"Maple Leaf Rag," Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Feetwarmers (1932)

What is this?

New Orleans clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was one of the first and most prominent American jazz musicians to tour Europe. He first played in London with William Marion Cook and the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, performing at the Royal Philharmonic Hall. Later, Bechet—along with Josephine Baker and additional members of La Revue Nègre—performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, leading to a relationship between Paris and leading jazz musicians from the United States. Bechet’s recording of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and Clarinval’s Le Feu seem to align perfectly. Text by James Saltzman, Faculty, Manhattan School of Music

http://www.folkways.si.edu/dick-hyman/maple-leaf-rag/jazz-ragtime/music/track/smithsonian