Bix Beiderbecke

[jazzbo]

The duets are quite nice indeed!

[Clunky]

How is the JSP Bix and Tram box set, is it a reasonable "Best of"?

[Alexander]

I was listening to some Bix records last night, and I was marveling at how BAD some of those records really are. Not Bix's performances...but the records themselves. Bad arrangements, bad sound, BAD VOCALS. But when Bix solos, he cuts through all of it. It's like finding a diamond in a pile of garbage. It's amazing how you'll find yourself sitting through two minutes of crap (and I was often laughing at how bad some of those songs were) just to hear fifteen or twenty seconds of absolute perfection...

[Alexander]

I should add that there are plenty of wonderful records that Bix played on (great clear through). Didn't mean to imply that all of Bix's records were bad, just that some of them (all side-man appearences, I'm pretty sure) are awful.

[jazzbo]

The JSP box is probably a good way to go to get a nice slice of Bix all at once.

I haven't heard it or even touched the box! I've had all that stuff for so long. . . I love that stuff.

[EKE BBB]

There´s a complete Bix on-line discography (with images and sound) coming:

BIX BEIDERBECKE DISCOGRAPHY

Created by Jean Pierre Lion

Amended, expanded, and reformated by Hans Eekhoff and Albert Haim

To obtain the complete discography by Jean Pierre Lion in word and pdf versions, click here

There´s a site (a satellite site to the bixography.com) with another on-line discography by Joel Vanwambeke and reformated by Albert Haim:

http://bixography.com/recordingsjoel/index.html

--Edit in bold letters--

Edited April 22, 2004 by EKE BBB

[.:.impossible]

Malcom Merriwether won that contest fair and square.

[jazzbo]

DAMNED STRAIGHT!

[Matthew]

Has Bix Restored: Volume 5 come out yet, or did life just pass me by yet again?

[EKE BBB]

At Origin Jazz Library it still appears as "Coming in Summer 2004":

Coming in Summer 2004 

Bix Restored, Volume 5: Trumbauer Alternate Takes and The Beiderbecke Influence.

This single CD is a companion to our 12-CD "Bix Restored" anthology, showing Beiderbecke's influence on other musicians in the 1920s and 1930s, plus two newly-discovered alternate takes of Bix with Frank Trumbauer's Orchestra, "Futuristic Rhythm" and "Raisin' the Roof." An essay by Richard Sudhalter, author of "Lost Chords: White Musicians & their Contributions to Jazz, 1915-1945" and co-author of "Bix: Man and Legend," is included. The CD features tracks by Bix-influenced musicians including Bobby Hackett, Jimmy McPartland, Red Nichols, Rex Stewart, Sterling Bose, Andy Secrest, Mickey Bloom, Hoagy Carmichael, and Benny Goodman, plus more. 

[Brownian Motion]

I heartily recommend Ralph Berton's book REMEMBERING BIX. A Memoir of The Jazz Age to Bixophiles. How much of it is true I can't say, but it a lovely book about a lost time. You can find copies here: http://www.bookfinder.com/

[jazzbo]

A fun read indeed!

[Matthew]

Though, if I remember correctly, a lot of Bix fans didn't even want to think of the possibility of Beiderbecke having a one night stand with Berton's brother. A book that I really like on Bix, though it goes into excruciating detail, is Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story by Philip R. Evans, Linda K. Evans. Everything you ever wanted to know about Bix is in this book -- kind of expensive though.

Edited September 2, 2004 by Matthew

[jazzbo]

The Evans book is indeed a great book. I conversed with Evans once on the phone and several times by email before he died, and he was furious with Sudhalter for misrepresenting some items in the earlier bio they did together as authenticated fact when they weren't. . . . He was determined that this book contain only hard data that was verified, authenticated, documented, etc. And it is a rather dry read as a result, but a fascinating collection of information and photos!

[ghost of miles]

Though, if I remember correctly, a lot of Bix fans didn't even want to think of the possibility of Beiderbecke having a one night stand with Berton's brother. A book that I really like on Bix, though it goes into excruciating detail, is Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story by Philip R. Evans, Linda K. Evans. Everything you ever wanted to know about Bix is in this book -- kind of expensive though.

Agreed, Matthew--it's a must for avid Bix fans. Bix, along with Armstrong, was my introduction to early jazz, but I didn't really develop a proper appreciation for him until several years ago. I did a one-hour program about him for WFIU a year & a half ago (for the Bix centennary) that included interviews with Sudhalter, cultural historian & jazz fan Michael McGerr, and Pat Harbison, a trumpet player and IU School of Music faculty member. We were supposed to archive it online and never did--I'll try to get that done next week and post a link, if anyone's interested.

There were some nice pieces on Geoff Muldaur's Bix tribute that came out last year--particularly the ensemble reading of "Flashes." I also heard Bunny Berigan's late-1930s Bix tribute session in full for the first time last year after getting the Berigan Hep CD. A tad incosistent but very interesting nonetheless, and some of the earliest interpretations of Bix's scant compositional work.

[jazzbo]

The recent Dill Jones two cd set (reissue of an lp, expanded) has some interesting piano performances of the piano pieces and a few other Jones compositions that are in that mode. . . recommended.

I like "Private Astronomy" a lot as well. Also highly recommended for the jazz group pieces recreated is Bix Centennial All-Stars "Celebrating Bix."

[Shrdlu]

There is a song for female vocalists that goes "I danced with a man, who danced with a girl, who danced with the Prince of Wales."

I once met a man who played with Bix.

But Lloyd-George didn't know my father.

[Chalupa]

The one thing that stands out for me about Bix(besides his playing) is the story of when he was recovering from an illness at his parents house not too long before he died. One day he was bored and he looked in a closet and found all of the records that he had sent home for his parents to listen to - unopened!!!

Ugh!

[jazzbo]

But I'm not sure that story is TRUE! His mother was supportive of his music.

Edited September 5, 2004 by jazzbo

[Chalupa]

Hey Ken Burns told it so IT MUST BE TRUE!!

[jazzbo]

No comment!

Okay comment: I don't think it's true. . . despite Ken Burns. His mother traveled to see him perform on more than several occasions if I remember correctly from the Evans book, and this myth about the unopened records is another that I think Sudhalter didn't verify that Evans later found to be romantic BS. . . .

Edited September 5, 2004 by jazzbo

[danasgoodstuff]

The thing that strikes me about the unopened records story is that these were 78s not LPs, i.e. they wouldn't have been shrinkwrapped so you couldn't tell for sure if they had been out of their covers or not. In other words, this story doesn't even make sense to me.

I like Bix, to me the sad thing is that he doersn't need to be romanicized, what's really there in his music and life is more than interesting enough. As a C-melody player I, of course, like Tram too!

[Chalupa]

I think the records were supposed to have been wrapped in paper and string for mailing, which would account for them being "unopened". I agree, the story sounds a little too "romanticized" to be true.

Dang, now I'm going to have rent the Burns DVD's

[BruceH]

No comment!

Okay comment: I don't think it's true. . . despite Ken Burns. His mother traveled to see him perform on more than several occasions if I remember correctly from the Evans book, and this myth about the unopened records is another that I think Sudhalter didn't verify that Evans later found to be romantic BS. . . .

Sounds like something MY mother would do, though...

[Shrdlu]

As a C-melody player I, of course, like Tram too!

You play a C melody? It must be an old model, as I don't think they even make them anymore.

What's it like? (I play regular B flat tenor.)