Sidney Bechet was the first important jazz soloist on record in history (beating Louis Armstrong by a few months). He was brilliant soprano saxophonist and clarinetist with a wide vibrato. A master at both individual and collective improvisation within the genre of New Orleans jazz, Bechet was such a dominant player that trumpeters found it very difficult to play with him. He wanted to play lead and it was up to the other horns to stay out of his way. This 97 track set, mastered by award-winning engineer Ted Kendall, presents the best of the early Bechet in numerous different settings: with his friend Tommy Ladnier as The New Orleans Feetwarmers, as a member of the Noble Sissle band, accompanying singers such as Lena Horne, Trixie Smith, Josh White and Grant & Wilson, and with other great names such as Charlie Shavers, Jelly Roll Morton, Meade Lux Lewis and Muggsy Spanier. One batch of tracks, recorded with Willie 'The Lion' Smith, is notorious for generally only be available in highly degraded condition. Here, Kendall has located rare examples where the damage is mimimal, allowing clear critical analysis for the first time in decades.