10 Of The Most Famous Trumpet Players Of All Time | LifeDaily 10 Of The Most Famous Trumpet Players Of All Time 1.2k Shares 10 Of The Most Famous Trumpet Players Of All Time 10 Of The Most Famous Trumpet Players Of All Time February 23, 2015 The trumpet is played over a whole range of musical genres. These include classical and modern forms of music, but the most famous trumpet players inevitably hail from the world of jazz, both traditional and modern. The reason behind this is perhaps the nature of jazz music, which makes ample use of the full range of sound that the trumpet can produce. Having said that. It would be unfair to ignore the contribution that the trumpet has made in other spheres such as rock, blues, pop, and rap music. However, since we are limited by our space and your time, we asked our Life Daily team to make their selection of famous trumpet players only from the field of jazz musicians . Inevitably such a list is bound to be subjective since we had to choose from many hundreds of talented men. Interestingly, the fact is that most jazz trumpeters turned out to be male.

Whilst there are today a small number of women playing jazz trumpet, their names are only really known to dedicated jazz aficionados. Cast your eyes over our selection and see if your favorite is among them: 1. Louis Armstrong (1901 – 1971) It is fitting that we start with one of the most famous names of all. Armstrong was born in New Orleans, and died in New York. Apart from being a superb musician, Armstrong – or “Satchmo” as he was affectionately known – appealed to an audience outside of the jazz world. This wider appeal probably started with his appearance in the movie “High Society” in 1956 and continued until his death. Nevertheless, he was still one of the most influential people in the world of jazz and his his whole career was marked with awards, honors and recognition. 2. Miles Davis (1926 – 1991) Another familiar name is Miles Davis – a bandleader, composer, and a great trumpet player. Davis was born in Alton, Illinois, into a middle class background. He started taking trumpet lessons at the age of 12.

His great achievement was the pioneering work and contribution he made to the West Coast genre of jazz. His album, “King of Blue”, released in 1959, was the biggest-selling album in the history of jazz. In later years, Miles extended his magic with electric instruments. This experiment gave birth to the style of fusion and jazz rock compositions. He died in Santa Monica in 1991. 3. Dizzy Gillespie (1917 – 1993) John Birks (Dizzy) Gillespie was born in South Carolina and died in New Jersey. He was a composer as well as an accomplished player of the trumpet and trombone, both of which he learned to play by himself. He could also sing and play the piano. Dizzy, as a master trumpet player, bandleader, singer and composer, was one of the prominently major figures in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He gave a completely new and unique shape and beauty to the nature of jazz, and kept improvising his talent even until shortly before his death. 4. Lee Morgan (1938 – 1972) Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia and died in New York.

At the age of 15, he became a professional trumpeter, and was regarded as a child prodigy. He studied with Clifford Brown, a well known trumpet player at the time. He also worked for 18 months in Dizzie Gillespie’s band. Unfortunately, in later life he had some drugs issues. Although this did not seem to damage his commercial success, it did not help in his private life. He had a very rocky relationship with his wife. So rocky, in fact, that one day she decided that enough was enough – and shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. He was 33 years old. 5. Chet Baker (1929 – 1988) Chesney Henry (Chet) Baker, Jr. was born in Oklahoma and died in Amsterdam in mysterious, but drug related circumstances. It is widely assumed that he committed suicide. He began to learn to play the trumpet while still at school, but his developed his skill in the band of the US Army over a period of several years. His career blossomed when he joined the famous Gerry Mulligan Quartet.

Baker’s performance in the Quartet was received with huge accolades, especially because of the fusion of his trumpet playing and play of Mulligan’s baritone sax. Although he was regarded as a sensational trumpet player, especially in the 1950’s, he had serious drug problems and was a heroin addict most of his adult life. 6. Wynton Marsalis (1961 – present) Wynton Learson Marsalis was born in New Orleans. He is known as a trumpeter, composer, teacher, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, United States. Wynton was born into the perfect environment for music; his father was a pianist and brothers are players of saxophone, trombone, and drums. Although an accomplished player of classical music, it was Wynton’s playing of acoustic jazz that got him the newspaper headlines. He was awarded nine Grammys in both the genres of Classical and jazz music. He also received the first Pulitzer Prize for Music for a jazz recording. 7. Bix Beiderbecke (1903 – 1931) Leon Bismark (Bix) Beiderbecke was born in Iowa.

Together with Louis Armstrong and Muggsy Spanier, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. In 1927, he joined the renowned Paul Whiteman Orchestra, but his stint there marked a precipitous decline in his health which was aggrevated by the bandleader’s relentless touring and recording schedule. But the main cause was Beiderbecke’s persistent alcoholism. He went into rehabilitation centers several times, but to no avail. He left the Whiteman band in 1930 died the following year in his New York apartment at the age of 28. 8. Harry James (1916 – 1983) Henry Haag (Harry) James was an actor and musician, best known as a trumpeter, who led a swing band during the Big Band Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in Albany,NY. and died in Las Vegas. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.

His career progressed to the the point that he eventually established his own band in 1939, known as “Harry James and His Music Makers.” His was the first band to employ Frank Sinatra as lead vocalist. And it was Frank Sinatra who gave the eulogy at his funeral following his death from cancer in 1983. 9. Herb Alpert (1935 – Present) Herbert “Herb” Alpert was born in Los Angeles and is best known for his association with the band “Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.” What is less known is that he is also a recording industry executive, and that he is an accomplished artist who has created abstract expressionist paintings and sculpture over two decades. His musical accomplishments include five number one albums and 28 albums total on the Billboard charts, eight Grammy Awards, fourteen platinum albums and fifteen gold albums. Alpert is the only recording artist to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart as both a vocalist and an instrumentalist. 10. King Oliver ( 1885 – 1938) Joseph Nathan (King) Oliver was born in New Orleans and died in Savannah.

He was a jazz cornet player and bandleader and was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz He was also a notable composer, and was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong. Armstrong once claimed, “if it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today.” In 1922 he formed a group known as “King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band” which was quite successful. However, in later years Oliver struggled with difficulties in playing trumpet due to gum disease, and he had to use other trumpeters to handle the solo work. Sadly, Oliver’s business acumen was often less than his musical ability and a succession of managers stole money from him. We hope you enjoyed browsing through these short biographies of famous trumpet players. Did you find your favorite, or do you have one that we left out? You can tell us and our readers by using the comments feed below.

10 Famous 1920s Musicians 10 Famous 1920s Musicians Some of the best and most famous 1920s Musicians, others are sometimes forgotten in the tombs of jazz history Willy "The Lion" Smith: The quintessential embodiment of jazz in the 1920s. Know for playing parties and small clubs away from the recording studios, Smith built his reputation on being a musical "gladiator at heart." He was always competing, always up for a challenge. "The Lion" cruised Harlem like he owned the place, and at least in front of the piano, he did. He was largely responsible for developing the "Harlem stride style" of playing piano. From "rent parties" to Harlem's nightclubs Willy "the Lion" Smith represented himself and his craft with precision and aggression, always battling for position as one of the great jazz pianists of the 1920s "The Footsteps of a Legend" Jelly Roll Morton Born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, is known as one of the greatest of the New Orleans jazz composers. Morton, a famed braggart, even claimed to have "invented jazz" as a whole.

While this is not true, Jelly Roll Morton did have an enormous impact on other 1920s musicians who followed in his footsteps. Much like the rappers and MC's of the modern music world, Morton had a knack for self-aggrandizement, he invented stories to suit his persona and add to his personal mythos. He went as far as to deny his African-American heritage, calling himself "Creole" instead. But, Morton also had the musical chops to back up his bragging. The period he spent in Chicago from 1923 to 1926 were the most productive and fruitful years of his career. During this time he founded and led the "Red Hot Peppers" and began referring to himself as "the world's greatest hot tune writer." King Oliver Surprisingly little is known about Oliver because he left no interviews about his interpretation of jazz or his vision of music, as a whole. It's been said that Oliver took 10 years to refine the tone of his coronet, so he could blend the sound seamlessly into his band .

It's kind of a shock, given Oliver's desire for jazz to be a collective sound, that the most famous jazz soloist Louis Armstrong would rise out of his band. But it's been said that at the time without Oliver's band, at that specific point in music history, that Armstrong may have never risen to the heights that he achieved. He wouldn't have been able to stand out as a great 1920s musician if there were many soloists in the band. Because he stood at the front and center of King Oliver's New Orleans Jazz Band, Armstrong both helped make the band a huge success and hastened it's demise. Louis Armstrong The first great soloist of the 1920s musicians. Armstrong's legend rose because of the New Orleans style jazz that stove for a more collective sound with all instruments playing in harmony. Armstrong's horn could not be muted. His influence was pervasive and throughout the course of his long career he would create a lasting legacy for the Jazz Age, and would leave a lasting mark on music and celebrity as a whole.

Sidney Bechet Known in the early years as "the only man who seemed to be Louis Armstrong's equal as an improviser." Like so many other 1920s musicians, Bechet emerged from the New Orleans jazz scene. A clarinet player, Bechet became famous for his refined style and tone. He took the clarinet to new heights as an instrument that could be featured in a solo. He was at home improvising a solo or blending himself into the band. Eddie Lang A jazz guitarist without peer in the 1920s. Lang played primarily with violinist Joe Venuti. This duo stood out as masters of their respected instruments at an early age and were both regarded as the two of the finest 1920s musicians. Giving rise to the guitar and violin as capable instruments within the jazz idiom. Read much more about Eddie Lang Jack Teagarden Took a new and modern approach to playing the trombone in a jazz setting. He is regarded as the finest trombone player of the Jazz Age. He had few predecessors to emulate. The trombone had been primarily used as a supporting instrument in a jazz band and wasn't used as a "solo voice" until Teagarden came on the scene.

One player who did heavily influence him was named Miff Mole. Teagarden worked profusely during his career, teaming up with many famous 1920s musicians. He traveled frequently between New Orleans, New York and Chicago. During this time he recorded many famous tracks with people like Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke, was born on March 10, 1903 with an ear for music. He played by ear, never learning how to read music. His parents were concerned with his interest in jazz at an early age, choosing to send him to a boy's academy close to Chicago. This was a fateful choice since Chicago was the hub of jazz in the 1920s. Beiderbecke was within close range of the greatest jazz city in the world, choosing often to skip out from his dorm room to frequent the jazz halls and nightclubs of Chicago. Beiderbecke's first band, "The Wolverines" took their inspiration from the New Orleans jazz style. Bix's music at the time only hinted at his overall genius with a trumpet in his hand.

Simple solos marked the haunting style and tone that would later make his horn so famous. Beiderbecke's career and life was cut short by his desire for booze and fast lifestyle. He left a lasting legacy in the world of jazz and makes many wonder what could have been had his career been longer. Duke Ellington Born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. His musical eduacation started early with Duke hanging out around the pool halls and burlesque shows where he heard the new sounds of Ragtime. On his late teens Ellington moved to New York City where he struggled and eventually began leading a band at "The Club Kentucky" backing the famous female 1920s musicians, singer Ava Smith. The 1920s were good to Ellington, he made a name for himself with his talent, ear for harmony, and tireless work ethic. He defined a unique sound during these formative years. While he has often been accused of not being the most original of the 1920s musicians, Ellington's work is without peer in his ability to create harmonious teams of musicians, and his ability to frame the individual's strengths and hide their weaknesses within his bands.

Fletcher Henderson Often overlooked as one of the great 1920s musicians, but his impact on jazz music cannot be denied. He was an integral part of 1920s jazz, and helped define the later style of "Big Band". As a band leader has often been criticized for being the opposite of Duke Ellington, not displaying good leadership while orchestrating his bands. However the quality of the musicians he chose to play for him is without peer. Homepage Bix Beiderbecke - I'm Coming Virginia - 1927 - YouTube Bix Beiderbecke - I'm Coming Virginia - 1927 Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on May 9, 2011 Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 -- August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer. A native of Davenport, Iowa.

Bix Beiderbecke was one of the great jazz musicians of the 1920's; he was also a child of the Jazz Age who drank himself to an early grave with illegal Prohibition liquor. His hard drinking and beautiful tone on the cornet made him a legend among musicians during his life. The legend of Bix grew even larger after he died. Bix never learned to read music very well, but he had an amazing ear even as a child. His parents disapproved of his playing music and sent him to a military school outside of Chicago in 1921. He was soon expelled for skipping class and became a full-time musician. In 1923 Beiderbecke joined the Wolverine Orchestra and recorded with them the following year. Bix was influenced a great deal by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, but soon surpassed their playing. In late 1924 Bix left the Wolverines to join Jean Goldkette's Orchestra, but his inability to read music eventually resulted in him losing the job. In 1926 he spent some time with Frankie Trumbauer's Orchestra where he recorded his solo piano masterpiece "In a Mist".

He also recorded some of his best work with Trumbauer and guitarist, Eddie Lang, under the name of Tram, Bix, and Eddie. Bix was able to bone up on his sight-reading enough to re-join Jean Goldkette's Orchestra briefly, before signing up as a soloist with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. Whiteman's Orchestra was the most popular band of the 1920's and Bix enjoyed the prestige and money of playing with such a successful outfit, but it didn't stop his drinking. In 1929 Bix's drinking began to catch up with him. He suffered from delirium tremens and he had a nervous breakdown while playing with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, and was eventually sent back to his parents in Davenport, Iowa to recover. It should be noted that Paul Whiteman was very good to Bix during his struggles. He kept Bix on full pay long after his breakdown, and promised him that his chair was always open in the Whiteman Orchestra, but, Bix was never the same again, and never rejoined the band.

He returned to New York in 1930 and made a few more records with his friend Hoagy Carmichael and under the name of Bix Beiderbecke and his Orchestra. But mainly, he holed himself up in a rooming house in Queens, New York where he drank a lot and worked on his beautiful solo piano pieces "Candlelight", "Flashes", and "In The Dark" (played here by Ralph Sutton; Bix never recorded them). He died at age 28 in 1931 during an alcoholic seizure. The official cause of death was lobar pneumonia and edema of the brain. Category 10 Best Jazz Bands | Made Man 10 Best Jazz Bands Facebook Twitter Stumble Google+ Save A list of the ten best jazz bands is a matter of personal taste and a full listing could undoubtedly include hundreds of bands. There are a handful of bands that make everyone's best jazz band list. Individual musicians of the jazz bands on this list came and went, but a few stayed with the original jazz band. Some bands play a mixture of music genres, including rock and blues, but this group of famous jazz bands confined their sound to the sweet, pure jazz. Modern Jazz Quartet.

The brainchild of Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke and John Lewis in 1952, the group is known for jazz stylings that include Smooth, Be-bop and Third Stream. Connie Kay took over for Clarke on drums in 1955. The group blended vibraphone, bass, drums and piano. Art Ensemble of Chicago. The Ensemble is a modern jazz group featuring Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Famoudou Don Moye and Malachi Favors. The group plays jazz in the Chicago style and first released an album in the 1960's. Weather Report. At the height of performances, the group included noted jazzer bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius, co-founder Josef Zawinul and sax player Wayne Shorter in a collection of jazz fusion. Weather Report was founded in 1970 and gradually disbanded by 1986. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Blakey became a jazz name after playing with this group, but he came on the scene with this group composed of 17 players first organized in 1947. Art is known for his Be-bop stylings and jazz drumming. String Trio of New York.

A jazz chamber group formed in 1977, the group consists of John Linberg on bass, Billy Bang featured on the violin and James Emery on guitar. Bang left in 1986 and a series of replacements took over, including Charles Burnham, Diane Monroe and Regina Carter. The groups first record was released in the late 1970's. Duke Ellington & His Orchestra. Although also a proponent and master of Swing, Duke Ellington and his crew had the jazz touch that many moderns wish they could master. Duke's orchestra gave a forum to many a budding jazzer over the years. Ellington performed until his death in 1974. Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz Band. Back when jazz was in its infancy, Kid Ory's jazzers toured the country to audiences who wondered at this strange music. The group was a hit in big cities like New Orleans and Chicago, but the rural folk who listened to the group couldn't quite get in the groove. The Creole Jazz Band is a pioneer and one of the ten best jazz bands in the history of the genre. The Wolverine Orchestra with Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke.

The Wolverine Orchestra featured the talents of a young Bix, as he became known in the mid-1920's, on a few scratchy 78 rpm records. Bix played cornet and trumpet, Jimmy Hartwell on clarinet, Bob Gillette on banjo, Dick Voynow on piano, Vic Moore on drums, Min Leinbrook on bass and George Johnson on tenor sax. The group stormed out of Hamilton, Ohio and into Chicago, a jazz center in 1923. The New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Another pre-World War I touring band, the Kings took the major urban centers by storm but kept the rural folk mystified. NORK, as they were popularly known, performed live throughout the 1920's. The band featured jazzers from New Orleans, Chicago and Indianapolis. The Hot Five Band with Louis Armstrong. Louie Armstrong played long after his split with the Hot Five Band, but it was the first jazz group that brought the young horn man to prominence in the jazz world. The band recorded and performed during the 1920's, but aside from Armstrong, the band's personnel rotated.

show comments Bix Beiderbecke | the78rpmrecordspins the78rpmrecordspins bixbeiderbecke.com Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist , jazz pianist , and composer. With Louis Armstrong and Muggsy Spanier , Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. His turns on “Singin’ the Blues” (1927) and “I’m Coming, Virginia” (1927), in particular, demonstrated an unusual purity of tone and a gift for improvisation . With these two recordings, especially, he helped to invent the jazz ballad style and hinted at what, in the 1950s, would become cool jazz . “In a Mist” (1927), one of a handful of his piano compositions but the only one he recorded, mixed classical influences with jazz syncopation .

Beiderbecke also has been credited for his influence, directly, on Bing Crosby and, indirectly, via saxophonist Frank Trumbauer , on Lester Young . A native of Davenport, Iowa , Beiderbecke taught himself to play cornet largely by ear , leading him to adopt a non-standard fingering that some critics have connected to his original sound. He first recorded with a Midwestern jazz ensemble The Wolverines in 1924, after which he played briefly for the Detroit-based Jean Goldkette Orchestra before joining Frankie “Tram” Trumbauer for an extended gig at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis, Missouri. Beiderbecke and Trumbauer both joined Goldkette in 1926. The band toured widely and famously played a set opposite Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City in October 1926. The following year, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Detroit to join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the country: the New York-based Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

Beiderbecke’s most influential recordings date from his time with Goldkette and Whiteman, although they were generally recorded under his own name or Trumbauer’s. The Whiteman period also marked a precipitous decline in Beiderbecke’s health, brought on by the demand of the bandleader’s relentless touring and recording schedule in combination with Beiderbecke’s persistent alcoholism. A few stints in rehabilitation centers, as well as the support of Whiteman and the Beiderbecke family in Davenport, did not check Beiderbecke’s decline in health. He left the Whiteman band in 1930 and the following summer died in his Queens apartment at the age of 28. His death, in turn, gave rise to one of the original legends of jazz. In magazine articles, musicians’ memoirs, novels, and Hollywood films, Beiderbecke has been reincarnated as a Romantic hero, the “ Young Man with a Horn “. His life has been portrayed as a battle against such common obstacles to art as family and commerce, while his death has been seen as a martyrdom for the sake of art.

The musician-critic Benny Green sarcastically called Beiderbecke “jazz’s Number One Saint,” while Ralph Berton compared him to Jesus. The historical Beiderbecke, meanwhile, is the subject of scholarly controversy regarding his true name, the cause of his death, and the importance of his contributions to jazz. Early life English: A young Bix Beiderbecke, age 8, poses with a neighbor, Nora Lasher, in 1911. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Beiderbecke, age 8, poses with a neighbor, Nora Lasher, in 1911. Bix Beiderbecke was born on March 10, 1903, in Davenport, Iowa, the son of Bismark Herman and Agatha Jane (Hilton) Beiderbecke. There is disagreement over whether Beiderbecke was christened Leon Bismark (and nicknamed “Bix”) or Leon Bix. His father was nicknamed “Bix,” as, for a time, was his older brother, Charles Burnette “Burnie” Beiderbecke.

Burnie Beiderbecke claimed that the boy was named Leon Bix and subsequent biographers have reproduced birth certificates to that effect. However, more recent research—which takes into account church and school records in addition to the will of a relative—has suggested that he was originally named Leon Bismark. Regardless, his parents called him Bix, which seems to have been his preference. In a letter to his mother when he was nine years old, Beiderbecke signed off, “frome your Leon Bix Beiderbecke not Bismark Remeber” Beiderbecke’s father, the son of German immigrants, was a well-to-do coal and lumber merchant, named after the Iron Chancellor of his native Germany. Beiderbecke’s mother was the daughter of a Mississippi riverboat captain. She played the organ at Davenport’s First Presbyterian Church, and encouraged young Bix’s interest in the piano. Bix Beiderbecke was the youngest of three children. His brother, Burnie, was born in 1895, and his sister, Mary Louise, in 1898. Bix began playing piano at age two or three.

His sister recalls that he stood on the floor and played it with his hands over his head. Five years later, he was the subject of an admiring article in the Davenport Daily Democrat that proclaimed: “Seven-year-old boy musical wonder! Little Bickie Beiderbecke plays any selection he hears.” Beiderbecke’s childhood home at 1934 Grand Avenue in Davenport, Iowa, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . It was purchased and renovated by the Italian director Pupi Avati when he filmed portions of his biopic Bix: An Interpretation of a Legend there during the summer of 1990. At age ten, his older brother Burnie recalled that he stopped coming home for supper, instead hurrying down to the riverfront and slipping aboard one or another of the excursion boats to play the Calliope . A friend remembered that the plots of the silent matinees Bix and his friends watched on Saturdays didn’t interest him much, but as soon as the lights came on he would rush home to see if he could duplicate the melodies the accompanist had played during the action.

When his brother Burnie returned to Davenport at the end of 1918 after serving stateside during World War I, he brought with him a Victrola phonograph machine and several records, including “ Tiger Rag ” and “Skeleton Jangle” by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band . From these records Bix Beiderbecke first learned to love hot jazz; he taught himself to play cornet by listening to Nick LaRocca ‘s horn lines. Beiderbecke also listened to jazz music off the riverboats that docked in downtown Davenport. Louis Armstrong and the drummer Baby Dodds claimed to have met Beiderbecke when their New Orleans-based excursion boat stopped in Davenport. Historians disagree over whether that is true. Beiderbecke attended Davenport High School from 1919 to 1921. During this time, he sat in and played professionally with various bands, including those of Wilbur Hatch , Floyd Bean, and Carlisle Evans. In the spring of 1920 he performed for the school’s Vaudeville Night, singing in a vocal quintet called the Black Jazz Babies and playing his horn.

He also performed, at the invitation of his friend Fritz Putzier, in Neal Buckley’s Novelty Orchestra. The group was hired for a gig in December 1920, but a complaint was lodged with the American Federation of Musicians, Local 67, that the boys did not have union cards. In an audition before a union executive, Beiderbecke was forced to sight read and failed. He did not earn his card. On April 22, 1921, a month after he turned 18, Beiderbecke was arrested by two Davenport police officers on a charge brought by the father of a young girl. According to biographer Jean Pierre Lion, “Bix was accused of having taken this man’s five-year-old daughter into a garage and committing on her an act qualified by the police report as ‘lewd and lascivious.'” Although Beiderbecke was briefly taken into custody and held on a $1,500 bond, the charge was dropped after the girl was not made available to testify.

According to an affidavit submitted by her father, this was because “of the child’s age and the harm that would result to her in going over this case.” It is not clear from the father’s affidavit if the girl had identified Beiderbecke. Until recently, biographers have largely ignored this incident in Beiderbecke’s life, and Lion was the first, in 2005, to print the police blotter and affidavit associated with the arrest. He dismissed the seriousness of the charge, but speculated that the arrest nevertheless might have led Beiderbecke to “feel abandoned and ashamed: he saw himself as suspect of perversion.” Beiderbecke fans and scholars continue to argue over this incident’s relevance and importance. Beiderbecke’s parents enrolled him in the exclusive Lake Forest Academy , north of Chicago in Lake Forest, Illinois . While historians have traditionally suggested that his parents sent him to Lake Forest to discourage his interest in jazz, others have begun to doubt this version of events, believing that he may have been sent away in response to his arrest. Regardless, Mr. and Mrs. Beiderbecke apparently felt that a boarding school would provide their son with both the necessary faculty attention and discipline to improve his academic performance.

His interests, however, remained limited to music and sports. In pursuit of the former, Beiderbecke took the train into Chicago to catch the hot jazz bands at clubs and speakeasies , including the infamous Friar’s Inn , where he listened to and sometimes sat in with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings . He also traveled to the predominantly African-American South Side to listen to what he called “real” jazz musicians. “Don’t think I’m getting hard, Burnie,” he wrote to his brother, “but I’d go to hell to hear a good band.” On campus, he helped organize the Cy-Bix Orchestra with drummer Walter “Cy” Welge and almost immediately got into trouble with the Lake Forest headmaster for performing indecorously at a school dance. Beiderbecke often failed to return to his dormitory before curfew, and sometimes stayed off-campus the next day. In the early morning hours of May 20, he was caught on the fire escape to his dormitory, attempting to climb back into his room. The faculty voted to expel him the next day, due both to his academic failings and his extracurricular activities, which included drinking.

The headmaster informed Beiderbecke’s parents by letter that following his expulsion school officials confirmed that Beiderbecke “was drinking himself and was responsible, in part at least, in having liquor brought into the School.” Soon after, Beiderbecke began pursuing a career in music. He returned to Davenport briefly in the summer of 1922, then moved to Chicago to join the Cascades Band, working that summer on Lake Michigan excursion boats. He gigged around Chicago until the fall of 1923, at times returning to Davenport to work for his father. Career Wolverines The Wolverines with Beiderbecke at Doyle’s Academy of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1924 Beiderbecke joined the Wolverine Orchestra late in 1923, and the seven-man group first played a speakeasy called the Stockton Club near Hamilton, Ohio. Specializing in hot jazz and recoiling from so-called sweet music, the band took its name from one of its most frequent numbers, Jelly Roll Morton ‘s “Wolverine Blues.” During this time, Beiderbecke also took piano lessons from a young woman who introduced him to the works of Eastwood Lane .

Lane’s piano suites and orchestral arrangements were both self-consciously American and influenced by the French Impressionists , and it is said to have greatly influenced Beiderbecke’s style, especially on “In a Mist.” A subsequent gig at Doyle’s Dance Academy in Cincinnati became the occasion for a series of band and individual photographs that resulted in the most famous image of Beiderbecke—sitting fresh-faced, his hair perfectly combed, his horn resting on his right knee. On February 18, 1924, the Wolverines first recorded at Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana. Their two sides that day included “Fidgety Feet,” written by Nick LaRocca and Larry Shields from the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and “Jazz Me Blues.” Beiderbecke’s solo on the latter suggested something new and significant in jazz, according to biographers Richard M. Sudhalter and Philip R.

Evans: Both qualities—complementary or “correlated” phrasing and cultivation of the vocal, “singing” middle-range of the cornet—are on display in Bix’s “Jazz Me Blues” solo, along with an already discernible inclination for unusual accidentals and inner chordal voices. It is a pioneer record, introducing a musician of great originality with a pace-setting band. And it astonished even the Wolverines themselves. The Wolverines recorded 15 sides for Gennett Records between February and October 1924. The titles revealed a tough and well-formed cornet talent. His lip had toughened from earlier, more tentative years; on nine of the Wolverines’ recorded titles he proceeds commandingly from lead to opening solo without any need for a respite from playing. Beiderbecke made his first recordings 21 months before Armstrong recorded as a leader with the Hot Five . Beiderbecke’s style was very different from that of Louis Armstrong according to The Oxford Companion to Jazz: Where Armstrong’s playing was bravura, regularly optimistic, and openly emotional, Beiderbecke’s conveyed a range of intellectual alternatives.

Where Armstrong, at the head of an ensemble, played it hard, straight, and true, Beiderbecke, like a shadowboxer, invented his own way of phrasing “around the lead.” Where Armstrong’s superior strength delighted in the sheer power of what a cornet could produce, Beiderbecke’s cool approach invited rather than commanded you to listen. Where Armstrong emphasized showmanship and virtuosity, Beiderbecke emphasized melody, even when improvising, and—different from Armstrong and contrary to how the Bix Beiderbecke of legend would be portrayed—he rarely strayed into the upper reaches of the register. Paul Mares of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings insisted that Beiderbecke’s chief influence was the New Orleans cornetist Emmett Hardy , who died in 1925 at the age of 23. Indeed, Beiderbecke had met Hardy and the clarinetist Leon Roppolo in Davenport in 1921 when the two joined a local band and played in town for three months. Beiderbecke apparently spent time with them, but the degree to which Hardy’s style influenced Beiderbecke’s is difficult to know because Hardy never recorded.

In some respects, Beiderbecke’s playing was sui generis, but he nevertheless listened to and studied the music around him: from Armstrong and Joe “King” Oliver to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings to Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel . Soon, he was listening to Hoagy Carmichael , too. A law student and aspiring pianist and songwriter, Carmichael invited the Wolverines to Bloomington, Indiana, late in April 1924. Beiderbecke had met Carmichael a couple of times before and the two became friends. On May 6, 1924, the Wolverines recorded a tune Carmichael had written especially for Beiderbecke and his colleagues: “ Riverboat Shuffle “. Beiderbecke left the Wolverines in October 1924 for a spot with Jean Goldkette in Detroit, but the job didn’t last long. Goldkette recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company , whose musical director, Eddie King, objected to Beiderbecke’s hot-jazz style of soloing; it wasn’t copacetic with the commercial obligations that came with the band’s recording contract.

King also was frustrated by the cornetist’s inability to deftly sight read. After a few weeks, Beiderbecke was bounced from the Goldkette band, but soon arranged a recording session back in Richmond with some of its members. On January 26, 1925, Bix and His Rhythm Jugglers set two tunes to wax: “Toddlin’ Blues,” another number by LaRocca and Shields, and Beiderbecke’s own composition, “ Davenport Blues .” Beiderbecke biographer Lion has complained that the second number was marred by the alcohol consumed by the musicians. In subsequent years, “Davenport Blues” has been recorded by musicians from Bunny Berigan to Ry Cooder to Geoff Muldaur . The following month, Beiderbecke enrolled at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. His stint in academia was even briefer than his time in Detroit, however. When he attempted to pack his course schedule with music, his guidance counselor forced him instead to take religion, ethics, physical education, and military training.

It was an institutional blunder that Benny Green described as being, in retrospect, “comical,” “fatuous,” and “a parody.” Beiderbecke promptly began to skip classes, and after he participated in a drunken bar fight, he was expelled. That summer he played with his friends Don Murray and Howdy Quicksell at a lake resort in Michigan. The band was run by Goldkette, and it put Beiderbecke in touch with another musician he had met before: the C-melody saxophone player Frankie Trumbauer. The two hit it off, both personally and musically, despite Trumbauer having been warned by other musicians: “Look out, he’s trouble. He drinks and you’ll have a hard time handling him.” They were inseparable for much of the rest of Beiderbecke’s career, with Trumbauer acting as a father figure to Beiderbecke. When Trumbauer organized a band for an extended run at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis, Beiderbecke joined him. There he also played alongside the clarinetist Pee Wee Russell , who praised Beiderbecke’s ability to drive the band.

“He more or less made you play whether you wanted to or not,” Russell said. “If you had any talent at all he made you play better.” Goldkette In the spring of 1926, Trumbauer closed up shop in St. Louis and, with Beiderbecke, moved to Detroit, this time to play with Goldkette’s headline ensemble. They played the summer at Hudson Lake, a resort in northern Indiana, and split the next year between touring, recording, and performing at Detroit’s Graystone Ballroom. In October 1926, Goldkette’s “Famous Fourteen,” as they came to be called, opened at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City opposite the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, one of the East Coast’s outstanding African American big bands . The Roseland promoted a “Battle of the Bands” in the local press and, on October 12, after a night of furious playing, Goldkette’s men were declared the winners. “We… were amazed, angry, morose, and bewildered,” Rex Stewart, Fletcher’s lead trumpeter, said of listening to Beiderbecke and his colleagues play. He called the experience “most humiliating”.

Although the band recorded numerous sides for Victor during this period, none of them showcases Beiderbecke’s most famous solos. Much of Goldkette’s money was made through these records, but they were subject—as Eddie King had well understood—to the forces of the commercial market. As a result, their sound was often “sweeter” than what many of the hot jazz musicians would have preferred. In addition to their sessions with Goldkette, Beiderbecke and his friends recorded under their own names for the Okeh label. For instance, on February 4, 1927, Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra recorded “Trumbology”, “Clarinet Marmalade”, and “Singin’ the Blues”, all three of which featured some of Beiderbecke’s best work. Again with Trumbauer, Beiderbecke re-recorded Carmichael’s “Riverboat Shuffle” in May and delivered two of his best known solos a few days later on “I’m Coming, Virginia” and “ Way Down Yonder in New Orleans “.

Beiderbecke earned co-writing credit with Trumbauer on “ For No Reason at All in C “, recorded under the name Tram, Bix and Eddie (in their Three Piece Band). Beiderbecke switched between cornet and piano on that number, and then in September played only piano for his recording of “ In A Mist “. This was perhaps the most fruitful year of his short career. Under financial pressure, Goldkette folded his premier band in September in New York. Paul Whiteman hoped to snatch up Goldkette’s best musicians for his traveling orchestra, but Beiderbecke, Trumbauer, Murray, Rank, Eddie Lang , Joe Venuti , Chauncey Morehouse , and Frank Signorelli instead joined the bass saxophone player Adrian Rollini at the Club New Yorker. When that job ended sooner than expected, in October 1927, Beiderbecke and Trumbauer signed on with Whiteman. They joined his orchestra in Indianapolis on October 27. Whiteman The Paul Whiteman Orchestra was the most popular and highest paid band of the day.

In spite of Whiteman’s nickname, “The King of Jazz,” his was not a jazz ensemble, but a popular music outfit that played bits of jazz and classical music according to the demands of its record-buying and concert-going audience. Whiteman was perhaps best known for having premiered George Gershwin ‘s Rhapsody in Blue in New York in 1924, and the orchestrator of that piece, Ferde Grofé , continued to be an important part of the band in 1928. At three hundred pounds, Whiteman was huge both physically and culturally—”a man flabby, virile, quick, coarse, untidy and sleek, with a hard core of shrewdness in an envelope of sentimentalism,” according to a 1926 New Yorker profile. And many Beiderbecke partisans have turned Whiteman into a villain in the years since.

Benny Green, in particular, derided Whiteman for being a mere “mediocre vaudeville act,” and suggesting that “today we only tolerate the horrors of Whiteman’s recordings at all in the hope that here and there a Bixian fragment will redeem the mess.” Richard Sudhalter has responded by suggesting that Beiderbecke saw Whiteman as an opportunity to pursue musical ambitions that did not stop at jazz: Colleagues have testified that, far from feeling bound or stifled by the Whiteman orchestra, as Green 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. The education that Beiderbecke did not receive from the University of Iowa, in other words, he sought through Whiteman.

In the meantime, Beiderbecke played on four number-one records in 1928 , all under the Whiteman name: “Together,” “Ramona,” “My Angel,” and “ Ol’ Man River “, which featured Bing Crosby on vocals. This accomplishment says less about the jazz excellence of these records than it does about the tastes of the largely white, record-buying public to which Whiteman (and Goldkette before him) catered. For Beiderbecke, the downside of being with Whiteman was the relentless touring and recording schedule, exacerbated by Beiderbecke’s alcoholism. On November 30, 1928, in Cleveland, Beiderbecke suffered what Lion terms “a severe nervous crisis” and Sudhalter and Evans suggest “was in all probability an acute attack of delirium tremens ,” presumably triggered by Beiderbecke’s attempt to curb his alcohol intake. “He cracked up, that’s all,” trombonist Bill Rank said.

“Just went to pieces; broke up a roomful of furniture in the hotel.” In February 1929, Beiderbecke returned home to Davenport to convalesce and was hailed by the local press as “the world’s hottest cornetist.” He then spent the summer with Whiteman’s band in Hollywood in preparation for the shooting of a new talking picture, The King of Jazz . Production delays prevented any real work from being done on the film, leaving Beiderbecke and his pals plenty of time to drink heavily. By September, he was back in Davenport, where his parents helped him to seek treatment. He spent a month, from October 14 until November 18, at the Keeley Institute in Dwight, Illinois. While he was away, Whiteman famously kept a chair empty in Beiderbecke’s honor. But when he returned to New York at the end of January 1930, the renowned soloist did not rejoin Whiteman and performed only sparingly.

On his last recording session, in New York, on September 15, 1930, Beiderbecke played on the original recording of Hoagy Carmichael’s new song, “ Georgia on My Mind “, with Carmichael doing the vocal, Eddie Lang on guitar, Joe Venuti on violin, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto saxophone, Jack Teagarden on trombone, and Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone. The song would go on to become a jazz and popular music standard . Two years earlier, Beiderbecke had influenced another Carmichael standard, “ Star Dust “. A Beiderbecke riff caught in Carmichael’s head and became the tune’s chorus. Bing Crosby, who sang with Whiteman, also cited Beiderbecke as an important influence. “Bix and all the rest would play and exchange ideas on the piano,” he said. With all the noise [of a New York pub] going on, I don’t know how they heard themselves, but they did. I didn’t contribute anything, but I listened and learned… I was now being influenced by these musicians, particularly horn men.

I could hum and sing all of the jazz choruses from the recordings made by Bix, Phil Napoleon, and the rest. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , the once-booming music industry contracted and work became more difficult to find. For a while, Beiderbecke’s only income came from a radio show booked by Whiteman, The Camel Pleasure Hour. However, during a live broadcast on October 8, 1930, Beiderbecke’s seemingly limitless gift for improvisation finally failed him: “He stood up to take his solo, but his mind went blank and nothing happened,” recalled a fellow musician, Frankie Cush. Whiteman finally let Beiderbecke go. The cornetist spent the rest of the year at home in Davenport and then, in February 1931, he returned to New York one last time. Death Bix Beiderbecke’s grave (left) is positioned near the Beiderbecke family marker (right) at Oakdale Cemetery in Davenport, Iowa .

Beiderbecke, who died on August 6, 1931, in New York, was buried in his hometown five days later, with only immediate family members present. Beiderbecke died in his apartment, No. 1G, 43-30 46th Street, in Sunnyside, Queens, on Thursday, August 6, 1931. The week had been quite hot, making sleep difficult, and late into the evenings, Beiderbecke had played piano, both to the annoyance and to the delight of his neighbors. On the evening of August 6, at about 9.30 pm, his rental agent, George Kraslow, heard noises coming from across the hallway. “His hysterical shouts brought me to his apartment on the run,” Kraslow told Philip Evans in 1959. He pulled me in and pointed to the bed. His whole body was trembling violently. He was screaming there were two Mexicans hiding under his bed with long daggers. To humor him, I looked under the bed and when I rose to assure him there was no one hiding there, he staggered and fell, a dead weight, in my arms.

I ran across the hall and called in a woman doctor, Dr. Haberski, to examine him. She pronounced him dead. Historians have disagreed over the identity of the doctor who pronounced Beiderbecke dead. The official cause of death, meanwhile, was lobar pneumonia , with scholars continuing to debate the extent to which his alcoholism was also a factor. Beiderbecke’s mother and brother took the train to New York and brought his body home to Davenport. He was buried there on August 11 in the family plot at Oakdale Cemetery . Legend and legacy When he died, Beiderbecke was little known except among fellow musicians, and for several years critics paid his music little mind. As Jean Pierre Lion has pointed out, “the only serious and analytical obituary to have been published in the months” after his death was by a Frenchman, Hugues Panassié . The notice appeared in October 1931 and began with a bit of hyperbole and an incorrect fact, two hallmarks of much of the subsequent writing about Beiderbecke: “The announcement of Bix Beiderbecke’s death plunged all jazz musicians into despair.

We first believed it was a false alarm, as we had heard so often before about Bix. Unfortunately, precise information has been forthcoming, and we even know the day—August 7—when he passed away.” The New Republic critic Otis Ferguson wrote two short articles for the magazine, “Young Man with a Horn” (July 29, 1936) and “Young Man with a Horn Again” (November 18, 1940), that worked to revive interest not only in Beiderbecke’s music but also in his biography. Beiderbecke “lived very briefly… in what might be called the servants’ entrance to art,” Ferguson wrote. “His story is a good story, quite humble and right.” The romantic notion of the doomed jazz genius can be traced back at least as far as Beiderbecke, and lived on in Charlie Parker , Billie Holiday , and many more. Ferguson’s sense of what was “right” became the basis for the Beiderbecke Romantic legend, which has traditionally emphasized the musician’s Iowa roots, his often careless dress, his difficulty sight reading, the purity of his tone, his drinking, and his early death.

These themes were repeated by Beiderbecke’s friends in various memoirs, including The Stardust Road (1946) and Sometimes I Wonder (1965) by Hoagy Carmichael, Really the Blues (1946) by Mezz Mezzrow , and We Called It Music (1947) by Eddie Condon . Beiderbecke was portrayed as a tragic genius along the lines of Ludwig van Beethoven . “For his talent there were no conservatories to get stuffy in, no high-trumpet didoes to be learned doggedly, note-perfect as written,” Ferguson wrote, “because in his chosen form the only writing of any account was traced in the close shouting air of Royal Gardens, Grand Pavilions, honkeytonks, etc.” He was “this big overgrown kid, who looked like he’d been snatched out of a cradle in the cornfields,” Mezzrow wrote.

“The guy didn’t have an enemy in the world,” recalled Beiderbecke’s friend Russ Morgan , “[b]ut he was out of this world most of the time.” According to Ralph Berton, he was “as usual gazing off into his private astronomy,” but his cornet, Condon famously quipped, sounded “like a girl saying yes.” In 1938, Dorothy Baker borrowed the titles of her friend Otis Ferguson’s two articles and published the novel Young Man with a Horn . Her story of the doomed trumpet player Rick Martin was inspired, she wrote, by “the music, but not the life” of Beiderbecke, but the image of Martin quickly became the image of Beiderbecke: His story is about “the gap between the man’s musical ability and his ability to fit it to his own life.” In 1950, Michael Curtiz directed the film Young Man with a Horn , starring Kirk Douglas , Lauren Bacall , and Doris Day . In this version, in which Hoagy Carmichael also plays a role, the Rick Martin character lives.

In Blackboard Jungle , a 1955 film starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier , Beiderbecke’s music is briefly featured, but as a symbol of cultural conservatism in a nation on the cusp of the rock and roll revolution. Still, the Beiderbecke of legend came to represent a certain kind of cool character that was omnipresent in 1950s popular culture: the alienated young white man rebelling against white culture and willing to engage black culture in pursuit of his art. In 1971, on the 40th anniversary of Beiderbecke’s death, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival was founded in Davenport, Iowa, to honor the musician. In 1974, Sudhalter and Evans published their biography, Bix: Man and Legend, which was nominated for a National Book Award . In 1977, the Beiderbecke childhood home at 1934 Grand Avenue in Davenport was added to the National Register of Historic Places .

Beiderbecke’s music was featured 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). In 1991, the Italian director Pupi Avati released Bix: An Interpretation of a Legend . Filmed partially in the Beiderbecke home, which Avati had purchased and renovated, Bix was screened at the Cannes Film Festival . At the beginning of the 21st century, Beiderbecke’s music continues to reside mostly out of the mainstream and some of the facts of his life are still debated, but scholars largely agree—due in part to the influence of Sudhalter and Evans—that he was an important innovator in early jazz; jazz cornetists, including Sudhalter (before his death in 2008), and Tom Pletcher, closely emulate his style.

In 2003, to mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth, the Greater Astoria Historical Society and other community organizations, spearheaded by Paul Maringelli and The Bix Beiderbecke Sunnyside Memorial Committee, erected a plaque in Beiderbecke’s honor at the apartment building in which he died in Queens. [97] That same year, Frederick Turner published his novel 1929, which followed the facts of Beiderbecke’s life fairly closely, focusing on his summer in Hollywood and featuring appearances by Al Capone and Clara Bow . The critic and musician Digby Fairweather sums up Beiderbecke’s musical legacy, arguing that “with Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke was the most striking of jazz’s cornet (and of course, trumpet) fathers; a player who first captivated his 1920s generation and after his premature death, founded a dynasty of distinguished followers beginning with Jimmy McPartland and moving on down from there.” Music Style and influence Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong were among jazz’s first soloists.

In New Orleans, jazz had been ensemble playing, with the various instruments weaving their parts into a single and coherent aural tapestry. There had been soloists, to be sure, with the clarinetist Sidney Bechet the best known among them, but these players “lacked the technical resources and, even more, the creative depth to make the solo the compelling centerpiece of jazz music.” That changed in 1924 when Beiderbecke and Armstrong began to make their most important records. According to the critic Terry Teachout , they are “the two most influential figures in the early history of jazz” and “the twin lines of descent from which most of today’s jazz can be traced.” Beiderbecke’s cornet style is often described by contrasting it with Armstrong’s markedly different approach. Armstrong was a virtuoso on his instrument, and his solos often took advantage of that fact. Beiderbecke was largely, although not completely, self-taught, and the constraints imposed by that fact were evident in his music. While Armstrong often soared into the upper register, Beiderbecke stayed in the middle range, more interested in exploring the melody and harmonies than in dazzling the audience.

Armstrong often emphasized the performance aspect of his playing, while Beiderbecke tended to stare at his feet while playing, uninterested in personally engaging his listeners. Armstrong was deeply influenced by the blues, while Beiderbecke was influenced as much by modernist composers such as Debussy and Ravel as by his fellow jazzmen. Beiderbecke’s most famous solo was on “Singin’ the Blues”, recorded February 4, 1927. It has been hailed as an important example of the “jazz ballad style”—”a slow or medium-tempo piece played gently and sweetly, but not cloyingly, with no loss of muscle.” The tune’s laid-back emotions hinted at what would become, in the 1950s, the cool jazz style, personified by Chet Baker and Bill Evans . More than that, though, “Singin’ the Blues” has been noted for the way its improvisations feel less improvised than composed, with each phrase building on the last in a logical fashion.

Benny Green describes the solo’s effect on practiced ears: When a musician hears Bix’s solo on ‘Singing the Blues’, he becomes aware after two bars that the soloist knows exactly what he is doing and that he has an exquisite sense of discord and resolution. He knows also that this player is endowed with the rarest jazz gift of all, a sense of form which lends to an improvised performance a coherence which no amount of teaching can produce. The listening musician, whatever his generation or his style, recognizes Bix as a modern, modernism being not a style but an attitude. Like Green, who made particular mention of Beiderbecke’s “amount of teaching,” the jazz historian Ted Gioia also has emphasized Beiderbecke’s lack of formal instruction, suggesting that it caused him to adopt “an unusual, dry embouchure” and “unconventional fingerings,” which he retained for the rest of his life.

Gioia points to “a characteristic streak of obstinacy” in Beiderbecke that provokes “this chronic disregard of the tried-and-true.” He argues that this stubbornness was behind Beiderbecke’s decision not to switch from cornet to trumpet when many other musicians, including Armstrong, did so. In addition, Gioia highlights Beiderbecke’s precise timing, relaxed delivery, and pure tone, which contrasted with “the dirty, rough-edged sound” of King Oliver and his protégé Armstrong, whose playing was often more energetic and whose style held more sway early in the 1920s than Beiderbecke’s. Gioia further wonders whether the many hyperbolic and quasi-poetic descriptions of Beiderbecke’s style—most notably Condon’s “like a girl saying yes”—may indicate that Beiderbecke’s sound was muddled on recordings. Eddie Condon, Hoagy Carmichael, and Mezz Mezzrow, all of whom hyperbolically raved about his playing, also saw Beiderbecke play live or performed alongside him.

Condon, for instance, wrote of being amazed by Beiderbecke’s piano playing: “All my life I had been listening to music… But I had never heard anything remotely like what Beiderbecke played. For the first time I realized music isn’t all the same, it had become an entirely new set of sounds…” “I tried to explain Bix to the gang,” Carmichael wrote, but “… [i]t was no good, like the telling of a vivid, personal dream… the emotion couldn’t be transmitted.” Mezzrow described Beiderbecke’s tone as being “pickled in alcohol… I have never heard a tone like he got before or since. He played mostly open horn, every note full, big, rich and round, standing out like a pearl, loud but never irritating or jangling, with a powerful drive that few white musicians had in those days.” Some critics have highlighted “Jazz Me Blues,” recorded with the Wolverines on February 18, 1924, as being particularly important to understanding Beiderbecke’s style. Although it was one of his earliest recordings, the hallmarks of his playing were evident.

“The overall impression we get from this solo, as in all of Bix at his best,” writes the trumpeter Randy Sandke , “is that every note is spontaneous yet inevitable.” Richard Hadlock describes Beiderbecke’s contribution to “Jazz Me Blues” as “an ordered solo that seems more inspired by clarinetists Larry Shields of the ODJB and Leon Roppolo of the NORK than by other trumpet players.” He goes on to suggest that clarinetists, by virtue of their not being tied to the melody as much as cornetists and trumpet players, could explore harmonies. “Jazz Me Blues” was also important because it introduced what has been called the “correlated chorus,” a method of improvising that Beiderbecke’s Davenport friend Esten Spurrier attributed to both Beiderbecke and Armstrong.

“Louis departed greatly from all cornet players in his ability to compose a close-knit individual 32 measures with all phrases compatible with each other…,” Spurrier told the biographers Sudhalter and Evans, “so Bix and I always credited Louis as being the father of the correlated chorus: play two measures, then two related, making four measures, on which you played another four measures related to the first four, and so on ad infinitum to the end of the chorus. So the secret was simple—a series of related phrases.” Beiderbecke plays piano on his recordings “Big Boy” (October 8, 1924), “ For No Reason at All in C ” (May 13, 1927), “Wringin’ and Twistin'” (September 17, 1927)—all with ensembles—and his only solo recorded work, “ In a Mist ” (September 8, 1927). Critic Frank Murphy argues that many of the same characteristics that mark Beiderbecke on the cornet mark him on the keyboard: the uncharacteristic fingering, the emphasis on inventive harmonies, and the correlated choruses.

Those inventive harmonies, on both cornet and piano, eventually helped point the way to bebop , which abandoned melody almost entirely. Compositions 1925 Gennett 78, 5654-B, “Davenport Blues”. Bix Beiderbecke wrote or co-wrote six instrumental compositions during his career: “ In the Dark ” (1931) “Candlelights”, “Flashes”, and “In the Dark” are piano compositions transcribed with the help of Bill Challis but never recorded by Beiderbecke. Two additional compositions were attributed to him by two other jazz composers: “Betcha I Getcha,” attributed to Beiderbecke as a co-composer by Joe Venuti, the composer of the song, and “Cloudy”, attributed to Beiderbecke by composer Charlie Davis as a composition from circa 1924. Major recordings 1927 Okeh 78, 40916, “In a Mist”. 1927 Okeh 78, 40772-B, “Singin’ the Blues”.

1930 original recording of “Georgia on My Mind” on Victor, 23013-A.

Bix Beiderbecke’s first recordings were as a member of the Wolverine Orchestra “Fidgety Feet” / “Jazz Me Blues,” recorded on February 18, 1924, in Richmond, Indiana, and released as Gennett 5408 “Copenhagen”, recorded on May 6, 1924, and released as Gennett 5453B and Claxtonola 40336B “ Riverboat Shuffle ” / “Susie (Of the Islands)”, recorded on May 6, 1924, and released as Gennett 5454 As Bix Beiderbecke and his Rhythm Jugglers “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 “My Pretty Girl” / “Cover Me Up with Sunshine”, recorded on February 1, 1927, in New York and released as Victor 20588 “Sunny Disposish”

 / “Fox Trot” from “Americana”, recorded on February 3, 1927, in New York and released as Victor 20493B “Clementine”, recorded on September 15, 1927 in New York and released on Victor 20994 “Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra” .

With Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra and guitarist Eddie Lang “Clarinet Marmalade” / “Singin’ the Blues”, recorded on February 4, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 40772 “I’m Coming, Virginia” / “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans”, recorded on May 13, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 40843 “ 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 “ In a Mist ” / “Wringin’ an’ Twistin'”, recorded on September 9, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 40916 and Vocalion 3150 “Borneo” / “My Pet”, recorded on April 10, 1928, in New York and released as Okeh 41039 As Bix Beiderbecke and His

 Gang “ At the Jazz Band Ball ” / “Jazz Me Blues”, recorded on October 5, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 40923 “Royal Garden Blues” / “Goose Pimples”, recorded on October 5, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 8544 “Sorry” / “Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down”, recorded on October 25, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 41001 “Wa-Da-Da (Everybody’s Doin’ It Now)”, recorded on July 7, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and released as Okeh 41088 “Rhythm King”, recorded on September 21, 1928 in New York and released as Okeh 41173 With the Paul Whiteman Orchestra “Lonely Melody” [Take 3] / “Mississippi Mud” [Take 2], with Bing Crosby , the Rhythm Boys, and Izzy Friedman, recorded on January 4, 1928, in New York and released as Victor 

25366 “ Ramona “, recorded on January 4, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 21214-A.

No. 1 for 3 weeks “ Ol’ Man River ” (From Show Boat), recorded on January 11, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 21218-A and Victor 25249 with Bing Crosby on vocals. No. 1 for 1 week “San” [Take 6], recorded on January 12, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 24078-A “Together” , recorded on January 21, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 35883-A. No. 1 for 2 weeks “Mississippi Mud” [Take 3] / “From Monday On” [Take 6], with vocals by Bing Crosby, recorded on February 28, 1928, in New York and released as Victor 21274 “My Angel”, recorded on April 21, 1928 in New York and released as Victor 21388-A. No.

1 for 6 weeks “My Melancholy Baby”, recorded on May 15, 1928, in New York and released as Columbia 50068-D “Sweet Sue”, recorded on September 18, 1928, in New York and released as Columbia 50103-D As Bix Beiderbecke and His Orchestra “I Don’t Mind Walking in the Rain” / “I’ll Be a Friend with Pleasure”, recorded on September 8, 1930, in New York and released as Victor 23008 With Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra “Barnacle Bill, the Sailor” / “Rockin’ Chair” , with vocals by Carson Robison , recorded on May 21, 1930, in New York and released as Victor V-38139 and Victor 25371 “ Georgia on My Mind “, with Hoagy Carmichael on vocals, recorded on September 15, 1930, in New York and released as Victor 23013 Grammy Hall of Fame Bix Beiderbecke was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

 , which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have “qualitative or historical significance.” Bix Beiderbecke: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards Year Recorded

Question: Which jazz musician had the forenames Leon Bismark?
Answer: Bix BEIDERBECK