Bix Vigil – 2002

Bix Vigil – 2003

Bix Vigil – 2005

 

The JVC Jazz Festival

On June 27, 1997, The JVC Jazz Festival presented “The Re-Discovered Music of Louis and Bix” at the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, The City University of New York. The music was arranged and conducted by Randy Sandke. The concert was divided in two parts: The Music of Bix Beiderbecke and The Music of Louis Armstrong. According to the program, “the JVC Festival is proud to present a full concert of some of their music which has remained lost until now.” “Randy Sandke proposed creating a full evening of music by including “lost” music associated with Bix Beiderbecke.” “… Randy also offered to make arrangements in the style of the ensembles with which Bix had recorded certain compositions (not his own), the masters of which had been destroyed without being released, plus two unrecorded compositions attributed to Bix.”

The Bix segment of the concert consisted of the following.

1. “No One Knows What It’s All About”: Recorded for Gennett on 1/26/25 by Bix and His Rhythm Jugglers. Master Destroyed.
2. “Play It, Red”: Recorded for Victor on 5/23/27 by Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra. Master destroyed.
3. “Lily”: Recorded for Victor on 5/6/27 by Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra. Master destroyed.
4. “Did You Mean It?”: Recorded for OKeh on 10/16/27 by Frank Trumbauer and his Orchestra. Master destroyed.
5. “Stampede”: Recorded for Victor on 2/1/27 by Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra. Master destroyed.
6. “Singin’ the Blues”: Recorded for OKeh on 2/4/27 by Frank Trumbauer and his Orchestra. Released as OKeh 40772.
7. “Thinkin’ of Bix”: A new composition by Dick Hyman. Never recorded at the time of the concert. Has since been recorded by Dick Hyman in his 1998 CD RR-84CD “Dick Hyman in Recital”.
8. “Betcha I Getcha”: A Bix Beiderbecke composition as related by Joe Venuti to Dick Hyman. Never recorded.
9. “Cloudy”: Stated to be a Bix composition by Charlie Davis. Never recorded at the time of the concert. Has since been recorded by Randy Sandke and is available in the CD Awakening (Concord CD 42049-2) with the subtitle “Homage to Bix”.

I am grateful to Joe Giordano for the gift of the program for the concert.

Review of the Concert

New York Times, 07/01/97, Late Edition – Final , Section C , Column 3 , Page 10 – The Lost Louis and Bix: They Weren’t Lost at All By BEN RATLIFF

In ”The Rediscovered Music of Louis and Bix,” Friday night’s JVC Jazz Festival concert at Kaye Playhouse, the record producer George Avakian and the trumpeter Randy Sandke presented a cache of unknown material written by Louis Armstrong that was recently found in the Library of Congress. And much besides: some pieces Bix Beiderbecke recorded but never released (the masters were destroyed), extra unrecorded strains to a few well-known Armstrong pieces, and the thrill of hearing all this music played on horns owned by Armstrong and Beiderbecke.

The long-lost tunes weren’t masterpieces by any stretch. But masterpieces by definition obscure the mechanics of craft and don’t instruct as well as the typical and the workmanlike. Mr. Sandke restored the old pieces, creating period arrangements for different assemblages of 11 players and in one case composing an entire verse so the piece would hang together. (Of course, we don’t know what the solos sounded like, and solos were the stock in trade of both Armstrong and Beiderbecke.)

In the Beiderbecke half of the program, the tunes, some quite trite and derivative, were not written by him (with the exception of ”Betcha I Getcha” and ”Cloudy,” two pieces that have survived only through the memory of Beiderbecke’s colleagues). The jewels of the Armstrong half were two songs from 1923, when Armstrong played with King Oliver’s band: one in a minor key that was a fairly standard New Orleans chord progression, the other (”When You Leave Me Alone to Pine”) slower, its melody more haunting.

Both pieces were played with double trumpet breaks, in the Oliver band style, and Nicholas Payton projected like a siren over Mr. Sandke. They were followed by some unknown swing blues and jump tunes that Armstrong wrote in the mid-40s but weren’t recorded. They didn’t show Armstrong as a masterly composer so much as someone who kept his work remarkably fresh through a wide array of styles.

Finally, the concert was so well held together by Mr. Sandke — whose joy in playing Beiderbecke’s role was unmistakable and poignant — that it ended up a useful seminar. And there were inspired segments, like an imagined three-chorus collaborative solo between the two trumpeters on the famous ”Singin’ the Blues.” You know the sound of love when you hear it; love suffused these moments, and the balance was struck between scholarship and passion.

 

 

If Bix Played Gershwin

For the last 15 years, Dick Hyman has been presenting, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, a concert series entitled “Jazz in July”. As part of the series, he presented, on July 18, 1996, the show “If Bix Played Gershwin”. The participants were a “who’s who” of current musicians who are active in the traditional jazz idiom. Dick Hyman was the arranger and conductor and played piano as well. Dick Sudhalter was the commentator. The musicians for the “Gang” and “Bix-Tram-Lang” approaches were: Tom Pletcher, cornet; Dan Levinson, clarinet and C Melody sax; Dan Barrett, trombone; Vince Giordano, bass sax; Cynthia Sayer, banjo; Arnie Kinsella, drums; Dick Hyman, piano. An augmented band for some of the numbers included, in addition to the above-mentioned musicians, Chuck Wilson (alto sax), Peter Ecklund (cornet), and another alto player. In addition, the Manhattan Rhythm Kins were also presented. I copy below, verbatim, the script that Dick Hyman kindly sent me.

July 18, 1996, IF BIX PLAYED GERSHWIN 3 trump, trom, 3 saxes, guitar, drums, string bass/bass sax, piano. The big band is revealed as the curtain opens. Use grand piano only. Lid off.

Dick introduces the evening and first number. 1

1. CLEMENTINE FROM NEW ORLEANS ( Pletcher takes solo)

2. S’WONDERFUL as DH talks, Levinson, Barrett move down stage in front of piano. 4 music stands. Giordano and Kinsella stay in place. Introduce Tom Pletcher. The 6 piece (“Gang”) band plays. The remainder of big band leaves stage.

3. S’WONDERFUL

4. I GOT PLENTY O’ NUTTIN’

5. Levinson, Barrett leave. A duet, cornet & piano: HE LOVES AND SHE LOVES

6. Cynthia joins on guitar, Levinson on C-melody sax. Pletcher leaves. Trio (piano, sax, guitar) plays SWEET AND LOWDOWN

7. (7, 8, 9) Cynthia Sayer solo spot at front, seated, vocal & guitar. She sings: LOOKING FOR A BOY. In second chorus, Peter Ecklund enters, makes it a duet. She continues singing MAN I LOVE. John Frosk enters, joins Ecklund. Tempo turns fast as Barrett, Levinson, Vince (bringing bass sax donwnstage) join. Kinsella remains in place. At end of MAN I LOVE, applause, and all leave stage except Cynthia, who songs GILTED. On her final note, Ecklund plays a brief coda from off stage. Blackout.

8. Pletcher, Barrett, Levinson downstage; Giordano, Kinsella in place. OH, LADY BE GOOD

9. Big band in place + introduce Manhattan Rhythm Kings: BIDIN” MY TIME (Pletcher has solos)

INTERMISSION

1. Big band: RIALTO RIPPLES

2. Piano only: IN A MIST/SUMMERTIME

3. Piano & cornet only: Pletcher & Hyman play: EMBRACEABLE YOU

4. Add Levinson, Barrett, in front; Giordano, Kinsella in rear: (The Gang) I GOT RHYTHM

5. Trio: Levinson, Hyman, Sayre who sings: I’VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOU 6. Gang again: SOMEBODY LOVES ME

6. FASCINATING RHYTHM

7. SUNNY DISPOSIAH

8. Big band + Manhattan Rhythm Kings: NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT

9. SLAP THAT BASS (includes dance)

I am indebted to Dick Hyman for his generosity in providing me with information on the concert, and for a copy of the script for the show. I wish I had been there!

 

 

Bix: The Romance and the Reality.

Roy Oakshott, a producer for The British Broadcasting Corporation, commissioned Campbell Burnap to research, write, and present the series “Bix: The Romance and the Reality”. The series consisted of six 30-minute programs. They were broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 2 beginning in January 2000. Campbell Burnap is a trombonist, jazz critic, and writer, and has a two-hour weekly jazz program on a London commercial radio station, Jazz- FM 102.2. The program consists of a blend of music, narrative, and interviews with musicians who knew Bix. Some excerpts from James Robert Grover’s Miami University 1971 Radio Program “Bix” were used, as were some sections of Brigitte Berman’s video documentary “Bix: Ain’t’ None Played Like Him Yet.” There are new interviews of Tom Pletcher, Richard M. Sudhlater and the English playwright Alan Plater. Some of the letters that Bix wrote are also read in the program. The program is very well organized. The narrative is informative and provides a good account of Bix’s life and music. Often, programs (radio or TV) devoted to a musician spend a lot of time on the life of the musician at the expense of the music. “Bix: The Romance and the Reality” strikes an excellent balance: both biographical information and music have a major role in the series, and this, in my opinion, is as it should be. In a total of three hours, Campbell Burnap manages to go in fair depth through the various phases of Bix’s life and of his music. In addition, the story of Bix is nicely placed in the context of “The Jazz Age”. Overall, this is an excellent series that provides a concise, but in-depth, introduction to the life and music of Bix Beiderbecke. I hope that National Public Radio can rebroadcast the program. I am indebted to Rich Johnson for alerting me about the existence of the BBC program and for information about it.

I am grateful to Campbell Burnap for his generosity in providing me with information about the program and for a copy of the program.