BECHET SIDNEY: (1897-1959) American jazz saxophonist and clarinettist, one of the first important soloists in jazz. A good, rare vintage signed 5 x 7 photograph of Bechet in a head and shoulders pose playing his clarinet. Signed ('Sid Bechet') in blue fountain pen ink with his name alone, partially to a darker area of the image although still legible. Together with an interesting T.L.S. by Irene Reweliotty, wife of Andre Reweliotty, one page, 4to, Paris, 18th May 1961, to a gentleman, evidently a journalist with the newspaper Le Figaro, in French. Reweliotty states that she was deeply shocked to see that a newspaper such as Le Figaro was able to make a feature on the French television programme entitled Tribute to Sidney Bechet, during which an orchestra performed although one which had nothing to do with Bechet during his lifetime, further expressing her view that the event showed an absolute lack of respect for the memory of Bechet and that the mass of the French and foreign public who listened to and attended Bechet's concerts over a period of more than five years know that he was always faithfully accompanied by Andre Reweliotty's orchestra. A couple of very small, minor corner creases to the photograph, otherwise VG, 2