Bix (Leon) Beiderbecke

(Bix)

images/bix.jpg (38785 bytes)

* Born in Davenport, Iowa (on the Mississippi River)
* Had absolute pitch and an infallible tonal memory
* He never learned to read music very well...always depended on his ear and memory...this later cost him a job with the Casa Loma Orchestra.
* In 1919 he heard a recording of the ODJB and fell in love with the music. He bought a used cornet and taught himself to play. As a result of this self teaching he used a lot of alternate fingerings.
* From 1919-1923 he "paid his dues" playing in dance bands
* In 1922 his parents sent him to a military academy in Lake Forest, Ill. He was expelled.
* His stay in Lake Forest afforded him the chance to learn from some of the older New Orleans musicians in the area by sneaking off to Chicago.
* This was during prohibition and most jazz was played in speakeasies.
* Bix began the drinking that lead to his downfall in these clubs
* In about 1923 he developed as a soloist using soaring lyrical melodic lines that used startling intervallic leaps with unexpected harmonic extensions.
* His ear was so good that he could improvise harmony parts to written arrangements and could pick all the notes in a 10 note cluster.
* In 1923 he formed the WOLVERINES and cut 16 sides with the Gennett label.
* In 1924 he began his long association with Frankie Trumbauer.
* In 1927 he and Tram joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra where he was a featured soloist and had the chance to play some of his own compositions - IN A MIST

If you have any comments or information to add, E-mail Dr. Michael Day at

updated 06/24/99