Bix Beiderbecke
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| Bix Beiderbecke | |
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 Bix Beiderbecke in 1924
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Leon Bismark Beiderbecke |
| Born | March 10, 1903 |
| Origin | Davenport, Iowa,[1] U.S. |
| Died | August 6, 1931 (aged 28) |
| Genre(s) | Jazz Dixieland |
| Occupation(s) | Musician composer |
| Instrument(s) | Cornet, Piano |
| Years active | 1924-1931 |
| Website | bixbeiderbecke.com |
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, and composer, as well as a skilled classical and jazz pianist.
One of the leading names in '20s jazz, Beiderbecke's career was cut short by chronic poor health, exacerbated by his alcoholism. Critic Scott Yanow describes Beiderbecke as the "[p]ossessor of a beautiful, distinctive tone and a strikingly original improvising style, Beiderbecke's only competitor among cornetists in the '20s was Louis Armstrong but (due to their different sounds and styles) one really could not compare them."[2]
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa[1] to a middle-class family of German origins. As a teenager he would sneak off to the banks of the Mississippi to listen to bands play on the riverboats coming from the south.
Illness often kept Beiderbecke out of school, and his grades suffered. He attended Davenport High School briefly, but his parents felt that sending him to the exclusive Lake Forest Academy just north of Chicago in Lake Forest, Illinois, as a boarding student would provide him with both the necessary faculty attention and discipline to improve his academic schooling.
The change of scenery did not improve Beiderbecke's academic record, as the only subjects in which he showed avid interest were music and sports. Bix soon began going into Chicago often to catch the hot jazz bands at the clubs and speakeasies around Chicago, and often he did not return to his dormitory before curfew or was still off-campus the next day.
Beiderbecke was asked to leave the academy due to his academic failings and extracurricular activities in Chicago, and with his time now free he began his musical career.
[edit] Career
Beiderbecke first recorded with his band the Wolverine Orchestra (usually called just The Wolverines, named for "Wolverine Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton because they played it so often) in 1924, then became a sought-after musician in Chicago and New York City. He made innovative and influential recordings with Frankie Trumbauer ("Tram") and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. When the Goldkette Orchestra disbanded after their last recording ("Clementine (From New Orleans)"), in September 1927, Bix and Trumbauer, a 'C' Melody and alto saxophone player, briefly joined Adrian Rollini's band at the Club New Yorker, New York, before moving on to the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, the most popular and highest paid band of the day.
Beiderbecke also played piano, 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 (amongst others) Jess Stacy, Bunny Berigan, Jimmy and Marian McPartland, Dill Jones and Ralph Sutton.
In 1962, long after his death, Beiderbecke was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
[edit] Death
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 poisonous, Prohibition Era alcohol. As a result, his stage performances began to suffer. Bandleader Paul Whiteman 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 transcript.
His spirits also suffered due to declining work around the New York City area. In 1929 bandleader Paul Whiteman 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[citation needed], 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, New York City, where he went on his last drinking binge. He died in his Queens apartment alone on August 6, 1931, just 28 years old. While the official cause of his death was "lobar pneumonia" and "brain edema", Beiderbecke actually died of an alcoholic seizure during delirium tremens.
The production of bathtub gin was tremendous during Prohibition and continued widely until the Repeal of Prohibition 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 he very likely drank large quantities of bathtub gin with Rotgut properties, since the most readily available alcohol at that time was illegal spirits, as opposed to industrial spirits that were illegally imported.
Beiderbecke is buried in a family plot in Oakdale Cemetery in Davenport, Iowa. Although his penchant for imbibing was legendary, tales of the examining coroner getting drunk from the alcohol fumes are apocryphal.
[edit] Influences
Beiderbecke's early influences were mostly New Orleans jazz cornetists. His first big influence was Nick LaRocca of the Original Dixieland Jass Band; the LaRocca influence is evident in a number of Beiderbecke's recordings (especially the covers of O.D.J.B. songs.) Other influences included Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and clarinetist Leon Roppolo. The influence of older New Orleans players such as Freddie Keppard shows up on Beiderbecke's famous two note interjection on "Goose Pimples."
According to many contemporaries Beiderbecke's single biggest influence was Emmett Hardy, a highly regarded New Orleans cornetist of whom there are no extant recordings; several fellow musicians said that Hardy's influence is very evident in Beiderbecke's early recordings with The Wolverines. New Orleans drummer Ray Bauduc heard Hardy playing in the early 1920s and said that he was even more inspired than Beiderbecke.
Bix was also influenced by music that had hitherto been far removed from jazz, such as the compositions of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and the American Impressionists, notably Eastwood Lane.
Such influences aside, Bix is remembered today for the fact that he played like no one else. Bix developed his own individualistic style of jazz cornet playing, which was unlike 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".
[edit] Influence on later musicians
Louis Armstrong 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.
The character Rick Martin in the novel Young Man With A Horn (1938) by Dorothy Baker is partly based on Beiderbecke's life. It was later made into a movie (1950) starring Kirk Douglas as Martin (with horn playing dubbed by Harry James after first choice Bobby Hackett -- according to some sources -- blew the job because of unreliability). It was later parodied in the BBC radio series Round The Horne as "Young Horne With a Man", featuring "Bix Spiderthrust". The most obviously Bix-influenced follower was cornetist Jimmy McPartland, who replaced Bix in the 'Wolverine' Orchestra in late 1924, and continued to pay tribute to Bix throughout his long career (McPartland died in 1991). Bix's influence was most noticeable amongst white musicians, but there were also black players who fell under his spell, notably trumpeters and cornetists John Nesbitt (of McKinney's Cotton Pickers), Rex Stewart (Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, Duke Ellington's Orchestra), and Doc Cheatham (Cab Calloway's Orchestra).
In the 1930s Bobby Hackett was widely billed as the "new Bix", especially after he reprised Bix's "I'm Coming Virginia" solo at Benny Goodman's famous 1938 Carnegie Hall concert.
Later Bix-influenced trumpet/cornet players have included: Ruby Braff, Dick Sudhalter, Warren Vache, Randy Sandke, Ralph Norton and Tom Pletcher.
Miles Davis was fascinated by Bix's playing, and sought out people who had known and played with him. Miles's silvery tone and understated, "cool" phrasing clearly hark back to one aspect of Bix's playing.
Beiderbecke's music features heavily in three British comedy-drama television series, all written by Alan Plater: The Beiderbecke Affair (1984), The Beiderbecke Tapes (1987) and The Beiderbecke Connection (1988).
[edit] Name
There has been much debate regarding the full name of Bix Beiderbecke: was he baptized Leon Bix or Leon Bismark (Bix being a shortened form of the latter; a name that also his father had). From the early 1960s onwards, Bix's living relatives (notably his brother Charles "Burnie" Beiderbecke) forcefully claimed that his actual name had always been Leon Bix, and this was accepted as a fact by Bix researchers Phil and Linda Evans. Other researchers, including Rich Johnson have presented documents showing the real name to be Leon Bismark. These include church records from the Early First Presbyterian Church to which the family belonged, and records from Tyler School which Bix attended. There is also the will of a relative, Mary Hill, which included young Bix as a beneficiary, which his mother signed for him writing "Leon Bismark Beiderbecke". There are indications that Bix at an early age disliked the name Bismark. For example: in a letter to his mother when he was nine (1912) he signs it "frome [sic] your Leon Bix Beiderbecke not Bismark Remeber [sic]" (this letter is reprinted in Evans & Evans pp 28-29). Also, the German name may have been a bit uncomfortable during and after World War I, which might explain the Beiderbecke family wishing to claim Bix as the real name.
[edit] Honors
He was inducted into the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana in 2007.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Bix Beiderbecke. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
- ^ http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll
- Bix: Man and Legend by Richard M. Sudhalter & Philip R. Evens (Quartet; 1974).
- Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend by Jean Pierre Lion with the assistance of Gabriella Page-Fort, Michael B. Heckman and Norman Field (Continuum, New York / London; 2004).
- "Our Language." Episode 3, Jazz (television miniseries) by Ken Burns. (PBS Home Video/Warner Home Video; 2001).
- Red Hot Jazz.com
[edit] External links
- Bix Beiderbecke Resources: A Bixography
- Bix Beiderbecke Resources: A Creative Aural History Thesis - 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
- The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society, Davenport, Iowa
- Davenport Blues - An mp3 of Beiderbecke's first recording under his own name.
- "Celebrating Bix" - A tribute album created to commemorate the centenary of Bix's birth by some of the world's finest traditional jazz musicians.
- "Bixology" (an excerpt) by Brendan Wolfe, Jazz.com.
- "Twelve Essential Bix Beiderbecke Performances" by Brendan Wolfe, Jazz.com.
