Stream this show right now on http://www.riverwalk.org
Jazz Age cornetist Bix Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1903. His brilliant musical career lasted for only about seven years, and he died of pneumonia at age 28. As a star soloist with the Wolverines and the orchestras of Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman, he helped define hot jazz in the 1920s. Today, Bix is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
This week on Riverwalk Jazz, Jim and the Band celebrate Bix Beiderbecke's musical legacy with live performances of his compositions. Our special guest, San Francisco actor Darren Bridgett (left), reads from never-before-broadcast letters that Bix wrote to his friends and family. The letters are published in Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story by Phillip R. and Linda K. Evans.
Bix Beiderbecke was a self-taught musical genius whose native talent and the sheer desire to make music overcame the formidable obstacles presented by the sober, upper middle-class Midwestern values of his parents.
Bix didn't have a teacher. He didn't even have a “how to" book or a fingering chart. So, by accident, he developed an unorthodox alternate fingering technique. This unusual self-taught approach to playing and improvising is what later made him unique as a jazz innovator.
In September, 1921, his parents enrolled him at the Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, hoping to instill in him some discipline and interest in his studies, but the proximity to Chicago and its budding jazz scene had just the opposite effect. He formed a small band and began playing for campus dances.
In 1922, after being expelled from Lake Forest and a brief period at home, Bix began his professional career, working around Chicago and on Lake Michigan excursion boats. In October of 1923 he joined the Wolverines and toured Indiana and Ohio. The band made its recording debut on the Gennett label. In 1924, Bix and the Wolverines moved to New York where they played briefly at the Cinderella Ballroom. Bix left the Wolverines later that year.
Saxophone pioneer Frank Trumbauer hired Bix in 1925 for his band in Detroit. Then, Bix and “Tram" worked together in Jean Goldkette's band until 1927. After a short stay with Adrian Rollini's big band in New York, Bix joined Paul Whiteman and worked and toured nationally with him on and off until 1930, when his deteriorating health forced him to quit. He died in New York in 1931 and is buried in Davenport. In that city, 25,000 people attended the festival that commemorated the 50th anniversary of his death.
The list of trumpeters/cornetists directly influenced by Bix's playing is a long one and includes such diverse figures as Jimmy McPartland, Bobby Hackett, Red Nichols, Rex Stewart, Tom Pletcher, Jim Cullum, Jr., and Miles Davis.
Based on Riverwalk script ©2003 by Margaret Moos Pick
Jazz Age cornetist Bix Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1903. His brilliant musical career lasted for only about seven years, and he died of pneumonia at age 28. As a star soloist with the Wolverines and the orchestras of Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman, he helped define hot jazz in the 1920s. Today, Bix is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
This week on Riverwalk Jazz, Jim and the Band celebrate Bix Beiderbecke's musical legacy with live performances of his compositions. Our special guest, San Francisco actor Darren Bridgett (left), reads from never-before-broadcast letters that Bix wrote to his friends and family. The letters are published in Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story by Phillip R. and Linda K. Evans.
Bix Beiderbecke was a self-taught musical genius whose native talent and the sheer desire to make music overcame the formidable obstacles presented by the sober, upper middle-class Midwestern values of his parents.
Bix didn't have a teacher. He didn't even have a “how to" book or a fingering chart. So, by accident, he developed an unorthodox alternate fingering technique. This unusual self-taught approach to playing and improvising is what later made him unique as a jazz innovator.
In September, 1921, his parents enrolled him at the Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, hoping to instill in him some discipline and interest in his studies, but the proximity to Chicago and its budding jazz scene had just the opposite effect. He formed a small band and began playing for campus dances.
In 1922, after being expelled from Lake Forest and a brief period at home, Bix began his professional career, working around Chicago and on Lake Michigan excursion boats. In October of 1923 he joined the Wolverines and toured Indiana and Ohio. The band made its recording debut on the Gennett label. In 1924, Bix and the Wolverines moved to New York where they played briefly at the Cinderella Ballroom. Bix left the Wolverines later that year.
Saxophone pioneer Frank Trumbauer hired Bix in 1925 for his band in Detroit. Then, Bix and “Tram" worked together in Jean Goldkette's band until 1927. After a short stay with Adrian Rollini's big band in New York, Bix joined Paul Whiteman and worked and toured nationally with him on and off until 1930, when his deteriorating health forced him to quit. He died in New York in 1931 and is buried in Davenport. In that city, 25,000 people attended the festival that commemorated the 50th anniversary of his death.
The list of trumpeters/cornetists directly influenced by Bix's playing is a long one and includes such diverse figures as Jimmy McPartland, Bobby Hackett, Red Nichols, Rex Stewart, Tom Pletcher, Jim Cullum, Jr., and Miles Davis.
Based on Riverwalk script ©2003 by Margaret Moos Pick
For more information contact All About Jazz.
