BUNK AND BECHET IN BOSTON

por Pedro Luso de Carvalho

In 1940 Sydney Bechet had been involved in a abortive attempt to bring Bunk Johnson up to New York to take part in a recording session for Victor. This may have been a gesture to please is brother Leonard, who was anxious to get some mileage out of the teeth he had made for Bunk. In any case, Bunk was was clearly not read for such an outing al that time. The plan had to be kept secret, lest Victor should find out that anon-union musician was to take part in one of their sessions, and Sydney had a ready-made excuse to scrap in the venture when Bunk spilled the beans to Louis Armstrong, who told the press.  Bechet also used the situation to foster is dislike of Eugen Williams who, he claimed, had turned Bunk off the idea because he wanted him to record in New Orleans first. Bunk, in his turn, told Sydney that the agreed to record for williams and Bill Russell only go him drumk, but the fact that the Jazz Man session took place two years later makes a nonsense of this. Clearly, there was not much integrity on either side of the deal. In the event Rex Stewart played cornet in the Victor session and made a very good job of it. (Bunk Johnson, in Christopher Hillman, Omnibus Press, London, 1988.)