[Dixielandjazz] From Swing to Bop + Bixing

[Jim Hillesheim]

Greetings Bill,

Thank you ever so much for alerting me to that e-mail that I had somehow passed over and thereby missed the link to that most fascinating article on BIXING. Although I am not a infrequent poster I am an avid reader of them all.

Speaking of postings I'm guilty of not responding until now to some questions you put to me over a year ago. You had noticed that in a posting I had made at the time that I had listed my location as Lawrence Kansas. Before I could respond there was a serious health crisis in the family that got me way behind in attending to e-mails. I haven't for the life of me been able to find that original message. Something may have also got lost when I switch from Windows to an Apple Macintosh Pro. So I think I am setting a record here for a tardy response!

If my memory serves me right you asked if Jesse James had any connection with Lawrence. The answer to that is no. His exploits are associated more with the neighboring state of Missouri. Of course Kansas had more than its share of outlaws, mostly connected with the more western part of the state, most famously with Dodge City. It is the stuff of Hollywood movies and it's hard to separate history from mythology, with abundant BIXING at work.

It is unlikely that the famous book, The Wizard Of Oz, has any association with the northeast part of the state were Lawrence is located. But then again, as I recall, the author does not provide specifics as to location, but it is generally thought to be in the central or western part of the state. You might appreciate the fact that as part of its efforts to promote the state of Kansas they came up with a clever slogan, “Kansas, the Land of Ahs.” I do recall seeing this on  bumper stickers and license plate brackets.

As to the movie filmed in Lawrence depicting the aftermath of a nuclear attack, that was The Day After, which had a huge viewing audience world-wide.

I hope that I am not too wide of the mark with my responses to what I think were your original inquiries.

Cheers,

Jim, from The Land of Ahs!

On Jan 11, 2012, at 10:47 PM, Bill Haesler wrote:

> Jim Hillesheim wrote:
>> I've got to ask, what is "Bixing"? Origin?
> 
> Dear Jim, 
> It goes back to a Ken Mathieson email to the DJML dated 10 January 2012 with a link to an article 
> "BIXING" Myths, Lies, and Political Correctness in Jazz Research by discographer Malcolm Shaw.
>   http://www.rustbooks.com/articles/Bixing%202.pdf
> Very kind regards,
> Bill.
>