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Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend

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Previous Bix Beiderbecke biographies were marred by too much trivia and speculation. The late Philip Evans was the ultimate Bix biographer, but his books overwhelm you with minutia. Jean Pierre Lion depends heavily upon Evans' landmark research; in fact, he is quick to acknowledge all of the great Bix research by Richard Sudhalter and others.

But Mr. Lion, a French business executive with a deep passion for early jazz, has taken a very refreshing approach to the Bix story. As a Frenchman, he's able to stand back and put Bix in the context of the American Roaring '20s. The book is biography, part social history, part travel book. It's great reading, and not ruined by self-indulgent musical analysis. Lion wrote the book on the assumption that his readers already know a fair bit about Bix's musical contribution.

Mr. Lion traveled to virtually every single spot in America where Bix had an important moment. Given that Bix died at age 28, it was possible. And his book is full of his wonderful little photographs of these historic sites (old hotels, city streets, private homes, ballrooms, etc.) as they appear today. That may prove to have the greatest appeal to Bixologists. You can toss Jean Pierre's book in your car and go on one heck of a across-country field trip.

Like almost all jazz histories, this book won't sell well, and Mr. Lion obviously didn't create it for money. But it's a little treasure for jazz buffs - so don't let this one slip away! I immediately read it from cover to cover, and because of its beautiful visual appeal, it will be pulled from my book shelf for many years to come. Felicitations, Monsieur Lion!

This could be the definitive book on Bix. It has everything, lots of pictures (the publisher did it right and put the pictures where it relates to the text and not all together in the middle of the book which is cheaper for the publisher), copies of important documents and new information about his life not mentioned in other books, an embarrassing arrest of a High School age Bix that has either been throughly suppressed by the Beiderbecke family and/or a blind eye turned to this incident and ignored by previous biographers. When I first read about the incident I thought to myself I didn't need to know that and it kind of bothered me for a while. When I finished the book I had to admit that I really enjoyed the book and the research by the author was very extensive and thorough, at times uncomfortably so. Which is what a good biography should be. Highly recommended.

Incredibly well researched and eminently readable, "Bix" is a mandatory addition to the library of twentieth-century historians, Beiderbecke fans and casual listeners alike.

When you see a biography of a noted person that proclaims itself, in the title, as "definitive," you might be forgiven for expressing a little skepticism. If it's truly "definitive," isn't it the place of reviewers to say that?

Except that, in this case, this book is "the McCoy" -- the real thing. In just 283 tightly-written pages of narrative, Jean Pierre Lion gives us a fascinating story of the short life -- all TOO short -- of Bix Beiderbecke, who may well have been the world's greatest jazzman -- almost certainly its greatest cornetist.

Biographical sketches of Beiderbecke almost invariably refer to him as "the greatest white jazz cornetist of the 1920s." I think this habit of always mentioning his race is unfair -- sort of like saying some black scientist is "the smartest African American professional in the world." Extensive quotes from equally great black jazz cornetist Louis Armstrong in the book bespeak Armstrong's great admiration of Bix's music, and of Armstrong's warm friendship with the German-American musician from Davenport, Iowa. Armstrong tells especially, in an extended quote, of a marathon jam session in which he, Bix, and several other jazz musicians, black and white, participated. What wouldn't the world of jazz give for a recording of that session?

Bix's unique, warm, beautifully golden tone is described repeatedly in the book by jazz musicians who heard him in person and played with him. Again and again they say that recordings on which Bix played, numerous though they are, do not really do credit to that tone. His genius at improvisation is also described often, in a musical genre where doing things "spur of the moment" is just part of the job. His attack (the split second in which you first hear a note), his phrasing, the fact that he made his cornet "sing" while playing mostly in the middle ranges where the average vocalist would perform, his ability to "lead" a band to perform beyond its normal capabilities, the way you could always hear Bix, through all the other instruments -- these are the qualities of this musical genius who found other, more mundane aspects of daily life impossible to manage.

The young Iowan developed a taste for alcohol in his early teens. That taste ripened as he took up the cornet at age 15, mastering it without any professional training and thus always using his own, peculiar fingering style. What motivated young Leon Bismarck Beiderbecke, deep down? No one ever really figured that out. He was failing in high school, and when he was arrested for allegedly trying to molest a 5-year-old girl (the charges were dropped for lack of evidence), his proper bourgeois parents shipped him off to Lake Forest Academy in Illinois to try to "straighten him out." But Lake Forest was near Chicago, and Chicago was the "northern capital" of 1920s jazz.

Beiderbecke's creation, along with several other young jazzmen, of the Wolverines, a legendary jazz band, followed shortly after his failure at Lake Forest. Within a year he had moved up to the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, and by 1927 to Paul Whiteman's giant musical organization.

The latter year was Bix's most productive qualitatively, before his drinking and other self-destructive behavior began to take their toll. Stays in hospitals and sanitariums, journeys back to Davenport where he hibernated in his parents' home, marked his downward path, which ended in August 1931 when he died of lobar pneumonia and general neglect in a rented apartment in Queens, NY. He was just 28 years old.

Lion's biography of Beiderbecke is meticulously researched, heavily documented, and filled with direct quotes garnered from previous books and his own personal interviews. There are passages in which Lion describes how Bix and the other band members played a particular tune, which were beyond my ken as a non-musician, to understand completely. But a jazz afficionado should enjoy them immensely.

The book gives a fascinating portrait of a genius who, like many of that breed, created wonderful things but couldn't deal with daily life as the more ordinary among us do. Even if you're familiar with Bix's story, you'll find things about him here that you probably never knew before, such as that he had one, memorable "love of his life" -- a young lady named Ruth Shaffner, who still spoke tenderly of him many years later.

It is hard to believe in reading this book that it was originally written in French. The translation is superb; I spotted only two or three minor awkward phrases in the entire book. The price is just a tad high, but considering the quality of the product, it's well worth it.

This is quite simply the best available guide to the life and times of Bix Beiderbecke. In just under 350 pages the author traces Bix's background, early life, and career, assesses his importance in the development of jazz, and charts objectively the factors that led to his decline and early death. It is copiously illustrated with contemporary photographs, and the text is annotated, and although translated from the French (by Gabriella Page-Fort) one is never aware of that, as is sadly so often the case. It carries a bibliography, and a detailed 30-page discography. It is an invaluable source of reference which fully lives up to its title.

This is an impressive piece of scholarship. It follows Beiderbecke's life from the beginning to its sad end, almost day-to-day. The author does not stay away from controversy. He notes that Beiderbecke was sent off to boarding school not merely because his parents wanted him to get away from his music (as claimed in certain versions of the Bix Myth), but because of a local scandal involving a young girl (he asked her to lift up her dress, but did not molest her.) What the author does not speculate on, but I think should be, is that there very well might have been alcohol involved also. Beiderbecke was not a pedophile; there is no evidence of anything else like this happening again. But he was drinking heavily at the boarding school, and he was eventually expelled for it. There is no evidence that I am aware of, but it seems plausible to speculate that alcohol was involved in the local scandal also. The Beiderbecke of his last days was a sad case indeed. So many have been destroyed in the entertainment field by drugs, from Judy Garland, to Charlie Parker, to Elvis, to Jimi Hendrix, and many, many others. Bix Beiderbecke died from the drug of choice of his day: bathtub gin. The Roaring Twenties had its dark side too in the speakeasy culture of the day. Too soon. Way too soon.

There were a few snarky comments about the United States I could have done without, but, hey, the author is French.

Great book. Highly recommended.

To put it simply, this is IT. The One. Order it.

Berton's book is a nice read but there's information in this book that changes the whole scope of how we should see Bix's depression/nomadism/problems. I'll not print it here, you'll have to read it.

Suffice it to say that of all the "reasonably available" books on Beiderbecke, this is the beginning AND the end.

Probably not the starting point for the neophyte but still, "THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY".

This might be a wonderful book, but the print is so small that it is virtually unreadable. What is particularly annoying is that the print only takes up half the page....the rest of the page is just blank. Whoever designed the layout for this book did a real disservice to both the genius Bix Beiderbecke and to the author Jean Pierre Lion. I am hoping to find this book in another edition so that I can actually read it.

I agree with many of the other reviews here except that reading this book is real WORK. Why would a publisher
select such a small font size? Even with reading glasses (which I need only for crossword puzzles ordinarily) I could
not read this text and the interspersed comments were even smaller. Bottom line: content; five star, but the
production decisions, one star.