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Thread ID: 42743	2004-02-21 03:07:00	Off Topic: HTOTW#9 Farewell Bix	Terry Porritt (14)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
217124	2004-02-21 03:07:00	In this Hot Tunes of the Week we'll listen to a few of the last recordings by Bix Beiderbecke recorded about a year before his early death at the age of 28 on 6th August 1931, from pneumonia, edema of the brain, and DTs, alone in a New York hotel bedroom . A sad end to a brilliant musician . His last recording with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra was "Waiting at the End of the Road" recorded on September 13th 1929, with vocal by Bing Crosby . Strangely enough in his short solo at the end of this record,Bix sounds more like his old self, strong and powerful, so that many people have queried whether or not it was Andy Secrest, Bix's replacement and nearest imitator, and not Bix, especially as Bix was unable to continue playing other sides in this recording session . There is no doubt though that this is Bix playing . So let's hear this recording ( . redhotjazz . com/songs/whiteman/endoroad . ram" target="_blank">www . redhotjazz . com) . Over the next 18 months or so, Bix was in and out of treatment, he played various engagements, and a few side were recorded with various bands including Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Gang, Hoagy Carmichael and his Orchestra,and organising his own recording session under the label name of Bix and his Orchestra, but actually directed by Joe Venuti . Here ( . redhotjazz . com/songs/hoagy/BarnacleBill . ram" target="_blank">www . redhotjazz . com) he is in a raucus rendition of "Barnacle Bill the Sailor", a novelty item, with Hoagy Carmichael in May 1930 . The vigorous trumpet is Bubber Miley noted for his "growl" effects with Duke Ellington's Orchestra . One of the very last recording Bix made was also with Hoagy Carmichael in September 1930 when 3 sides were cut including Bix, who was then unable to continue with another version of "Rockin' Chair" recorded the previous May with Hoagy . To me the most poignant is Georgia on my Mind, also composed by Hoagy and vocal by him . Bix is just a shell of his former self, listen ( . redhotjazz . com/songs/hoagy/georgia . ram" target="_blank">www . redhotjazz . com), I find this very sad . An obituary in a local Davenport paper said " . . . Bixie will be forgotten as quickly as the popular songs that he played . . . " Said jazz writer Otis Fergusson in the late 1930s . . . . . . ' They buried the body, but for those who had been around, and for those to come after, there was something grown out of the Iowa dirt that didn't die and couldn't be buried so long as there should be a record (of Bix) left in the world and a turntable to spin it on . . . " Let's go out remembering Bix when he was at his peak with this magnificent "Clarinet Marmalade" ( . redhotjazz . com/songs/tram/clarinetmarmalade . ram" target="_blank">www . redhotjazz . com) . Next HTOTW, we will listen to some more Bing Crosby, as he began his "Road to Hollywood" and stardom .	Terry Porritt (14)
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