blues. John Lee Hooker
Live at the Apollo. One Night Only. Halloween. Poster, 22 x 17 inches printed black
on red paper; linen backed; faint creases where folded; two small archival paper repairs; one
in the center, one at the bottom edge. New York: High Wind, 1970 [400/600]
John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) was one of the last of the old time blues guitar players. Born
near Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1917 to a sharecropper family, John Lee Hooker was one of the
last links to the blues of the deep South. He moved to Detroit in the early 1940’s and by
1948 had scored his first number-one jukebox hit and million-seller, “Boogie Chillun.” His
unique driving, syncopated style in “Boogie Chillen” (sic) and “Boom Boom” inspired many
other songwriters, notably “Spirit in the Sky,” the “jesus-freak” hit by Norman Greenbaum.