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Thread ID: 55410	2005-03-10 01:13:00	HTOTM Special. Happy Birthday Bix	Terry Porritt (14)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
332593	2005-03-10 01:13:00	HTOTM now means Hot Tunes Of The Month. Most of the music sites visited have the music files in Real Media format. In order to listen, either Real Player or, preferably Real Alternative (www.free-codecs.com) is required. Some sites also use Media Player, especially for sound clips, and some use MP3. 10th March, celebrating the birth in Davenport, Iowa, in 1903, of Bix Beiderbecke, jazz cornetist, pianist, composer, jazz genius, alcoholic, and along with Louis Armstrong, one of the few really great jazz innovators of the 20s. He was the innovator of the jazz solo, and of the jazz ballad, and it is quite probable that his contemporary and friend, Louis Armstrong learned his soloing style from Bix. Before Bix the common pattern in jazz was the ensemble. Here are some quotes from fellow musicians, taken from the Bixography website: Jimmy McPartland: "What beautiful tone, sense of melody, great drive, poise, everything." "His style, the cleanliness and feeling, was lovely. His technique was excellent, his intonation was great. So was his harmonic sense." Hoagy Carmichael: "Bix's breaks were not as wild as Armstrong's, but they were hot and he selected each note with musical care. He showed me that jazz could be musical and beautiful, as well as hot. He showed me that tempo doesn't mean fast." George Johnson: "Bix was a fountain of ideas that were spontaneous, as unexpected to himself as they were to us." Russ Morgan: "Bix would fill out his part with some of the most beautiful notes you ever heard." Pee Wee Russell: "The thing about Bix's music is that he drove a band. If you had any talent at all he made you play better. It had to do for one thing with the way he played lead. It had to do with his whole feeling for ensemble playing." "Bix had a miraculous ear." Louis Armstrong: "You take a man with a pure tone like Bix's and no matter how loud the other fellows may be blowing, that pure cornet or trumpet tone will cut through it all." So, lets hear some of the music from 1927 when Bix was at his peak, and before drink ruined his health. The tune that had musicians of the day gasping with admiration, from the Smithsonian Collection, Singin' The Blues (kola.cc.columbia.edu:8080), nobody had ever played like that before. Hoagy Carmichael's River Boat Shuffle (kola.cc.columbia.edu:8080) And from the Red Hot Jazz site with not so good sound quality: Goose Pimples (www.redhotjazz.com) Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down (www.redhotjazz.com) Clarinet Marmalade (www.redhotjazz.com) I'm Coming Virginia (www.redhotjazz.com) Finally, Sorry (www.redhotjazz.com) To learn more about Bix visit the Bixography website: bixbeiderbecke.com "Through his music, Bix is alive"	Terry Porritt (14)
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