Bix: I'm Coming Virginia

[Bill McCloskey]

My interest in playing jazz cornet has finally drawn me to one of the major pillars of jazz cornet playing: Bix Beiderbecke. After downloading the Bix and Tram 4 cd set, I can finally understand what all the fuss is about.

I find that listening to this particular set, with the excellent sound quality, has been an transcendent experience. One of the most impressive aspects of listening to this music, and the thing that for me highlights Bix's genius, is to listen to a tune like I'm Coming Virginia and comparing the way the Bix/Tram sessions treat it versus other versions in my collection which include Fletcher Henderson, Bill Davison, Bunny Berigan, and jazz mandolinist Don Steirnberg.

All of these artists do a great job (particularly Steirnberg) but nothing is like Bix. For me, it is something unworldly, and I can finally grok why there are memorial societies and yearly concerts dedicated to Bix. I didn't get it before because my exposure was mainly rather poor releases of his work with the Paul Whiteman orchestra.

Another tune I can't get out of my head is Blue River, which has a rather embarrassing vocalist, but Bix rises above it all to create an artist expression that is purely sublime.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Bill McCloskey

[Chuck Nessa]

I'd like to know who Virginia was and what she did to make Bix respond like that.

[7/4]

On Monday, March 10, WKCR is having their yearly all day BixFest.

[Harold_Z]

Interesting to compare Wild Bill Davison's (Commodore) solo with Bix's. Wild Bill plays some of the same licks, but in different places.

edit to add: Wild Bill's record consists of a rather subdued opening ensemble chorus, a piano chorus and a more intense closing ensemble chorus. It's during the closing ensemble that Wild Bill plays these licks. The contrast with Bill and bix is not only that he plays the licks in different places, but also where Bix plays the lick softly, Wild Bill is shouting it.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Harold_Z

[Stereojack]

I'd like to know who Virginia was and what she did to make Bix respond like that.

She said "yes".

[John L]

The Bobby Hackett tribute to Bix on I'm Coming Virginia from the 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert is also a beauty.

[AllenLowe]

listen, as well, to the other great Whiteman band version of this - vocal by Bing, solo by Red Nichols, great arrangement by someone whose name I can't remember (not Challis or Grofe; a songwriter, however); masterpiece -

[AllenLowe]

Tom Satterfield -

[jazzbo]

Isn't it amazing the way that some sounds from some masters can come across decades and hit you right between the ears!

Bix. . .a killer diller.

[Fer Urbina]

For Bix tributes I'd recommend Randy Sandke. I can't remember which CD(s), I think he's played in two, at least. Beautiful tone and phrasing.

F

[AllenLowe]

Randy, yes! on my last CD we played a tune I wrote based on I'm Coming Virginia - I played alto, and Scott Robinson played contra-bass-clarinet, Randy's on trumpet - called it "I Am A Swan" -

Sandke is incredible - he gets the feeling, knows how to evoke Bix without trying to re-create - uncanny and brilliant!

my favorite trumpet player in the world - as a matter of fact he played at my wedding in 1982 -

[thomastreichler]

For Bix tributes I'd recommend Randy Sandke. I can't remember which CD(s), I think he's played in two, at least. Beautiful tone and phrasing.

F

Randy Sandke did at least three Bix tributes on cd:

The Bix Beiderbecke Era (Nagel Heyer)

on some of the selections he harmonized the original Bix solos for three trumpets/cornets - marvelous!

Re-Discovering Louis And Bix (Nagel Heyer)

The Bix Beiderbecke Centennial All Stars Celebrating Bix! (Arbors)

all three albums are highly recommended!

[kh1958]

If you have the Mosaic Bix, is there any other essential small group Bix that is not included?

[Fer Urbina]

For Bix tributes I'd recommend Randy Sandke. I can't remember which CD(s), I think he's played in two, at least. Beautiful tone and phrasing.

F

Randy Sandke did at least three Bix tributes on cd:

The Bix Beiderbecke Era (Nagel Heyer)

on some of the selections he harmonized the original Bix solos for three trumpets/cornets - marvelous!

Re-Discovering Louis And Bix (Nagel Heyer)

The Bix Beiderbecke Centennial All Stars Celebrating Bix! (Arbors)

all three albums are highly recommended!

Thanks! You can another one I just got in the mail: Randy Sandke's New Yorker's Stampede (Jazzology), with a few tracks from the Bix legacy... and a picture of a young Sandke sporting a haircut not to different from Bardem's in No Country For Old Men... (what a name for a jazz club )

F

[Harold_Z]

If you have the Mosaic Bix, is there any other essential small group Bix that is not included?

The Wolverines. Also the date with Tommy Dorsey on bone --where they did Davenport Blues. Bix and his Rhythm Jugglers.

[Harold_Z]

A couple of very good versions of I'm Coming Virginia that have never made it to cd as far as I know are on the Jimmy McPartland Shades Of Bix lp and also the Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band's South Of The Mason-Dixon Line. Jimmy plays the Bix solo verbatim, while Yank doesn't. The bands are pretty similar - the NYC guys associated with New York Dixieland and Eddie Condon (although he's not on these. I think George Barnes is on both dates (I'm too lazy to go look, so I'm going on memory), Cliff Leeman, George Wettling, McGarity, Cutty, etc. These recordings SHOULD be reissued.

Interesting sidebar- Jimmy McPartland, Bobby Hackett (in 1938 BG Carnegie Hall anyway) and trumpeters/cornetists on any number of other versions play the Bix solo verbatim. Wild Bill plays a couple of licks - enough to let you know he's heard and knows the original, but otherwise pretty much goes his own way. Same thing on any number of versions of Dippermouth that I've heard by Wild Bill. He lets you know he knows the classic solo at hand---but he's going for himself.

(edit for lousy grammar and typing.)

Edited March 7, 2008 by Harold_Z

[danasgoodstuff]

My love for Bix and Tram are part of the reason I play C-melody, that and pure perverseness. Bix is deservedly the legend, not just because he died young (but what a loss he and Eddie Lang were, think of he and Armstrong doing gigs together post-WWII), but Tram could play some too - good enuff for Lester, good enuff for me.

[AllenLowe]

love that final rip -

[Harold_Z]

love that final rip -

About 4 bars from the end?

[AllenLowe]

that's the one -

gives me goose bumps -

[Lazaro Vega]

"I Am A Swan" is cool. Playing that tonight during our Bix program on Jazz From Blue Lake. LV

[Alexander Hawkins]

I love Bix on this tune, although the one which really, REALLY floors me is 'Singing the Blues'.

[Kalo]

"I'm Coming Virginia" was the tune that Bix won me with as well.

Edited March 13, 2008 by Kalo

[Kalo]

I'd like to know who Virginia was and what she did to make Bix respond like that.

She said "yes".

Was it Eddie Condon who said that Bix's tone on cornet was "like a girl saying yes"?