Jazz Information, The Weekly Magazine 

The Vol. I, No. 15 December 22, 1939 issue of the magazine published the following item.

HOT RECORD SOCIETY ISSUES ALBUM OF WOLVERINE RECORDS WITH BIX

Five rare Beiderbeckes, repressed from Gennett originals, will be released this week by the Hot Record Society in an album titled: “Young Man With A Horn”; “Bix and the Wolverines”.

Two sides, “Davenport Blues” and Toddlin’ Blues”, were made by Bix and his Rhythm Jugglers, featuring Tommy Dorsey, Paul Mertz, Don Murray, Howdy Quickwell, and Tom Gargano.

The other eight sides were made by the Wolverines Orchestra, the band in which Bix began his career in the early twenties. The titles include “Fidgety Feet”, “Jazz Me Blues”, “Oh Baby”, “Tiger Rag”, “Sensation”, “Tia Juana”, “Big Boy”, and “Royal Garden Blues”.

With the new reissues, all of the records Bix made with the Wolverines some fifteen years ago are again available, with the exception of two sides. “Riverboat Shuffle” and “Lazy Daddy” had been previously issued by the H.R.S., and “Copenhagen” is available on U.H.C.A. A booklet on the records, prepared by Charles Edward Smith, will be released with the album.

The album was reviewed in Vol. I, No. 19, January 26, 1940. here is the review:

NEW RECORDS

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN: BIXBEIDERBECKE and THE WOLVERINES (Hot Record Society Album No. 2)

By the Wolverines:

• Fidgety Feet (HRS 22);
• Sensation (HRS 23);
• Big Boy — Tiger Rag (HRS 24);
• Jazz Me Blues — Oh Baby (HRS 25);
• Tia Juana — Royal Garden Blues (HRS 26).

By Bix and his Rhythm Jugglers:

• Davenport Blues (HRS 22);
• Toddlin’ Blues (HRS 23).

Personnel listed on labels.

For its second album of reissues, the Hot Record Society has selected ten sides by Bix Beiderbecke (eight with the Wolverine Orchestra, two of Bix’s Rhythm Jugglers).

The masters from which the reissues have been pressed were dubbed, from the Gennett originals, several years ago, for English Brunswick. And, to mention the least important point first, the dubbings are technically uneven. Some are good; on others the reproduction is foggy, and on “Royal Garden Blues” the dubbing needle actually skipped a groove. Comparison of the current prices of Gennetts, however, with the price at which these reissues have been made available, places these facts in their proper perspective. And these recordings, of course, are invaluable to the student of Bix.

They show a less mature musician than Bix’s later discs true; but, on the other hand, they are the only ones that show the young man with a horn playing with a permanent band of authentically jazz structure.

There are always the Whitemans and Goldkettes and Carmichaels in which Bix took a solo or a break; there are Frank Trumbauer’s rather half-hearted pickup waxings, and Bix’s own records with his own pickup band. But only these records of the Wolverines show Bix as a member of a small jazz band, following the jazz tradition as it had been expressed by the Dixieland Band, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, and King Oliver’s Creole Band.

No one, we think, has considered the Wolverines as a great band. It was a young band, short-lived, and never reached its maturity. But for what it was, it was good; following the best models, playing the best tunes, and always following its best musician, Beiderbecke.

So there’s no listening to this album merely for Bix’s solo work. There are solos, to be sure; an extraordinarily melodic chorus on the “Royal Garden Blues”, a restrained solo in “Jazz Me Blues” excited solos in “Oh Baby” “Tiger Rag”, and so forth. There are other solos: some acceptable low-register clarinet work by Jimmy Hartwell, a few poor tenor solos of George Johnson’s, and even one hardly note-worthy piano solo by Bix.

But most of the records are the Wolverines’ ensemble, and it’s for the ensemble, and Bix’s part in it, that they should be heard.

Not that the Wolverines’ ensemble was by any means perfect. On some of these sides, in fact, it’s downright amateurish. On others, though the kids got together behind Bix and really played with drive and conviction.

The best sides, at a rapid recount, are “Oh Baby”, which has a pretty excited jump and the three sides which, as Charles Edward Smith remarks in his leaflet with the album, show most clearly the influences of the Wolverines: “Royal Garden Blues”, for King Oliver, “Sensation” and “Fidgety Feet” for the Dixieland Jazz Band, “Tiger Rag”, “Jazz Me Blues” and Big Boy” are also acceptable; only “Tia Juana” is really bad.

A special word should be said for “Davenport Blues” and “Toddlin’ Blues”, which were recorded by Bix and a pick-up band including Tommy Dorsey and Don Murray, shortly after Bix had joined Jean Goldkette’s orchestra. The men were better musicians than the Wolverines, though doubtless less used to playing together; and the results might well have compared to Bix’s best work — except that, as Charles Edward Smith puts it, the boys got into the bottle before they got into the wax. The product was two pathetically disorganized sides, on which nevertheless (“Toddlin”‘ especially) Bix and Murray were feeling the music.

These few remarks, evidently, do not pretend to be the definitive word either on Bix Beiderbecke as a cornetist, or on the Wolverines as an orchestra. Those who are already familiar with the Gennetts need no review; while those who aren’t, had better listen to this album pretty carefully.