As Nat Hentoff says, "Hearing Bix for the first time was like waking up to the first day of spring." Bix has always inspired such acclaim, for he was an unmatched master of the cornet. Ralph Berton was privileged enough to have been a fan—and younger brother of Bix's drummer—just as Beiderbecke's genius was flowering, before he died in 1931 at age twenty-eight. Listening from behind the piano, tagging along to honky-tonks and jam sessions, Berton heard some of the most extraordinary music of the century, and he brings Bix and his era alive with a remarkable combination of the excitement of youth and the perspective of the five decades that followed—decades that confirmed Bix's place in the pantheon of jazz.
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About the Author
Ralph Berton (1910–1993) wrote extensively on jazz, serving as an editor at Metronome and Down Beat magazines and as editor-in-chief of Sound and Fury. He was also a professor of jazz history at Cooper Union, Middlesex County College, and Bloomfield College.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Take with a grain of salt (and a slug of gin),
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This review is from: Remembering Bix: A Memoir Of The Jazz Age (Paperback)
This book is essentially everything you wanted to know about the career, family and sex life of Ralph Berton -- oh, and then there's that guy Beiderbecke who keeps hanging around him.Actually, it's not a bad evocation of a frantic era and how it ended. Berton paints some great word pictures of what it must have been like to travel with the Wolverines and party with a still young-and-healthy Bix. The skeptical or more serious reader, however, may speculate on exactly where the facts end and the fiction begins. For a more even-handed bio, a better bet is Sudhalter/Evans' BIX: MAN AND LEGEND, which treats its subject with respect without turning into a dry listing of facts and dates. Still, REMEMBERING BIX is a fun read for anyone in love with Bix, his music, and his times.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've read dozens of jazz history books - this one's the best!,
This review is from: Remembering Bix, A memoir of the jazz age (Hardcover)
I simply could not put this book down, and when forced to, only thought of when I might be able to pick it back up again. Ralph Berton is an amazing writer. He combines colorful prose, great humor and rare insights into the soul of jazz, life, love and lest we forget, the tragic life of Bix Beiderbecke.
If you are a musicologist looking for studious research on this period of jazz, you will be frustrated by this book. If you treasure rich imagery that brings history to life, step into this wonderful time machine - and enjoy a guided tour of jazz culture in the 1920's.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of my top 5....,
By
This review is from: Remembering Bix: A Memoir Of The Jazz Age (Paperback)
i haven't read this in a while. i came across it in a little bookstore in san francisco, bought it and didn't put it down for a week. it is such an unbelievably rich experience. it does bear mentioning that the book doesn't wholly focus on bix. you end up not really caring. the portions dealing with bix are very profound and highly memorable. ralph berton is a very sensitive writer. his ability to draw in the reader is formidable. i loaned my copy to my mom, so i came to amazon to buy another copy.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Out in L.A., Thursday, August 6th, 1931, was like other Southern California days: at seven in the morning so chilly you needed a sweater to go out in the patio and pick yourself a couple of figs for breakfast, by nine-thirty you were peeling down to your tennis shirt, by eleven o'clock you pretty much stayed out of the sun unless you were up in the hills or down on the beach. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hot tympani, foot cymbal Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Bix Beiderbecke, Vic Berton, New Orleans, Vic Moore, Lake Forest, Miller Beach, Louis Armstrong, Dick Voynow, South Side, Bobby Gillette, King Oliver, Paul Mares, Rhythm Kings, George Johnson, Jimmy Hartwell, Pee Wee, Paul Whiteman, Professor Koepke, Artie Klein, Big Bill, Min Leibrook, Bessie Smith, Davenport High, Little Bickie New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Out in L.A., Thursday, August 6th, 1931, was like other Southern California days: at seven in the morning so chilly you needed a sweater to go out in the patio and pick yourself a couple of figs for breakfast, by nine-thirty you were peeling down to your tennis shirt, by eleven o'clock you pretty much stayed out of the sun unless you were up in the hills or down on the beach. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hot tympani, foot cymbal Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Bix Beiderbecke, Vic Berton, New Orleans, Vic Moore, Lake Forest, Miller Beach, Louis Armstrong, Dick Voynow, South Side, Bobby Gillette, King Oliver, Paul Mares, Rhythm Kings, George Johnson, Jimmy Hartwell, Pee Wee, Paul Whiteman, Professor Koepke, Artie Klein, Big Bill, Min Leibrook, Bessie Smith, Davenport High, Little Bickie New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 47
books:
See all 47 books this book cites
2
books
cite this book:
- Jazz Masters of the Twenties by Hadlock in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker in Front Matter, page 94, and Back Matter
- Really The Blues by Mezz Mezzrow in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Reluctant Art: The Growth of Jazz (Essay index reprint series) by Benny Green in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Bessie Smith by P. Oliver on page 118, and page 144
See all 47 books this book cites
- The Creation of Jazz: Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America (Blacks in the New World) by Burton W. Peretti in Back Matter
- Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904-1930 by William Howland Kenney in Back Matter
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