Leon Bismark Beiderbecke (1903-1931) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Leon Bismark (Bix) Beiderbecke

Born 10 Mar 1903 in Davenport, Scott, Iowa, USA

Ancestors

Son of Bismark Beiderbecke and Agatha Jane Hilton

[sibling(s) unknown]

[spouse(s) unknown]

[children unknown]

Died 6 Aug 1931 at age 28 in Sunnyside, Queens, New York, USA

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Profile last modified 12 Apr 2022 | Created 12 Mar 2015

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Biography

Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.

With Louis Armstrong and Muggsy Spanier, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. His turns on "Singin' the Blues" and "I'm Coming, Virginia" (both 1927), in particular, demonstrated an unusual purity of tone and a gift for improvisation. With these two recordings, especially, he helped to invent the jazz ballad style and hinted at what, in the 1950s, would become cool jazz. "In a Mist" (1927), one of a handful of his piano compositions and one of only two he recorded, mixed classical (Impressionist) influences with jazz syncopation.

A native of Davenport, Iowa, Beiderbecke taught himself to play cornet largely by ear, leading him to adopt a non-standard fingering some critics have connected to his original sound.

Beiderbecke's father, the son of German immigrants, was a well-to-do coal and lumber merchant, named after the Iron Chancellor of his native Germany. Beiderbecke's mother was the daughter of a Mississippi riverboat captain. She played the organ at Davenport's First Presbyterian Church,[16] and encouraged young Bix's interest in the piano.

Bix's influence on other musicians was noted by Hoagy Carmichael in his memoir, "The Stardust Road", where he speaks at length of Bix. Hoagy featured Bix as a soloist on his famous "Georgia On My Mind" recording. ^[1]