(1903–31). The inspiration for Dorothy Baker’s 1938 jazz novel, Young Man With a Horn, was Bix Beiderbecke, an outstanding jazz player, improviser, and composer. The baby-faced cornetist was the first white person to become a major jazz soloist. After his death, he also became one of the first cult celebrities of the 20th century.
Leon Bix (or Bismarck) Beiderbecke was born on March 10, 1903, in Davenport, Iowa. By age 3, he was picking out songs on the piano with one finger. He heard jazz for the first time on a record when he was about 14. He began to copy the cornet lines on the recording note for note, developing his own way of playing by trial and error. Out of ignorance, he used all three valves of his horn equally, but this unorthodox fingering later helped him play incredible runs with ease. For at least eight years he played left-handed.
Sent to Lake Forest Academy, in a suburb of Chicago, when he was 18, he often snuck down to the city to hear the black jazz bands, drink bootleg booze, and sit in with white groups. He was expelled within the year. In 1923–24 he was a member of the jazz group the Wolverines. The famous team of Bix and Tram (saxophonist Frank Trumbauer) was inseparable after September 1925. The two worked in Jean Goldkette’s band, and then in 1927 joined the orchestra of Paul Whiteman in New York. Meanwhile, Beiderbecke became interested in the classical impressionist composers, and Claude Debussy’s whole-tone scale influenced his work, especially his short piano compositions.
By age 23 Beiderbecke was an alcoholic. After his second breakdown in 10 months, Whiteman sent him home in 1929. He spent some time in a sanatorium, and then returned to New York. His severe alcoholism led to his early death, on Aug. 6, 1931, in New York City.
Beiderbecke had a perfectly controlled vibrato, flawless pitch, a compelling tone, and bell-like resonance. His music was contradictory—coolly calculated yet spontaneous, disciplined yet exciting, logical yet lyrical. Among his masterpieces were “Jazz Me Blues,” “I’m Coming, Virginia,” and “Singin’ the Blues.” His style was a major influence on jazz musicians for decades.
