[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 8, Issue 16

[Don Ingle]

Butch, et al:
For years as I was growing up, I heard many stories about Bix from a man who
worked with him, my Father, Red Ingle. At the time (1927) dad made most of
the final tour of the Goldkette Victor band (Evans covers this in his book)
he and Bix were just under four years apart in age - dad 20 and Bix 24. From
Bix, and his taste for McDowell, Eastwood Lane, the Debussy/Ravel school and
Rimpski Korsikov  (SP...help!), dad developed a taste for Impressionist-Post
Impressionist composers, something dad also exposed me to. I still find
these composers my constant favorites.
Certainly, this is  music that requires both close listening and serious
study, and that is not something a hopeless alcoholic is likely able to
muster. Box's bouts with the bottle were not always constant, and at the
time of the Goldkette years, he was a reliable musician and perhaps at a
peak for his flow of ideas, thanks to not having to wait through the often
ponderous Whitman arrangements that followed. Some of these would drive many
to drink. Bix's burst through for a short eight or 16 bars here and there
made the wait doable and worth it for the listener.
Dad was of the opinion that Bix WAS getting to be more interested in
composing
in later years. Bix looked dad up in Chicago when he came over from home in
Davenport and visited in February of 1931. Dad picked him, took him by the
hospital to peek in at "my two-day old kid," (This would have been Feb.12),
then drove him out to where the Whitman guys were working at the Granada
Inn. That was the last time dad saw or spoke with Bix. I know my old man had
no reason to bulls*** about this because his association with Bix for a few
years was well documented, photo proof as well, but I once told a very
serious Bix student about this and got that "oh sure...ah Huh" look. But
thanks to the careful research of the late Phil Evans, the date and times of
Bix's visit to Chicago to see the Whitman gang, and my birthdate coincide
perfectly.
To be truthful, I was too young and barely dry and unwrinkled to remember
any of this, but dad's relating this at last let me know that if I never
actually met Bix, he certainly saw me. (My mother, who passed away this
June, also verified the story.)
It is right to be cautious in accepting or passing on the many tales about
Bix on face value. But at the core there is still the music, and the tone,
and the flow of ideas so far advanced from the musicians and style of band
he worked with to know that he was advancing musically far faster than many
of his contemporaries.
When I was a teenaged, cornet wannabe, Dad would come home late from a gig
with Spike Jones, or a studio date, and wind down by playing some 12" 78's
of Ravel or others while laying on the couch, me on the floor propped
against the couch (me the runner to turn and flip the 78's. As we listened
to Le Mer, Rhapsody Espanole, or some parts of  Rimpsky-K, he would relate
doing much the same while listening to similar sides on an old carry along
windup player while on the road with Goldkette.
I am in agreement with those who say that Bix would no doubt have moved into
the area of composing. His playing had every aspect of composing beyond just
running the chords. He was hearing harmonies no one on the bands he was
working with were playing and it made his own ideas stand out so much that
he was becoming a legend long before his passing.
Imagine, all this interest in Bix a century after his birth. Yet we can't
get the post office to honor him with a stamp. A man without honor in his
own land -- except for us.
Don Ingle

----- Original Message -----
From: "Butch Thompson" <butcht at sihope.com>
To: "djml" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 2:36 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 8, Issue 16


> On 8/8/03 1:59 AM, "dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com"
> <dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com> wrote:
>
> > I was told years
> > ago that one of the reasons Bix drank as much as he did was that he was
> > frustrated by the limitations of the music of his era.
>
> Dick
>
> As I'm sure you know, the sad truth is that he was an alcoholic.
"Reasons"
> like this contribute to the myth of the tortured genius, a romantic notion
> that many of us (me, too) would like to maintain -- but, well . . . .
>
> Butch Thompson
>
>
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