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Bix BEIDERBECKE
Riverboat Shuffle. Original 1924-29 Recordings
Riverboat Shuffle
Davenport Blues
Singin’ the Blues
For no reason at all in C
Three blind mice
Krazy Kat
In a mist
Royal Garden Blues
Goose pimples
Wringin’ an’ twistin’
Sorry
Since my best gal turned me down
Thou swell
Louisiana
The love nest
Ol’ Man River
Futuristic rhythm
Somebody stole my gal
Bix Beiderbecke, cornet and piano with
The Wolverines, Bix and his Rhythm Jugglers, Frankie Trumbauer
and his orchestra, Bix Tram and Eddie
NAXOS JAZZ LEGENDS 8.120584 [54.17]
Crotchet
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The bulk of these recordings date from 1927-28 with one each
from the years 1924, 1925 and 1929. As a single issue devoted to a major
musician it contains the usual classics but turns up a couple of oddball
selections – who amongst Beiderbecke admirers will easily submit to
the voiceless crooning of the extraordinary Charles Gaylord? And, once
having suffered that, who would forgive even Frankie Trumbauer for inflicting
his vocal on an unsuspecting decade in Futuristic Rhythm, a case
for Trades Description if ever there was one.
The problem with this disc is not the selection of
records. Bix’s flattened blue notes in Riverboat Shuffle and
his rhythmic acuity are remarkable over 75 years later. His Edward Macdowell-and-Debussy-inspired
impressionism at the keyboard remains a curiosity and an affecting one.
His cornet with its notes punched like bullets draped in velvet is still
one of the most beautiful things in all jazz; we can hear Trumbauer,
with Sidney Bechet the most accomplished saxophonist in the twenties,
Coleman Hawkins not excluded. We can also hear Since my best gal
turned me down in which the hilarious slowings down and speedings
up anticipate the Eddie Condon band routines in the years to come. Untidiness
is present in Goose pimples where, at 1.49, Bix makes a false
entry. And Singin’ the Blues is just of the many markers of his
greatness – listen to his ride out choruses to marvel again at his delicacy
and power.
No, the problem is not the selection though many will
find it weak. The problem is the sound. There is a low level hum on
many tracks that is simply unacceptable. On the earliest, from the 1924
Riverboat Shuffle, it is quite evident. On the most famous disc,
Singin’ the Blues, it is quite ruinous. Elsewhere the
sleeve-note writer repeats the idea that Beiderbecke’s name was Leon
Bismark, a claim I thought had been buried twenty-five years ago. It
really was Leon Bix – his father was Bismark Herman. Track selections,
with recording dates and matrix numbers, are unhelpfully separated from
the personnel details. If you want to know who plays on what you turn
the page and check by recording date. If you can that is – a typo means
that a claimed date of 9 October is actually 5 October. And so on.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
