In Bechet’s shadow

Abstract

After my return to New York I reflected on the Nice Festival. Life had consisted of one endless round of parties, with all the nightclubs open late and jam sessions going on all over the place. My feelings about Mezz were ambivalent. I was certainly grateful to him for the chance to have been part of a great celebration of jazz, but I couldn’t forget those duets on the stage of the Salle Pleyel and Mezz pretending that his squeaks were mine — dirty pool. I thought, too, of valued friendships that I had developed with some of the European musicians. Claude Luter was one: while neither of us could speak the other’s language, we spoke the same language musically. There were also Dill Jones and Humphrey Lyttelton, two British musicians who became particularly good friends in later years.