Your Online Shop for Classical Music

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD BEIDERBECKE, Bix: Riverboat Shuffle (1924-1929)

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

Special Offers

NaxosDirect Audio

Other Genres:

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Classic Fiction, Modern Classics & Contemporary Fiction
        Classical Music Audio Books
        Drama
        Junior Classics and Children's Favourites
        Non-Fiction
        Poetry
        Samplers
        Shakespeare

Blues Legends

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

BSO on NaxosDirect

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert
        Pop/Rock Documentary

Gospel Legends

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Books
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos Instrumental
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Samplers
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Nostalgia

Other Genres

SACD

We Recommend….

Essential listening

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Vocal (World)
        World

Subscribe to Newsletters

Top 40 Bestselling Naxos CDs

Critics' Choice

Labels
Composer/ Authors
Conductors
Ensembles
Orchestras
Choirs
Artists
Instruments
Producers

SecurityMetrics for PCI Compliance, QSA, IDS, Penetration Testing, Forensics, and Vulnerability Assessment

BEIDERBECKE, Bix: Riverboat Shuffle (1924-1929)

Home

Jazz

Jazz Icons

BEIDERBECKE, Bix: Riverboat Shuffle (1924-1929)

View large image

Total playing time: 00:53:14

£6.99
£4.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 48 hours.

Link to this CD Link to this page

BIX BEIDERBECKE

"Riverboat Shuffle" Original 1924-1929 Recordings

The first real white jazz stylist, cornetist, pianist and composer Bix Beiderbecke was a great jazz original, an innovator whose individual genius and technically controlled, restrained, crystal-clear playing contrasts with -yet in its way matches- the flamboyance of Louis Armstrong. He was born Leon Bismarck Beiderbecke on March 10, 1903 in the river town of Davenport, Iowa, the youngest of the three children in a German immigrant family. His father, Herman, ran a successful coal and timber business, so his upbringing was well-to-do, middleclass. As a child he showed an unusual aptitude for music which his mother, Agatha, actively encouraged: he had a fine ear and could play virtually anything without music. At seven he had some formal training on piano and his parents envisaged a career for him as a concert pianist, but having heard records of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band he took up the cornet instead. Self-taught and technically unorthodox in his approach, he would sit cross-legged on the floor and join in with "Tiger Rag" and other records on the Victrola.

In 1919, in Davenport, he heard and met the great New Orleans cornettist Emmet Hardy who, it is said, helped him to perfect his technique. Indeed, when Hardy died in 1925, Bix reputedly wrote to Hardy’s mother to the effect that "Emmet was the greatest musician I have ever heard. If ever I can come near your son’s greatness, I’ll die happy." In September 1921, at his parents’ request, he entered the Lake Forest Academy but, for spending so much time in nearby Chicago pursuing his interest in jazz and playing with the dance band he had formed with fellow-student Walter ‘Cy’ Welge, he was expelled. Subsequently, Bix spent a few months working in his father’s East Davenport Fuel and Lumber Company until he decided, despite parental opposition, on a career in music.

Bix joined the Wolverines in Ohio late in 1923 and early the following year, in Richmond, Indiana, and with that band, still generally accredited with having been the first white outfit to play "black" jazz in true style, recorded fifteen published sides for Gennett (highly innovative, these pre-date Armstrong’s first Hot Fives by almost two years), including a new composition by his friend Hoagy Carmichael entitled Riverboat Shuffle. In these monumental classics of early jazz he is both soloist and leader, but his presence is played down, coolly integrating with the rest of the ensemble, as it does in his own composition Davenport Blues, recorded in early 1925 with his Rhythm Jugglers.

By September 1924, Bix and the Wolverines were playing at New York’s prestigious Cinderella Ballroom. There he was heard by pianist-bandleader Jean Goldkette (1899-1962) whose band, certainly the greatest white jazz outfit before Benny Goodman’s, was at that time resident at Detroit’s Graystone Ballroom and whose recordings were a new and lucrative addition to the Victor catalogue. Beiderbecke briefly joined the Goldkette orchestra and even recorded with them in November. Next, he shared digs in New York with fellow-cornetist Red Nichols (1905-1965) before joining the band of Illinois-born saxophonist and vocalist Frankie Trumbauer (1901-1956) at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis. Trumbauer’s musicianship and organisational skills complemented Bix’s innovations and the pair became the mainstay of Goldkette’s organisation from early 1926, on recordings, on radio and at live venues until it disbanded in September 1927.

Subsequently, prior to blending their voices with Paul Whiteman (1890-1967), Trumbauer and Bix immortalised their names through their recordings of such classics as "I’m Coming, Virginia" (a US Pop Charts No.5 hit in September 1927) and Singin’ The Blues, Three Blind Mice and Krazy Kat. With guitarist Ed Lang (1902-33) they recorded, among other titles, For No Reason At All In C and Wringin’ And Twistin’, while Bix recorded the solo In A Mist (otherwise entitled "Bixology"). Here, his impressionistic piano-playing reflects the influence of Debussy and Ravel as well as the more localised influence of the American piano miniaturist Edward McDowell. This solo entered the US charts in February 1928, at No.20.

During their sojourn with the Whiteman Orchestra, Bix and Trumbauer were given several opportunities to record with various small groups, usually under their own names. However, Bix’s dependence on alcohol undermined his health and caused frequent indisposition which, allied to financial strictures imposed on the commercially-minded Paul Whiteman ensuing from the 1929 Wall Street Crash, forced him to side-line and eventually to dismiss his star soloist. The ravages of drink, poor eating and constant travelling finally took their toll and Bix died in New York on August 7, 1931, his tragic self-destruction and early demise fuelling a legend.

That the legend has lived on since his death, however, stems from a tradition started almost three quarters of a century ago by Dorothy Baker’s romanticised novel and by the enthusiastic but innaccurate 1950 Warner biopic which it inspired ("overwrought… occasionally risible", with Kirk Douglas cast as Bix, plus a trumpet over-dub by Harry James and a cameo appearance from Bix’s erstwhile pal Hoagy). More recently, his name has been kept alive in the 1981 film biography Bix and later still by a trilogy of more loosely biographical TV documentaries which conferred on him a late 20th century cult status as one of jazz’s seminal figures. But the intrinsic beauty of his playing also lives on, through his recordings.

Peter Dempsey, 2001

1. RIVERBOAT SHUFFLE (Carmichael)

The Wolverines

(Gennett 5454; mx 11854-C) Recorded 6th May, 1924, Richmond, Indiana 2:32

2. DAVENPORT BLUES (Beiderbecke)

Bix and his Rhythm Jugglers

(Gennett 5654; mx 12141) Recorded 26th January, 1925, Richmond, Indiana 2:45

3. SINGIN’ THE BLUES (Conrad–Robinson)

Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra

(OKeh 40772; mx W 80393-B) Recorded 4th February, 1927, New York 2:58

4. FOR NO REASON AT ALL IN C (Trumbauer–Beiderbecke)

Tram, Bix and Eddie

(OKeh 40871; mx W 81085-B) Recorded 13th May, 1927, New York 3:04

5. THREE BLIND MICE (RHYTHMIC THEME IN ADVANCED HARMONY)

(Morehouse–Trumbauer)

Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra

(OKeh 40903; mx W 81273-C) Recorded 25th August, 1927, New York 3:01

6. KRAZY KAT (TONE POEM IN SLOW RHYTHM) (Morehouse–Trumbauer)

Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra

(OKeh 40903; mx W 81489-B) Recorded 28th September, 1927, New York 3:00

7. IN A MIST (BIXOLOGY) (Beiderbecke)

Bix Beiderbecke, piano solo

(OKeh 40916; mx W 81426-B) Recorded 9th September, 1927, New York 2:46

8. ROYAL GARDEN BLUES (C. & S. Williams)

Bix Beiderbecke and his New Orleans Lucky Seven

(OKeh 8544; mx W 81519-B) Recorded 5th October, 1927, New York 3:02

9. GOOSE PIMPLES (Trent–Henderson)

Bix Beiderbecke and his New Orleans Lucky Seven

(OKeh 8544; mx W 81568-B) Recorded 25th October, 1927, New York 3:17

10. WRINGIN’ AN’ TWISTIN’ (Trumbauer–Waller)

Tram, Bix and Lang

(OKeh 40916; mx W 81450-B) Recorded 17th September, 1927, New York 2:56

11. SORRY (Quicksell)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

(OKeh 41001; mx W 81569-A) Recorded 25th October, 1927, New York 2:54

12. SINCE MY BEST GAL TURNED ME DOWN (Quicksell–Ludwig)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

(OKeh 41001; mx W 81572-A) Recorded 25th October, 1927, New York 3:06

13. THOU SWELL (Rodgers–Hart)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

(OKeh 41030; mx W 400617-C) Recorded 17th April, 1928, New York 2:59

14. LOUISIANA (Johnson)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

(OKeh 41173; mx W 401139-A) Recorded 21st September, 1928, New York 2:49

15. THE LOVE NEST (Hirsch–Harbach)

Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra; Charles Gaylord, vocal

(Parlophone R 2645; mx W 401195-B) Recorded 9th October, 1928, New York 2:59

16. OL’ MAN RIVER (Kern–Hammerstein II)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

(OKeh 41088; mx W 400094-A) Recorded 7th July, 1928, Chicago 3:04

17. FUTURISTIC RHYTHM (Fields–McHugh)

Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra; Frankie Trumbauer, vocal

(OKeh 41209; mx W 401703-B) Recorded 8th March, 1929, New York 3:03

18. SOMEBODY STOLE MY GAL (Wood)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

(OKeh 41030; mx W 400616-B) Recorded 17th April, 1928, New York 2:59

Disc 1

Riverboat Shuffle

Your name:
Your email:
Friend's Name:
Friend's Email:
Write a personalized message:

Your name:
Rating:
Title:
Review:

BEIDERBECKE, Bix: Riverboat Shuffle (1924-1929)

£6.99 £4.99 (CD)

Reviews

£6.99
£4.99 (CD)