Acrobat Music

Bix Beiderbecke, jazz cornettist, pianist and composer, died on 6th August 1931

Bix Beiderbecke, jazz cornettist, pianist and composer, died on 6th August 1931

We are a few days early with this one, but we have several instances in August of days where there are several anniversaries and some with none, so we’re spreading them out across the days. Today, we look at a musician who destroyed himself with alcohol by the age of 28, but who nevertheless also left a legacy of extraordinarily important and influential recordings. Bix Beiderbecke was born in Iowa in 1903 of German immigrant parents, and taught himself to play the cornet by ear, resulting in an unusual and individual fingering technique, which may explain apects of his music. He recorde dwith the Mid-Western band The Wolverines in 1924, before joining Jean Goldkette's Orchestra in Detroit, then on to Frankie Trumbauer for an extended run in St. Louis. In 1926 both Beiderbecke and Trumbauer returned to Goldkette for a year, before joining the prestigious Paul Whiteman band, the most popular and famous of its day, with a relentless touring schedule which took its toll on Beiderbecke. He sank into alcoholism, surfacing occasionally from rehab to rejoin the band, but he died in somewhat mysterious circumstances in his Queens apartment in August 1930. During the Goldkette and Whiteman years he made recordings either under his own name or Trumbauer's, many of which, though relatively unrecognised at the time, have become landmark performances. His "Singin' the blues", for example, is quoted as being a precursor to the cool jazz style of Miles Davis, while his rare piano recording of "In A Mist" is seen as a precursor of bebop. Suffice to say he remains an iconic figure within the genre. Acrobat has a collection of his recordings on catalogue - for details click here.

 
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