All About Jazz is celebrating Bix Beiderbecke's birthday today!
Early jazz legend Leon Bismark [Bix] Beiderbecke was born on March 10, 1903, in Davenport, Iowa, a mid-sized midwestern city. He attended Davenport schools until 1920 and showed an early aptitude for music. His family disapproved of his interest in jazz and sent him to Lake Forest Academy [IL] in 1921, but the opportunity to play and hear jazz in nearby Chicago was too distracting and eventually led to his expulsion. After several months working for his father in Davenport, he returned to Chicago.
He played with several bands around Chicago joining the Wolverine Orchestra in 1924. Bix... Read more.
