Arts & Culture
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Sidney Joseph Bechet, known as the “Wizard of Jazz” and a master of the clarinet and soprano saxophone, was born in New Orleans on May 14, 1897, and died in Paris, France, on May 14, 1959. He mentioned Congo Square prominently in his autobiography, giving special meaning to this site. A bronze bust of Bechet is a faithful copy of an original by French sculptor Abel Chrétien, erected in France in 1960, a year after Bechet’s death in Juan-Les-Fins. Chrétien’s sculpture is thought to be the first public monument to a jazz musician erected anywhere in the world. The copy was executed by the Fonderie De Coubertin in Saint Remy-Les-Chevreuses, France, in 1997. In 1994, Juan-Les-Fins was named a Twin City to New Orleans’ Vieux Carre.
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