"Premier Bal" (also "Premier bal") is a jazz standard composed by Sidney Bechet, with French lyrics by Bernard Dimey. Bechet wrote it at about the age of 61, one of his last compositions, a year before his death, while he was living in Paris and playing at Le Vieux Colombier in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The piece is a nostalgic, slow-tempo tune about a first dance from the composer's past. It was inspired by his 1952 hit "Petite Fleur" and mixes slow fox, jazz blues, cool jazz, swing, slow waltz and New Orleans early jazz.
The original recording, by Bechet with André Réwéliotty et son orchestre, was made in Paris and released in 1958 by Disques Vogue as a single, later included on the album L'Histoire de Sidney Bechet (1959). Bechet plays his characteristic soprano saxophone, with piano and the Réwéliotty orchestra. Later versions include Claude Goaty's 1960 singing adaptation, "Mon premier bal", with French lyrics by Bernard Dimey, and instrumental recordings by Claude Luter, Claude Bolling, Buck Clayton and others from 1959 to 1961. Many of them have been reissued on Bechet compilations.
