BIX

The first live jazz band I saw, many members of which I was later to sing with in my own band, played in front of a banner ‘Bix Lives’. Bix Beidebecke was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer.

This week’s 2SER Subscriber Drive Phantom Dancer presented by Greg Poppleton features music by this enourmous figure in jazz history and a 1941 reminiscence about Bix by someone who knew him personally.

ONLINE

This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online right after the 15 October 107.3 2SER Sydney live mix at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney.

SUBSCRIBE

Join thousands of others to keep community radio on air by subscribing to 2SER now.

BIX AND PAUL

The Bix musical selections you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer comes from recordings he made as part of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

The Paul Whiteman Orchestra was the most popular and highest paid dance band of the day. In spite of Whiteman’s appellation “The King of Jazz”, his band was not a jazz ensemble as such, but a popular music outfit that drew from both jazz and classical music repertoires.

Idiotic jazz critics have derided the Whiteman band for not recording solo after solo by Bix. However, colleagues of Bix have testified that, far from feeling bound or stifled by the Whiteman orchestra, Bix often felt a sense of exhilaration. It was like attending a music school, learning and broadening.

Beiderbecke is featured on a number of Whiteman recordings, including two we’ll hear today with Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys as vocalists. These are, ‘You Took Advantage Of Me’ and ‘Changes’.

IMPRO

These two songs are specially written arrangements that emphasize Beiderbecke’s improvisational skills. Bill Challis, an arranger who had also worked in this capacity for Jean Goldkette, was particularly sympathetic in writing scores with Beiderbecke in mind, sometimes arranging entire ensemble passages based on solos that Bix played.

HOTEL ROOM TRASHING 40 YEARS AHEAD OF HIS TIME

On November 30, 1928, whilst on tour in Cleveland, Beiderbecke suffered ‘a severe nervous crisis’. “He cracked up, that’s all”, trombonist Bill Rank said. “Just went to pieces; broke up a roomful of furniture in the hotel.”

LAST RECORD

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 vocals, 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.

STARDUST

Beiderbecke’s playing had an influence on Carmichael as a composer. One of his compositions, ‘Stardust’, was inspired by Beiderbecke’s improvisations, with a cornet phrase reworked by Carmichael into the song’s central theme.

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.”

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week shows Bix Beidebecke playing with the Whiteman Orchestra in a 1928 newsreel. Beidebecke, a self-taught cornetist, plays with puffed cheeks.

watch?v=RmD7jeIEkfg

15 OCTOBER PLAY LIST