Considered a genius by his
fans and fellow musicians, Bix Beiderbecke was a master cornet player, and, for
those who heard him, one of the most inspiring jazz musicians of his day –
inspiring white jazz musicians that
is. Leaving behind a long list of
recordings from the 1920’s – the historical Jazz Age – Bix’s original style has
its roots in New Orleans jazz and classical composers such as Debussy and
Ravel. During the 20s, Bix was known for
his the legendary amounts of bootleg liquor he drank, to the point where he
immune system was badly damaged, hastening his early death in 1931 at the age
of 27. Although an excellent novel, The Young Man with the Horn, by Dorothy
Baker, has been written based on the life of Bix, the biographical scholarship
on Beiderbecke has been, at worst, self-serving and, at best, sloppy.
At long last, here in the United States, we have the
publication of Jean Pierre Lion’s Bix:
The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend, winner of several jazz writing
awards in France and a best-seller there to boot. Translated into English by a very skilled
team of three writers, Lion’s biography is meticulously researched, thorough
without ever being tedious, direct and clear in its prose, and sympathetic to
the troubled cornetist without downplaying his faults and personal
failings. As Lion reconstructs Bix’s
life, it is very clear that from an early age, Beiderbecke cared for little
else but playing music, and neither the patience nor the affluence of his
family could deter Bix from dropping out of the life he could have had and
pursuing the peripatetic, perpetually bibacious life of a jazz musician during
the period of Prohibition.
Influenced by the original Dixieland Jazz Band, Bix quickly
established himself as a highly-original, sweet-sounding, and lyrical soloist –
first in a group called the Wolverines, and then in Jean Goldkette’s Orchestra
and other groups with his close friend, the saxophonist Frank Trumbauer. By the end of 1927, Bix was playing with the
immensely popular Paul Whiteman Orchestra – a group that played more popular
dance music than hot jazz. Contrary to
legend, playing with Whiteman’s top-of-the-pops group did not drive Bix to
drink – in fact, Lion shows that Bix was quite happy in his role as the “stunt
soloist” in the orchestra. If anything,
Bix’s chronic drinking – by this point he was a full-blown alcoholic – and his
difficulty in reading music made the already demanding work in the Whiteman
Orchestra unmanagable for him. Lion
clearly demonstrates that Bix’s alcoholism – and its consequences for
Beiderbecke’s health and well-being – are what did him as a musician. In the end, the drink overwhelmed his talent.
In addition to presenting Bix in such a fair and balanced
manner, author Lion provides interesting portraits of Beiderbecke
contemporaries like Trumbauer, Whiteman, Hoagy Carmichael, Mezz Mezzrow. His description of the acoustic recording
techniques of the 20s is excellent, and his exhaustive discography of Bix
recordings – already available for several years on the web – is included here
in an updated print form. This book is
an essential text in any well-stocked jazz library.
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