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Bix Beiderbecke



 
 
Leon Bix Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 cornet
Cornet

Not to be confused with coronetThe cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical Bore , compact shape, and mellower tone quality....
ist and composer, as well as a skilled classical and jazz pianist.

One of the leading names in 1920s jazz, Beiderbecke's career was cut short by chronic poor health, exacerbated by alcoholism
Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
. Critic Scott Yanow describes Beiderbecke as the "possessor of a beautiful, distinctive tone
Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments....
 and a strikingly original improvising style
Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians....
.






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Encyclopedia


Leon Bix Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 cornet
Cornet

Not to be confused with coronetThe cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical Bore , compact shape, and mellower tone quality....
ist and composer, as well as a skilled classical and jazz pianist.

One of the leading names in 1920s jazz, Beiderbecke's career was cut short by chronic poor health, exacerbated by alcoholism
Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
. Critic Scott Yanow describes Beiderbecke as the "possessor of a beautiful, distinctive tone
Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments....
 and a strikingly original improvising style
Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians....
. Beiderbecke's chief competitor among cornetists in the '20s was Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
, but (due to their different sounds and styles) one really could not compare them." Bix Beiderbecke recorded many jazz standards during his career in the 1920s and early 1930s, including "Riverboat Shuffle", "Copenhagen", "Davenport Blues", "Singin' the Blues", "In a Mist", "Mississippi Mud", "I'm Coming, Virginia", and "Georgia On My Mind".

Early life


Bix Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa

Davenport is a city in Scott County, Iowa, Iowa, United States, along the Mississippi River. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a population of 98,359 and an area of ....
 to a middle-class family of German
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 origin. As a teenager he would sneak off to the banks of the Mississippi
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
 to listen to bands play on the riverboat
Riverboat

A riverboat is a ship designed for inland navigation. These vessels are usually less sturdy than ships built for the open seas, with limited navigational and rescue equipment, as they do not have to survive the high winds or large waves characteristic on large lakes, seas or oceans....
s arriving from the south.

Illness frequently kept Beiderbecke out of school, and his grades suffered. He attended Davenport High School
Davenport Central High School

for schools of the same name.Davenport Central High School is a four-year high school in Davenport, Iowa, Iowa. It offers over 200 courses in a four-block schedule, as well as a variety of extracurricular activities, clubs, and teams....
 briefly, but his parents felt that enrolling him in the exclusive Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy

Lake Forest Academy is a college preparatory boarding school and day school for grades 9 through 12 located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, Illinois, United States....
, north of Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
 in Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest, Illinois

Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, Illinois, United States. The population was 20,059 at the 2000 census. The city is south of Waukegan, Illinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the affluent North Shore ....
, as a boarding student would provide him with both the necessary faculty attention and discipline to improve his academic performance. However, the change of scenery did not improve Beiderbecke's academic record, as the only subjects in which he displayed interest were music and sports. Bix began going into Chicago to catch the hot jazz bands at clubs and speakeasies
Speakeasy

A speakeasy was an establishment which illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the period of History of the United States known as Prohibition in the United States ....
. He often failed to return to his dormitory before curfew
Curfew

A cogida, or curfew laws can be one of the following:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time....
, and sometimes stayed off-campus the next day. Beiderbecke was dismissed from the academy due to his academic failings and extracurricular activities. His time now free, he began his musical career.

Career


Bix Beiderbecke was one of the great jazz musicians of the 1920s, the Jazz Age. Beiderbecke first recorded with the Wolverine Orchestra in 1924. The ensemble was casually called the Wolverines, named for "Wolverine Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton was an United States ragtime pianist, bandleader and composer.Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton claimed, in self-promotional hyperbole, to have invented jazz outright in 1902....
, a tune that they played often. The group recorded the jazz standards "Riverboat Shuffle", written for the band by Hoagy Carmichael, and "Copenhagen", written by Charlie Davis. Jazz composer and pianist Hoagy Carmichael had booked their appearance at Indiana University in 1924.

Bix Beiderbecke became a sought-after musician in Chicago and New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. He made innovative and influential recordings with Frankie Trumbauer
Frankie Trumbauer

Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer was one of the leading jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and 1930s. He played C-melody saxophone, which in size is between an alto and tenor saxophone....
 ("Tram") and the Jean Goldkette
Jean Goldkette

John Jean Goldkette was a jazz pianist and bandleader born in Patras, Greece. Goldkette spent his childhood in Greece and Russia, and emigrated to the United States in 1911....
 Orchestra. In 1927, he played cornet on the landmark Okeh recording "Singin' the Blues", with Frankie Trumbauer on C-melody saxophone and Eddie Lang on guitar, one of the most important and influential jazz recordings of the 1920s. The orchestra on that session also included Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto saxophone, Miff Mole on trombone, Chauncey Morehouse on drums, and Paul Madeira Mertz on piano. When the Goldkette Orchestra disbanded after their last recording ("Clementine (From New Orleans)"), released as Victor 20994, in September 1927, Bix and Trumbauer, a 'C' melody and alto saxophone player, briefly joined Adrian Rollini
Adrian Rollini

Adrian Francis Rollini was a instrumentalist best known for his jazz music. He played the bass saxophone, piano, xylophone, and many other instruments....
's band at the Club New Yorker, New York. Beiderbecke then moved on to the Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman was an United States orchestral leader. He was born in Denver, Colorado. After a start as a classical violinist and viola, Whiteman then led a jazz-influenced dance band, which became locally popular in San Francisco, California in 1918....
 Orchestra, the most popular and highest paid band of the day. Although some historians have derided Whiteman and lamented Beiderbecke's tenure with the large orchestra, historian Dick Sudhalter
Dick Sudhalter

Richard M. Sudhalter was an American jazz trumpeter, scholar, music critic, and liner notes....
, in his book Lost Chords, asserts: "Colleagues have testified that, far from feeling bound or stifled by the Whiteman Orchestra, as [saxophonist and author Benny] Green
Benny Green

Benny Green , born in Leeds, Yorkshire, was a Cockney-accented British jazz saxophoneist, who was most well known by the public for his radio shows and books....
 and others have suggested, Bix often felt a sense of exhilaration. It was like attending a music school, learning and broadening; formal music, especially the synthesis of the American vernacular idiom with a more classical orientation, so much sought-after in the 1920s, were calling out to him."

Bix Beiderbecke also played piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
, sometimes switching from cornet for a chorus or two during a song (e.g., "For No Reason at All in C", 1927). He wrote several compositions for the piano, and recorded one of them, "In a Mist" (after it was transcribed from his improvisations by the Goldkette/Whiteman arranger Bill Challis). His piano compositions include "In a Mist", "Flashes", "In the Dark" and "Candlelights." These were later recorded by (among others) Jess Stacy
Jess Stacy

Jess Stacy was an American jazz pianist who became famous during the Swing Era....
, Bunny Berigan
Bunny Berigan

Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan was an United States jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the Swing Era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33....
, Jimmy
Jimmy McPartland

Jimmy McPartland was an American cornetist and one of the originators of Chicago Jazz. McPartland worked with Eddie Condon, Art Hodes, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey and other jazz veterans, often leading his own bands....
 and Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland

Margaret Marian McPartland , is an English people jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Piano Jazz on National Public Radio....
, Dill Jones
Dill Jones

Dillwyn Owen Paton Jones, or Dill Jones , was a Welsh people jazz stride pianist....
 and Ralph Sutton
Ralph Sutton

Ralph Earl Sutton was an United States jazz pianist born in Hamburg, Missouri. He was known as a Stride piano in the tradition of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller....
.

The only known film footage of Bix Beiderbecke playing the cornet in the 1920s is a Fox Movietone News newsreel, "Jazz King Tears Up Old Contract", from the week of May 18, 1928, which was on the Paul Whiteman label switch from Victor Records to Columbia
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
. The orchestra is shown performing "My Ohio Home" with Beiderbecke standing up and playing the cornet.

Bix Beiderbecke played cornet on four number one hit records in 1928 recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra: "Together", number one for two weeks, "Ramona", number one for three weeks, "My Angel", number one for six weeks, and "Ol' Man River", with Bing Crosby on vocals, was number one for one week. By contrast, Louis Armstrong did not have any number one records in the 1920s. "Ol' Man River" would be the first of 41 number one hits for Bing Crosby during his career.

On one of his last recording sessions in New York on September 15, 1930, he recorded the original version of the jazz and pop standard "Georgia on My Mind
Georgia on My Mind

"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell . It is the official List of U.S. state songs of the United States state of Georgia ....
" with Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael

Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael was an United States composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust " , and "Heart and Soul ", two of the most-recorded American songs of all time....
 and His Orchestra, which was released as Victor 23013. Bix Beiderbecke played the cornet on the session with Hoagy Carmichael on vocals in an orchestra that included Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang was an American jazz guitarist, regarded as the most important Chicago jazz guitarist and the Father of the Jazz Guitar. He played a Gibson L-4 and Gibson L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt....
 on guitar, Joe Venuti on violin, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey

James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent United States jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader....
 on clarinet/alto saxophone, Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden

Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist....
 on trombone, Bud Freeman
Bud Freeman

Lawrence "Bud" Freeman was a United States jazz musician, bandleader, amd composer, known mainly for playing the tenor saxophone, but also able at the clarinet....
 on tenor saxophone, and Pee Wee Russell
Pee Wee Russell

Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet....
 on alto saxophone. Frankie Trumbauer had originally suggested to Hoagy Carmichael that he compose "Georgia On My Mind". "Georgia on My Mind" would subsequently be recorded by Frankie Trumbauer
Frankie Trumbauer

Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer was one of the leading jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and 1930s. He played C-melody saxophone, which in size is between an alto and tenor saxophone....
, who had a Top Ten
TOP TEN

TOP TEN is an Estonia record label which has started the career of a number of successful Baltic countries chart acts, including the internationally successful girl group Vanilla Ninja, who are currently the label's most successful act....
 hit in 1931 with his version, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
, Mildred Bailey
Mildred Bailey

Mildred Bailey was a popular and influential United States jazz singer during the 1930s, known as "Mrs. Swing". Her number one hits were "Please Be Kind", "Darn That Dream", and "Says My Heart"....
 with the Matty Malneck
Matty Malneck

Matty Malneck was an American jazz violinist, violist and songwriter.Malneck's first professional gigs as a violinist began when he was age 16....
 Orchestra, Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an influentialUnited States jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style....
 with Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day was an United States jazz singer. Jazz Critic Will Friedwald has said ?When you think of the great jazz singers, I would think that Anita is the only white woman that belongs in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.?...
 on vocals, Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt

Jean-Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt was a Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist.One of the first prominent European jazz musicians, Reinhardt remains one of the most renowned jazz guitarists due to his innovative and distinctive playing....
, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter.Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing....
, Fats Waller
Fats Waller

Fats Waller was an United States Jazz piano, organ , composer and comedy entertainer....
, Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful United States musician, singer and songwriter whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire " in 2005....
, the Spencer Davis Group featuring Steve Winwood in 1966, the Washboard Rhythm Kings, James Brown
James Brown

James Joseph Brown, Jr. was an United States entertainer. He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing....
, Michael Bolton
Michael Bolton

Michael Bolton , is an United States singer-songwriter and a former heavy metal music singer, best known for his soft rock ballads and tenor vocals....
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his stage name Ray Charles, was an United States pianist, singer, and songwriter who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues....
, who had a no.1 hit, won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award

The Grammy Awards ?or Grammys?are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry....
, and whose recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993, and Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson is an United States country music singer-songwriter author, poet and actor. He reached his greatest fame during the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, but remains Cultural icon, especially in American popular culture....
, who also won a Grammy Award for his recording.

Death


Bix Beiderbecke had suffered health problems from an early age and his health declined further in his adult years. He toured relentlessly, and consumed excessive alcohol, much of it low quality, and often somewhat poison
Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are Chemical substance that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ous, Prohibition Era
Prohibition in the United States

In the history of the United States, Prohibition is the period from 1920 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of Alcoholic beverage for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution....
 alcohol. As a result, his stage performances began to suffer. Bandleader Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman was an United States orchestral leader. He was born in Denver, Colorado. After a start as a classical violinist and viola, Whiteman then led a jazz-influenced dance band, which became locally popular in San Francisco, California in 1918....
 and his musicians were frustrated with Beiderbecke's behavior; another trumpet player famously wrote the reminder "Wake up Bix" shortly before Beiderbecke's solo on a sheet music
Sheet music

Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of musical notation; like its analogs?books, pamphlets, etc.?the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens....
 transcript.

His spirits also suffered due to declining work around the New York City area. In 1929 bandleader Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman was an United States orchestral leader. He was born in Denver, Colorado. After a start as a classical violinist and viola, Whiteman then led a jazz-influenced dance band, which became locally popular in San Francisco, California in 1918....
 sent Beiderbecke back home to Davenport, Iowa, to recover from a breakdown (caused by alcoholism, related physical problems and the stress of touring). His treatment was initially successful, but failed later. During this recuperation period, he discovered in his parents' home a cabinet full of all his phonograph records he sent back home for his parents--all unplayed, after pleading for his parents' respect and recognition through his letters. In an interview in Episode 3 of Jazz, Richard Sudhalter noted that while his mother was slightly supportive, his father was not. Bix was cutting an increasingly sad figure, and while he played intermittently over the next two years, when he was well enough to travel, neither he nor his playing was ever the same.

In late July or early August 1931, he took up residence at 43-30 46th Street, Sunnyside, Queens
Sunnyside, Queens

Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens, in New York, in the United States. It shares borders with Hunters Point, Queens and Long Island City, Queens to the west, Astoria, Queens to the north, Woodside, Queens to the east and Maspeth, Queens to the south....
, New York City, where he went on his last drinking binge. He died in his Queens apartment alone on August 6, 1931, at 9:30 in the evening, just 28 years old. While the official cause of his death was "lobar pneumonia
Lobar pneumonia

Lobar pneumonia is a form of pneumonia associated with the x of an entire lobe of a lung.It is one of the two anatomic classifications of pneumonia ....
" and "brain edema", Beiderbecke actually died of an alcoholic seizure during delirium tremens
Delirium tremens

,i.e. 'savness', or 'the heebie-jeebies',Delirium tremens is an acute episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal or abstinence from benzodiazepines or barbiturates ....
. To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Greater Astoria Historical Society
Greater Astoria Historical Society

The Greater Astoria Historical Society is a non-profit cultural and historical organization located in Astoria, Queens, New York, dedicated to preserving the past and promoting the future of the neighborhoods that are part of historic Long Island City, including; the Village of Astoria, Queens, Blissville, Queens, Bowery Bay, Dutch Kills, Hunters...
 and other community organizations erected a plaque in Beiderbecke's honor at the apartment building in which he died in Sunnyside, Queens
Sunnyside, Queens

Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens, in New York, in the United States. It shares borders with Hunters Point, Queens and Long Island City, Queens to the west, Astoria, Queens to the north, Woodside, Queens to the east and Maspeth, Queens to the south....
.

The production of bathtub gin was tremendous during Prohibition and continued widely until the Repeal of Prohibition
Repeal of Prohibition

In 1919, the requisite number of List of state legislatures in the United States ratified Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to the United States Constitution, enabling national Prohibition in the United States within one year of ratification....
 some 18 months after Bix's death (or until practical enforcement of Prohibition laws stopped before the official time that the 21st Amendment went into effect), so up to the time that Bix went on his final bender
Binge drinking

Binge drinking is often defined nowadays as drinking alcoholic Drink with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated, for the course of several days....
 he very likely drank large quantities of bathtub gin
Bathtub gin

Bathtub gin refers to any style of homemade spirit made in amateur conditions. It first appeared in the Prohibition United States in reference to the poor-quality alcohol that was being made....
 with Rotgut
Fusel alcohol

Fusel alcohols, also sometimes called fusel oils, or potato oil in Europe, are higher order alcohols formed by Fermentation and present in cider, mead, beer, wine, and Distilled beverage to varying degrees....
 properties, since the most readily available alcohol at that time was illegal spirits, as opposed to industrial spirits that were illegally imported.

Bix Beiderbecke was buried in a family plot in Oakdale Cemetery in Davenport, Iowa.

Influences


Bix Beiderbecke absorbed the music he heard of New Orleans jazz cornetists. He was influenced by Nick LaRocca
Nick LaRocca

Dominic James "Nick" La Rocca was an early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. According to La Rocca himself, he was "The Creator of Jazz", "The Christopher Columbus of Music", and "The most lied about person in history since Jesus"....
 of the Original Dixieland Jass Band
Original Dixieland Jass Band

Original Dixieland Jass Band was a New Orleans, Dixieland Jazz band that made the first jazz recordings early in 1917, their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first issued Jazz single....
. The LaRocca influence is evident in a number of Beiderbecke's recordings (especially the covers of O.D.J.B. songs). Beiderbecke also absorbed patterns from Joe "King" Oliver, and clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
ist Leon Roppolo
Leon Roppolo

Leon Roppolo was a prominent early jazz clarinetist, best known for his playing with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Roppolo also played saxophone and guitar....
. Beiderbecke's famous two-note interjection on "Goose Pimples" suggests Freddie Keppard
Freddie Keppard

Freddie Keppard was an early jazz cornetist.Keppard was born in the Louisiana Creole people of Color community of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana....
, among older New Orleans players.

According to many contemporaries, Beiderbecke was most influenced by Emmett Hardy
Emmett Hardy

Emmett Louis Hardy was an early jazz cornet player and one of the best regarded New Orleans musicians of his generation.Emmett Louis Hardy was born in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, Louisiana, lived much of his life in the Algiers, Louisiana neighborhood of the west bank of New Orleans....
, a highly regarded New Orleans cornetist who never recorded commercially and died young (age 23). Several fellow musicians said that Hardy's influence was very evident in Beiderbecke's early recordings with The Wolverines
The Wolverines

The Wolverines were an American jazz band. They were one of the most successful territory bands of the American Midwest in the 1920s....
. New Orleans drummer Ray Bauduc
Ray Bauduc

Ray Bauduc was a hugely popular and influential jazz drummer best known for his work with the Bob Crosby Orchestra and their band-within-a-band, the Bobcats, between 1935 and 1942....
 heard Hardy's playing in the early 1920s and said that he was even more inspired than Beiderbecke.

Bix Beiderbecke was also influenced by contemporary European music, such as the compositions of Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy

Achille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions....
 and Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer and pianist of Impressionist music known especially for the subtlety, richness, and poignancy of his melodies, orchestral and instrumental Texture and effects....
, and similarly by American Impressionists
Impressionist music

The impressionist movement in music was a movement in European classical music, mainly in France, that began in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century....
, notably Eastwood Lane
Eastwood Lane

Eastwood Lane was an United States composer who wrote piano suites, Impressionism pieces, and ballet.Eastwood Lane was born in Brewerton, New York....
.

Bix Beiderbecke is remembered today for his own individualistic style of jazz cornet playing, which moved away from his predecessors and influenced those who followed. As Louis Armstrong said, "Lots of cats tried to play like Bix; ain't none of them play like him yet."

Influence on later musicians


Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
 once remarked that he never played the tune "Singin' the Blues" because he thought Beiderbecke's classic recording of the song should not be touched.

One follower was cornetist Jimmy McPartland
Jimmy McPartland

Jimmy McPartland was an American cornetist and one of the originators of Chicago Jazz. McPartland worked with Eddie Condon, Art Hodes, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey and other jazz veterans, often leading his own bands....
, who replaced Beiderbecke in the 'Wolverine' Orchestra in late 1924. He continued to pay tribute to Beiderbecke throughout his long career (McPartland died in 1991).

Bix's influence was most noticeable amongst white musicians, but black players also fell under his spell, notably trumpeters and cornetists John Nesbitt
John Nesbitt

John Nesbitt was a Manitoba agrology. He worked as a university professor, and in 1970 challenged Israel Asper for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party....
 (of McKinney's Cotton Pickers
McKinney's Cotton Pickers

McKinney's Cotton Pickers were a United States jazz band founded in Detroit in 1926 by William McKinney, who expanded his Synco Septet to ten pieces....
), Rex Stewart
Rex Stewart

Rex Stewart was an United States jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra.After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Luis Russell, Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934....
 of (Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an United States pianist, bandleader, arrangement and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and Swing ....
's Orchestra, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
's Orchestra), and Doc Cheatham
Doc Cheatham

Adolphus Anthony Cheatham, much better known as Doc Cheatham was a jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. While a reliable player in some of the top jazz groups from the 1920s on, Cheatham's career enjoyed an unusual flowering of renewed creativity and acclaim in his later decades; Doc himself agreed with the critical assessment that...
 of (Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
's Orchestra).

In the 1930s Bobby Hackett
Bobby Hackett

Robert Leo "Bobby" Hackett was a jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar, and played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra during 1941-42....
 was widely billed as the "new Bix", especially after he reprised Bix's "I'm Coming Virginia" solo at Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman

Benjamin David Goodman, was an United States jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing ", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
's famous 1938 Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue , occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street , two blocks south of Central Park....
 concert. In 1965, Bobby Hackett recorded "Davenport Blues".

Later Bix-influenced trumpet/cornet players have included: Ruby Braff
Ruby Braff

Reuben "Ruby" Braff was an United States of America jazz trumpeter and cornetist.Braff was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was renowned for working in an idiom ultimately derived from the playing of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke....
, Dick Sudhalter, Warren Vaché
Warren Vache

Warren Vach? is a jazz trumpeter, cornetist and flugelhornist born in Rahway, New Jersey. He came from a musical family as his father was a bassist....
, Randy Sandke
Randy Sandke

Randy Sandke is a jazz trumpeter and guitarist.In an interview with Larry Kart he said: "I got into jazz kind of chronologically, beginning with Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong, then Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and Freddie Hubbard....
, Ralph Norton and Tom Pletcher.

Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
 was fascinated by Beiderbecke's playing, and sought out people who had known and played with him. Davis' silvery tone and understated, "cool" phrasing clearly hark back to one aspect of Beiderbecke's style.

Hoagy Carmichael wrote his first composition, "Riverboat Shuffle", for Bix Beiderbecke's band The Wolverines, whom he had hired to perform at Indiana University in 1924. Carmichael wrote the classic jazz standard "Stardust" after a jam session with Bix Beiderbecke and based the music on Beiderbecke's improvisations.

Bing Crosby was also influenced by Bix Beiderbecke's musical style and approach in developing his own vocal phrasing and singing style.

Jazz guitarist George Barnes stated in a 1975 Guitar Player interview: "When I was 11, I heard some Bix Beiderbecke records featuring Joe Venuti. I knew then that I wanted to be a jazz musician."

Popular culture


The character Rick Martin in Dorothy Baker
Dorothy Baker

Dorothy Baker was an United States novelist. She was born Dorothy Dodds in Missoula, Montana and raised in California.She attended Whittier College, then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, from which she graduated in 1929....
's novel Young Man With A Horn (1938) was partly based on Beiderbecke's life. The story was later adapted as a movie
Young Man with a Horn (film)

Young Man with a Horn is a 1950 in film drama film based on a Young Man with a Horn about the life of Bix Beiderbecke. The film is considered to be the first contemporary big-budget jazz film, a genre that became common not soon after the release of the movie, as well as one of the first major Hollywood productions to deal with lesbiani...
 (1950) starring Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas is an Academy Award-nominated United States actor and film producer known for his cleft chin, his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as "sons of bitches"....
 as Martin (with horn playing dubbed by Harry James
Harry James

Harry James was an United States musician and band leader, and a well-known trumpet virtuoso. James was one of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work instantly identifiable....
). (According to some sources, first choice Bobby Hackett
Bobby Hackett

Robert Leo "Bobby" Hackett was a jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar, and played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra during 1941-42....
 was passed over because of unreliability).

Bix Beiderbecke's recording of "Jazz Me Blues" appears in the 1955 Richard Brooks movie The Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford and Anne Francis.

The recording of "Singin' the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home)" by Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, and Eddie Lang is featured in the 1994 Academy Award-winning Woody Allen movie Bullets Over Broadway.

In the 1958 movie High School Confidential starring Russ Tamblyn, Michael Landon, and Jerry Lee Lewis, the Ray Anthony character in the movie is named "Bix". Anthony was a bandleadeer and was a former trumpeter in the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1940-1941 and plays a bandleader in the movie.

Young Man with a Horn was later parodied in the BBC radio series Round The Horne
Round the Horne

Round the Horne was one of the most influential BBC Radio comedy programmes, comparable to The Goon Show in its influence on other comedy programmes....
 as "Young Horne With a Man", featuring "Bix Spiderthrust".

Frederick W. Turner's 2003 novel 1929: A Novel of the Jazz Age is based on the life and career of Bix Beiderbecke.

Bix Beiderbecke's music is featured in three British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 comedy-drama television series, all written by Alan Plater
Alan Plater

Alan Frederick Plater, CBE is an United Kingdom playwright and screenwriter, who has worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s....
: The Beiderbecke Affair
The Beiderbecke Affair

The Beiderbecke Affair is a television series produced in the United Kingdom by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater, whose lengthy credits to British Television since the 1960s included the preceding 4 part mini series Get Lost! for ITV in 1981....
 (1984), The Beiderbecke Tapes
The Beiderbecke Tapes

The Beiderbecke Tapes is a two part United Kingdom television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1987. It is the second serial in The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne....
 (1987) and The Beiderbecke Connection
The Beiderbecke Connection

The Beiderbecke Connection is a four part United Kingdom television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne....
 (1988).

In an episode from Season One of the AMC
AMC

AMC may refer to:* AMC , a short-lived British steam car manufactured in London in 1910* AMC , an American cable television channel* AMC 3 and...
 television series Mad Men
Mad Men

Mad Men is an United States television drama series created and Executive producer#Television by Matthew Weiner. It is broadcast in the United States and Canada on the cable network AMC , and is produced by Lionsgate Television....
, main character Don Draper's mistress, Midge, uses Beiderbecke's name as her pseudonym when calling him at his office.

In 2008, the recordings of "Ostrich Walk" and "There'll Come a Time" by Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer were included on the soundtrack to the Brad Pitt movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was nominated for 13 Academy Awards. The movie was based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald included in Tales of the Jazz Age.

Name


There has been debate about the full name of Bix Beiderbecke: was he baptized Leon Bix or Leon Bismark (Bix being a shortened form of the latter). He was named after his father Leon Bismark Beiderbecke. From the early 1960s onwards, Beiderbecke's living relatives (notably his brother Charles "Burnie") forcefully claimed that his name had always been Leon Bix. This was accepted as a fact by Beiderbecke researchers Phil and Linda Evans.

Other researchers, including Rich Johnson, have found documents showing his full name to be Leon Bismark. These include records from the Early First Presbyterian Church to which the family belonged, and from Tyler School, which Bix attended. In addition, the will of a relative, Mary Hill, named young Beiderbecke as a beneficiary. His mother signed for his receipt of her gift, writing "Leon Bismark Beiderbecke".

Beiderbecke appeared to dislike his formal name from an early age. For example: in a letter to his mother when he was nine (1912), he signed it, "frome [sic] your Leon Bix Beiderbecke not Bismark Remeber [sic]." (this letter is reprinted in Evans & Evans pp 28-29). The family may have wanted to play down or avoid the more traditional German name of Bismarck during and after the tensions of World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, when Germany was the enemy.

Compositions by Bix Beiderbecke


Bix Beiderbecke wrote or co-wrote six instrumental compositions during his career:

  • Davenport Blues, 1925
  • In a Mist, also known as Bixology, 1927
  • For No Reason at All in C, 1927, with Frankie Trumbauer
  • Candlelights, 1930
  • Flashes, 1931
  • In the Dark, 1931


Two additional compositions were attributed to him by two other jazz composers:

  • Betcha I Getcha, attributed to Bix Beiderbecke as a co-composer by Joe Venuti, the composer of the song
  • Cloudy, attributed to Bix Beiderbecke by composer Charlie Davis as a composition from circa 1924 [Bix, Jean Pierre Lion, 2004]


Major Recordings, 1924-1930


Bix Beiderbecke's first recordings were as a member of the Wolverine Orchestra for Gennett:

1) Fidgety Feet/Jazz Me Blues, recorded on February 18, 1924 in Richmond, Indiana and released as Gennett 5408.

2) Oh Baby/Copenhagen, recorded on May 6, 1924 and released as Gennett 5453.

3) Riverboat Shuffle/Susie (Of the Islands), recorded on May 6, 1924 and released as Gennett 5454.

4) I Need Some Pettin'/Royal Garden Blues, recorded on July 20, 1924 and released as Gennett 20062.

5) Sensation/Lazy Daddy, recorded on September 16, 1924 in New York and released as Gennett 5542.

6) Tia Juana/Big Boy, recorded on October 7, 1924 in New York and released as Gennett 5565.

As a member of the Sioux City Six, Bix Beiderbecke recorded:

7) I'm Glad/Flock O' Blues, recorded on October 11, 1924 in New York and released as Gennett 5569.

As Bix Beiderbecke and his Rhythm Jugglers, Bix Beiderbecke recorded:

8) Toddlin' Blues/Davenport Blues, recorded on January 26, 1925 in Richmond, Indiana and released as Gennett 5654.

With the Jean Goldkette Orchestra in 1926-1927, Beiderbecke recorded:

9) Hush-A-Bye/Idolizing, recorded on October 12, 1926 with Frank Bessinger on vocals in New York and released as Victor 20270.

10) Proud of a Baby Like You [Take 4]/I Love You But I Don't Know Why, recorded on January 28, 1927 and released as Victor 20469.

11) My Pretty Girl/Cover Me Up with Sunshine, recorded on February 1, 1927 in New York and released as Victor 20588.

12) Clementine (From New Orleans)/Baltimore by the Jack Crawford Orchestra, recorded on September 15, 1927 and released as Victor 20994.

With Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra and guitarist Eddie Lang, Beiderbecke recorded:

13) Clarinet Marmalade/Singin' the Blues, recorded on February 4, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40772.

14) I'm Coming, Virginia/Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, recorded on May 13, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40843.

15) For No Reason at All in C/Trumbology, recorded on May 13, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40871, Columbia 35667, and Parlophone R 3419.

16) In a Mist/Wringin' an' Twistin', recorded on September 9, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40916 and Vocalion 3150.

17) Blue River/There's a Cradle in Carolina, recorded on September 28, 1927 in New York with Seger Ellis on vocals and released as Okeh 40879.

18) Baltimore/Humpty Dumpty, recorded on September 28, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40926.

19) Borneo/My Pet, recorded on April 10, 1928 in New York and released as Okeh 41039.

20) Futuristic Rhythm/Raisin' the Roof, recorded on March 8, 1929 in New York and released as Okeh 41209.

As Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang, he recorded:

21) At The Jazz Band Ball/Jazz Me Blues, recorded on October 5, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40923.

22) Royal Garden Blues/Goose Pimples, recorded on October 5, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 8544.

23) Sorry/Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down, recorded on October 25, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 41001.

24) Wa-Da-Da (Everybody's Doin' It Now)/Ol' Man River, recorded on July 7, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and released as Okeh 41088.

25) Rhythm King (Rey Del Ritmo)/Louisiana, recorded on September 21, 1928 in New York and released as Okeh 41173.

With the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, he recorded:

26) Lonely Melody [Take 3]/Mississippi Mud [Take 2], recorded on January 4, 1928 with Bing Crosby, the Rhythm Boys, and Izzy Friedman in New York and released as Victor 25366.

27) Ramona/Lonely Melody [Take 1], recorded on January 4, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 21214. Ramona was number one for three weeks on the pop charts.

28) Ol' Man River/Make Believe, recorded on January 11, 1928 with Bing Crosby on vocals and released as Victor 21218. Ol' Man River was number one for one week on the pop charts in 1928.

29) Together/My Heart Stood Still, recorded on January 21, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 35883. Together was number one for two weeks.

30) Dardanella/Avalon, "Trumpet chorus featuring Bix Beiderbeck", recorded on February 9, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 25238.

31) Mississippi Mud [Take 3]/From Monday On [Take 6], recorded on February 28, 1928 with vocals by Bing Crosby in New York and released as Victor 21274.

32) My Angel/In My Bouquet of Memories, recorded on April 21, 1928 and released as Victor 21388. My Angel was number one for six weeks.

33) Sweet Sue-Just You/I Can't Give You Anything But Love, recorded on September 18, 1928 in New York and released as Columbia 50103-D.

34) Oh Miss Hannah/China Boy, recorded on May 4, 1929 with Bing Crosby on vocals and released as Columbia 1945-D.

As Bix Beiderbecke and His Orchestra, he recorded:

35) I Don't Mind Walking in the Rain (When I'm Walking in the Rain with You)/I'll Be a Friend "With Pleasure", recorded on September 8, 1930 in New York and released as Victor 23008.

36) Deep Down South by Bix Beiderbecke and His Orchestra, recorded on September 8, 1930 in New York and released as Victor 23018 (backed by Wasting My Love on You by Joe Venuti and His Orchestra). Bix Beiderbecke played a cornet solo on "Deep Down South" which also featured Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, and Charles Pee Wee Russell on clarinet and alto saxophone; Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone; Irving Brodsky on piano; Joe Venuti on violin; Eddie Lang on guitar; Gene Krupa on drums; and, Wes Vaughan on vocals.

With Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra, he recorded:

37) Barnacle Bill, The Sailor/Rockin' Chair, recorded on May 21, 1930 in New York with vocals by Carson Robinson and released as Victor V-38139 and Victor 25371.

38) Georgia On My Mind/One Night in Havana, recorded on September 15, 1930 in New York with Hoagy Carmichael on vocals and released as Victor 23013. Bix Beiderbecke played a cornet solo on "Georgia On My Mind" with a derby mute. He did not play on "One Night in Havana".

Cover Versions of "In a Mist"


  • Red Norvo, on xylophone, 1933.
  • Frankie Trumbauer, 1934, including Charlie and Jack Teagarden, Roy Bargy, and Dick McDonough and released as Brunswick 6997.
  • Lilian Crawford, 1934, released as Champion 16817.
  • Manuel Salsamendi, 1935, recorded on Argentinian Odeon.
  • Benny Goodman, 1936 radio broadcast.
  • Jess Stacy, recorded from a Benny Goodman Camel Caravan broadcast.
  • Bunny Berigan and His Men, 1938
  • Larry Clinton. 1938
  • Alix Combelle, 1941
  • Mel Henke. 1947, as Vitacoustic U-669
  • Jimmy McPartland, 1949, with Marian McPartland on piano.
  • Harry James, 1949 on Columbia.
  • Sal Franzella
  • Ralph Sutton, 1950 on Commodore.
  • Jess Stacy, 1950 on Columbia.
  • The Les Jowett Seven, 1957
  • Red Nichols, 1953
  • Dill Jones, 1955, the first British recording
  • Jimmy McPartland, 1956
  • Tom Talbert, 1956
  • Sauter-Finegan Orchestra in an arrangement by Eddie Sauter
  • Les Jowett, 1957
  • Manny Albam, 1958, with Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Ernie Royal, Bob Brookmeyer, Jerome Richardson, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Pepper Adams, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson, and Eddie Costal.
  • Lou Busch, 1958
  • Michel Legrand, 1958
  • Dick Cathcart, 1959
  • The Metropolitan Jazz Octet, 1959
  • Johnny Guarnieri, 1961
  • Lew Davies, 1962
  • Ralph Sutton, 1963
  • Clark Terry, 1964
  • Armand Hug, 1968, released on Dulai.
  • Len Bernard, 1968 on Swaggie.
  • Ralph Sutton, 1969
  • Dill Jones, 1972, on the Chiaroscuro album Davenport Blues.
  • Jack Crossan, 1972
  • Freddie Hubbard, 1972
  • Bucky Pizzarelli, arranged for guitar, 1974
  • Geoff Bland, 1974
  • Dick Hyman, 1974
  • Swingle Singers, 1975
  • Trace, 1975
  • Keith Nichols, 1975
  • Armand Hug, 1976
  • Dave Frishberg, 1977
  • Kenny Werner, 1978
  • Ry Cooder, 1978
  • Vintage Jazz Band, 1978
  • Eddie Higgins, 1978
  • Charlie Byrd, in a guitar duet with Laurindo Almeida, 1980.
  • Franca Mazzola, 1981, released on Carosello.
  • Bucky Pizzarelli, with son John, Jr., 1984
  • Lou Stein, 1984
  • Bob Haggart, 1986
  • Marco Fumo, 1987
  • Saint Louis Stompers, released in 1988 in Argentina.
  • Joe LoCascio, 1988
  • Morten Gunnar Larsen, 1989
  • Protosynthesis Ensemble, 1990
  • Cesare Poggi, 1991
  • Eddie Daniels with Gary Burton, 1992
  • Butch Thompson, 1992
  • Eddie Daniels, 1992
  • Mike Polad, 1993
  • Guy Barker, 1993
  • Charlie Byrd and the Washington Guitar Quintet, 1993
  • Ralph Sutton, 1993
  • Randy Sandke and the New York Allstars, 1993
  • Sven-Eric Dahlberg, 1994
  • Jess Stacy, 1995
  • Roy Eldridge, 1995
  • Lincoln Mayorga, 1995
  • Eddie Higgins, 1995
  • Beau Hunks, 1996
  • Robert Smith, 1997
  • Joseph Smith, 1998
  • Duncan Browne, 1998
  • London Symphony Orchestra, 1998
  • Charlie Byrd, 1998
  • Dick Walter, 1998
  • Dean Cotrill, 2000
  • Andy Bey, 2001
  • Bucky Pizzarelli, 2001
  • Mark Atkinson, 2002
  • Dick Hyman, 2002
  • Geoff Muldaur, 2003
  • Vasari Singers, 2003
  • Bratislava Serenaders, 2003
  • Claude Bolling, 2004
  • Philip Aaberg, 2004
  • Scott Whitfield Jazz Orchestra East, 2004
  • Heinz von Hermann, 2004
  • Westwind Brass, 2005
  • Patrick Artero, 2006
  • Don Baaska, 2007
  • Wolfgang Kohler, 2007
  • Brent Watkins, 2007


Cover Versions of "Davenport Blues"


  • Miff Mole and His Molers, 1927, Okeh 40848
  • Red and Miff's Stompers, 1927
  • Charleston Chasers under the direction of Red Nichols, 1927, Columbia 909D
  • Jimmy Lytell, clarinet, accompanied by Frank Signorelli and Harry Reser, 1928.
  • Adrian Rollini and His Orchestra, 1934, Decca 359
  • Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra, 1938, Victor 26121B
  • Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, 1938, Victor 26135
  • Red Nichols and His Orchestra, 1939
  • Gil Evans, 1959, from the album Great Jazz Standards with Johnny Coles on trumpet
  • Jack Teagarden
  • Bobby Hackett
  • Eddie Condon
  • Scott Robinson
  • Peter O'Brien
  • Russ Freeman
  • Barbara Sutton Curtis
  • Dill Jones, 1972, from the album Davenport Blues
  • Kenny Werner, 1977
  • Ry Cooder, 1978, from the album Jazz
  • Gerry Mulligan, 1992
  • Dutch Swing College Band
  • Randy Sandke
  • Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band
  • Dice of Dixie Crew
  • Dick Hyman
  • Geoff Muldaur
  • Patrick Artero, 2006
  • Scandinavian Rhythm Boys, 2007


Honors


  • 1962, posthumous induction into Down Beat
    Down Beat

    Down Beat is an United States magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years....
    s Jazz Hall of Fame, critics' poll
  • Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society established in Davenport, Iowa; founded annual jazz festival and scholarship.
  • 2007, posthumous induction into the Gennett Records
    Gennett Records

    Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s....
     Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana
    Richmond, Indiana

    Richmond is a city in Wayne Township, Wayne County, Indiana, Wayne County, Indiana, in east central Indiana, which borders Ohio. The city also includes the Richmond Municipal Airport in Boston Township, Wayne County, Indiana which is separated from the rest of the city....
    .
  • Bix Beiderbecke's 1927 Okeh recording, Okeh 40772-B, of "Singin' the Blues" with Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra with guitarist Eddie Lang, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1977.
  • In 1980, "In a Mist", recorded on September 9, 1927 in New York and released as Okeh 40916 in 1927, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
  • Bix Beiderbecke was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1979.
  • In 1993, Bix Beiderbecke was inducted into the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame.
  • In 1997, Bix Beiderbecke was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame.
  • On September 30, 2004, Bix Beiderbecke was inducted into the inaugural class of Lincoln Center's Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.


External links


  • - A series of nineteen one-half-hour radio programs from 1971. Includes interviews with Frank Trumbauer, Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon, Bing Crosby and Bix' brother Charles "Burnie" Beiderbecke
  • - An mp3 of Beiderbecke's first recording under his own name.
  • - A tribute album created to commemorate the centenary of Bix's birth by some of the world's finest traditional jazz musicians.
  • by Brendan Wolfe, .
  • by Brendan Wolfe, .