Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke ( born March 10, 1903 in Davenport, Iowa; † August 6, 1931 in Long Iceland, New York; actually Leon Bismark Beiderbecke, Bix the nickname is derived from his middle name - his father's name - from ) was a U.S. American jazz musician and cornetist.
Life
Beiderbecke came from a wealthy and musical family from Mecklenburg origin and learned four years old by ear play the piano. Learning the notation he refused long, which he often caused problems during his career because all the Musicians Union AFM often no work permit ( Union Card) issued on the basis of his to 1923 missing " musicians test ". His interest in the cornet meant that he taught the game to this instrument by self-study. At the age of Beiderbecke played on a gramophone after the Kornettsoli Nick LaRoccas of the Original Dixieland Jass band. In the same year he probably heard Louis Armstrong when he stopped off while a commitment on the Mississippi in Davenport.
For professional training, his parents sent him to the Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, but to what he used to pursue his passion for the music playing in the various jazz bands on the music scene in Chicago. When this became known, he was dismissed in 1922 by the Academy. He began an unsettled life as a professional musician.
From the end of 1923, he was the most important musician in the band The Wolverines, with whom he also absorbed first plates. In 1925 he was a member of the orchestra of Charlie Straight, but jammed the way with numerous jazz bands. So he played with Jimmie Noone, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. After a year in St. Louis with Frank Trumbauer (with whom he his legendary hit " Singing the Blues" recorded ) he went to Detroit with this to the Jean gold chain first symphonic jazz orchestra. However, this orchestra had no commercial success and was disbanded in 1928. The majority of the musicians, as well as Beiderbecke, moved to Paul Whiteman.
In Whiteman, he met the famous white jazz musicians of his time as Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Bing Crosby, Jack Teagarden and Eddie Lang. During this time, Beiderbecke also took a small studio lineup, which he called Bix and his Gang, a number of historically significant jazz records on. Beiderbecke was the star soloist in Whiteman's orchestra, but his options were limited within the pompous arrangements for full orchestra.
Increasingly, made now the consequences of his alcohol dependency noticeable. He fell more frequently in sick and had to undergo a detoxification 1929 to the Whiteman granted him a paid vacation, but Beiderbecke did not return in the orchestra. The following year he had a few engagements in New York jazz bands, but was personally and professionally summarize nowhere more feet. In 1931 he fell ill with pneumonia, which led to his death.
Importance
Beiderbecke was one of the significant and influential white jazz musicians of the 1920s and one of the most important representatives of the Chicago jazz. His improvisations were characterized by a mixture of lyrical phrasing and - compared to most jazz musicians of the era - a strong emotional restraint, which made him a forerunner of cool jazz. Legendary was the pure, clear tone of his Kornettspiels. Many recordings document his progressive even for a jazz musician understanding of harmony that betrays the influence of Impressionist and contemporary musicians such as Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. An impressive demonstration of his game is the solo on Singing the Blues. Beiderbecke also created a series of compositions for piano ( best known: In A Mist ), which wrote down a fellow arranger for him.
Aftereffect
Beiderbeckes Kornettspiel had great influence on many jazz trumpeter. It can be clearly heard at Red Nichols, Bunny Berigan and Bobby Hackett this effect. With the even more modern jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie esteemed Hackett, who was himself a great Armstrong admirer, but in the play outweigh the Beiderbecke influences results, the stylistic connection to the lyrical ballad trumpet playing of Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Woodie Shaw. Although the cornet was ousted in jazz in the second half of the 1920s increasingly by the trumpet, Beiderbecke stayed true to his instrument, as it suited his unorthodox play and expression better. He also laid the foundation for the "survival " of the cornet as an instrument in jazz music. Beiderbecke, who learned the Kornettspiel as an autodidact, used handle unusual combinations for the valves. This technique ( "false fingering "), which formed part of the peculiarity of his play due to a slightly different mood, is copied to this day. Even contemporary musicians such as Franz Koglmann see in Beiderbecke a source of inspiration.