Davenport Democrat and Leader: A Short Interview of Bix’s Mother

The April 25, 1928 issue of “The Davenport Democrat and Leader” carried a story about Bix Beiderbecke.

It was discovered by Rich Johnson in March 2001. I am grateful to him for his generosity in making a copy and sending it to me.

Jazz Trumpeter and Soloist
of Whiteman’s Orchestra
Is Former Davenport Lad

[1921 photograph of Bix]

“BIX BEIDERBECKE, perhaps the finest trumpeter in the country, will now play for you his own composition In a Mist”.

This simple announcement in the Paul Whiteman orchestra broadcast in the midnight program over the national networks from New York Tuesday night electrified the Davenport listeners in, and most of all a little family group in the B. H. Beiderbecke home, 1934 Grand Avenue. Their son, Leon, was that same “finest trumpeter.”

But six months ago he joined Paul Whiteman’s orchestra after repeated requests from that famous jazz leader.

His reticence was due to the fact that he played by ear and scarcely knew one note from another. Now he is a soloist and a composer; this latter with the aid of a fellow musician who wrote the score as he played it, “In a Mist” he played on the piano in this featured broadcast.

“Bix”, as he was known by the gang, and there always was a gang of “fellers” with him in his boyhood days, has displayed his jazz tendencies since earliest youth.

He went to the local schools, went 3 years to Davenport High School, and one year to the Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Ill. He was known as a jazz artist in every school he attended but beyond that school had little appeal and he had no inclination to go on to college. Music lessons, too, were too much like a grind. He took piano lessons for a time from two local instructors, not more than a score in all. He had wonderful promise, his teachers said, but he veered away from the labor of learning. What was the use of droning “one, two, three, four” when you could rattle the latest jazz tune through a magic sense entirely apart from mathematics?

So ran his youthful reasoning. He exhibited the same attitude toward a business career. During the summers he assisted his father in his coal office, but for life work, he had other plans. For the past three years, he has been cornetist with the Jean Goldkett [sic] orchestra of Detroit, and it was in one of the musical tours with that organization that Paul Whiteman heard him play. He is now 25 years old.

We can always tell when Bix’s horn comes in

Says his mother:

We know every time Paul Whiteman’s orchestra is on the air and Leon knows we’ll be listening in. The air is carried out by the other cornetist but the sudden perky blare and the unexpected trills are the jazz parts and they are Leon’s.

I think this article, in particular, the statement by Bix’s mother, is of great significance. There has been, in the Bix literature, the view that Bix did not get along with his family. This article shows that the Beiderbecke family (note that Bix’s mother talks about “we”) followed Bix’s career closely:

We know every time Paul Whiteman’s orchestra is on the air and Leon knows we’ll be listening in.

And had a good appreciation of exactly how Bix was playing with the band. They clearly understood Bix’s unique musical contribution to the Whiteman orchestra:

The sudden perky blare and the unexpected trills.

That is what fellow musicians said later on. I remind you of George Johnson’s statement:

Bix was a fountain of ideas that were spontaneous, as unexpected to himself as they were to us.

Mrs. Beiderbecke displays an astonishing insight and a deep understanding of Bix’s unique musicianship.

I thank Rich Johnson for sending me a copy of the ad in the Daily Times.