Smithsonian Magazine

The July 1997 issue of this fine publication of the Smithsonian Institution contains an article by Fred Turner.

Astonishingly, in view of the topics usually covered in this magazine, Turner’s article dealt with Bix. Entitled “Bix, The Story of a young man and his horn”, the article is written from a highly personal point of view.

Using a very engaging style and only a few pages the author manages to summarize the highlights of Bix’s life, some of his important records, and even includes some famous anecdotes. The author is a fervent Bix fan and describes his pilgrimage to Davenport where he visited Bix’s house and Oakdale cemetery “where Bix lies surrounded by his family.”

Before he left Davenport, Mr. Turner went by Bix’s plot and played a tape of “Royal Garden Blues”.

He expresses, in a nostalgic tone, but yet with an upbeat outlook, his thoughts and feelings as he listens to the music.

Here was Bix at the height of his fame and in the fullness of his singular genius. Looking at the family marker under the big oaks and listening to Bix’s horn light up the gray afternoon, I was seized with a sense that in the end, the artist had had the last word. After his parents’ disapproval, after the brief fame, after the ghastly death, and all the posthumous adulation, here is the beautiful sound he made and left behind. His solo on “Royal Garden Blues” sticks close to the melody, as always. But with improvements.