Oh Gee! Oh Joy!, Why Do I Love You?, Ol’ Man River
On March 3, 1928, Lou Raderman and His Pelham Heath Inn Orchestra recorded these three sides for the Harmony Records label in New York City. There is no mention of these recordings in Sudhalter and Evans’ “Bix: Man and Legend” (1974), in the Sunbeam set “Sincerely, Bix Beiderbecke” (1988), or the Masters of Jazz set “Bix Beiderbecke” (1991-1995). However, as discussed in depth by Evans and Evans (“Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story”), the evidence in favor of Bix being the cornet player on these sides is convincing.
It is interesting to examine, in chronological order of publication, comments made about these Harmony sides. Two of the recordings (Ol’ Man River and Why Do I Love You?) are included in the 1975 Broadway album entitled “It Sounds Like Bix.” Steve Smith in his lines states:
These dance band sides contain amazing Bix-like solos. On Ol’ Man River the soloist shows the same wry understatement that Bix does on his own Okeh recording of the song. Too bad that these had to be recorded on the archaic Harmony equipment! Nevertheless, that beautiful tone cuts through the haze just fine. Upon hearing this, Manny Klein said he did the trumpet work. However, Lou Raderman himself claimed that it was Bix who played the solos.” In the liners for the same album, Smith discusses the results of sound spectrographic analyses by Tom McIntosh, a Bix fan, and Lawrence Kersta, president of the Voiceprint Laboratories Corporation. In a letter from Kersta to McIntosh, the former asserts, in reference to Raderman’s recording of Ol’ Man River “In my opinion it is Bix.
Brian Rust in “The American Dance Band Discography, 1917-1942” (1975) states:
Manny Klein confirmed his having taken part in this recording, but the other trumpet (or cornet?) soloist is quite uncannily like Bix Beiderbecke, and Lou Raderman is quoted as asserting it was Bix.
Michael Brooks, who wrote the liners for “Bix Beiderbecke, Volume 2, At the Jazz Band Ball” (Columbia Jazz Masterpieces, 1990), which includes the three recordings, states:
While I have the highest regard for Klein, one of the most underrated jazz soloists of the century, I question whether at this stage of his career (he was 20 years old and this was one of his first professional engagements) he could have duplicated Bix’s technique so uncannily.
And concludes that indeed Bix is the cornetist in these recordings.
In their massive biography “Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story” (1998), Phil and Linda Evans provide an in-depth and definitive discussion of the recordings and related circumstances.
Manny Klein confirmed that the muted trumpet solo on the release of the first chorus of “Ol’ Man River” is his.
Raderman stated that Bix was present and, in fact, two of the sides yield aural evidence that support his claim.
Nevertheless, in spite of the inharmonious context of the Harmony recording date, Bix managed to solo with his characteristic bel-canto timbre and quintessential elan and spontaneity – a triumph of genius over the blahs of banality.”
My bixophile friend and I sat and listened to these recordings very carefully several times and found the aural evidence mentioned by Evans and Evans. In spite of the poor quality of these acoustic recordings -t he tone is lost- there is an unmistakably Bixian quality to the solos and even to some of the ensemble work. The attack, the way the solos stand out, the jazz content of the solos over a routine background, and the advanced improvisation support the participation of Bix in these recordings.
However, I must point out that my opinion is contradicted by three jazz musicians. Tom Pletcher, cornet player and perhaps the world’s expert on Bix’s style and sound, believes (letter of 1/27/99) that it is Manny Klein “doing a dated but reasonable emulation of Bix.” Dick Sudhalter, jazz musician, writer, and Bix specialist writes (e-mail of 2/9/99):
A word, too, about Manny (or Mannie) Klein: He was a prodigy, a student of the renowned Max Schlossberg (as were Harry Glantz, Lou Davidson, and other major symphony trumpeters). Davidson, who knew the Klein family well and was my trumpet instructor for three years at Oberlin, told me repeatedly that by the time he was twenty Mannie was able to play anything, in any idiom, with quite astonishing mastery. That included hot jazz. To my ear, this player’s attack, phrase-building, structural sense, vibrato, and almost every other feature of his approach bear only the most remote, superficial resemblance to those of Beiderbecke. The solo on “Why Do I Love You,” for example, opens on a two-bar figure that Bix would never have even thought of attempting, and might not have been able to execute cleanly even if he had. Again, and clearly, Klein.” Finally, Brad Kay, jazz musician and analyst of Bix’s style tells me (e-mail of 4/1/99) “I listened to the Lou Raderman Harmony again, and it has to be the gifted and precocious Manny Klein blowing those solos. In March of ’28, Bix was still at his peak, and he wouldn’t have made the little pitch goofs that occur in “Why Do I Love You?”.
Update, Jan 31, 2009. Forum contributor Ken Bristow kindly informed of the following excerpt from the liners by Brian Rust for the album “Bix Beiderbecke, The Studio Groups, Volume 3.”
Irving Kaufman sings in the session directed from (acoustic) Harmony by violinist Lou Raderman, who listened to the two sides in this set not long ago, and affirmed Bix’s presence. Manny Klein, the straight trumpet player on these, thought he had played the jazz solos also, but it is in my belief that Bix was indeed sitting in, making the second of three records he made of Ol’ Man River. The style of the improvised solos on this and “Why Do I Love You?” is too much like Bix to be anyone else.
Pavel Pitra writes on 4/2/99:
My father who listens to Bix for more than 30 years and is a trumpet player with good ears and good bixian feeling also thinks that the Raderman’s recordings don’t feature Bix.
Hans Eekhoff writes on 4/26/99:
Bix is not on the Lou Raderman sides (nrs. 141,142 and 143 of the discography). Mannie Klein personally told me in 1976 after hearing two sides on an LP that it is he who takes the solos. Mannie was very sure about this and he wrote and signed it on the sleeve of my LP. I myself never thought it sounded anything like Bix.
Hans adds on 5/10/99:
Included is a photocopy of the sleeve of Broadway LP 104 “It Sounds Like Bix” on which Mannie Klein wrote in Leiden, Holland in 1976:
“To Hans, But it is me — 4-5 Mannie Klein”.
4-5 refers to tracks 4 and 5, respectively, “Ol Man River” and “Why Do I Love You” by Lou Raderman and His Pelham Heath Inn Orchestra. Mannie insisted very clearly that he was not just one of the trumpeters, but that he actually played the solos.
I never thought it was Bix; both solos being “rushed” and without Bix unmistakable timing. Mannie also said that he wasn’t trying to imitate Bix at all. Anybody who is familiar with Mannie’s playing will agree that he is more than capable of producing a solo like that. As for Raderman’s comment: I think that maybe he remembered Bix playing with his band (very possible, see Charley Straight’s claims and other similar cases) and was probably unintentionally steered in the direction of Bix playing the date by an enthusiastic collector/interviewer who had just found a copy of this Harmony. Anyway, Mannie was so sure that, to me, the case is clear.
Scott Black writes on 5/4/99:
Tossing a grenade into the crowd, I do think it is Bix on the Raderman sides. I can’t think of another cornet player who could get that sound on an acoustic record, only on the Broadway Bell Hops sides can you hear that sound. I think Bix was trying not to sound like Bix on that side.