[Dixielandjazz] Bix documentary 2h.

[Charles Suhor]

I really enjoyed this—thanks so much for posting the link. I had numerous Bix 78s in my collection during my early teen years (late 40’s-early 50’s) in New Orleans and sensed he was a unique voice. The only local cornet/trumpet players I heard at that time who were playing in Bix’s style were veterans Johnny Wiggs (John Hyman) and Charlie Wagner, and young Al McCrossen. You know Wiggs, I’m sure—co-founder of the N.O. Jazz Club and longtime teacher, weekend player, & jazz champion. McCrossen, also a perpetual weekender, was part of a lesser-known Irish Channel group of young Dixielanders. He attended Redemptorist High (a few years before the Assunto brothers) and later made a few records that apparently haven’t been reissued. (Any tips on where to find them would be appreciated). Wagner was the band director at Nicholls High School in the upper Ninth Ward. He had played across the street from Bix in Chicago as a young man but was no longer actively playing in N.O. when I was in the band.
 
True story: Sometime around the late 80s I made a pilgrimage to Davenport to see Bix’s house and gravesite. I was surprised to find docked there the Steamer President, which had been in New Orleans most of my early life. I had played there with Dutch Andrus, Paul Crawford, Henry Kmen, and others. There was much excitement in Davenport because the boat had become a legal gambling site. In a gift shop and asked about Beiderbecke memorabilia. The clerk at first didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, then said, “Oh, yes, we have that during the jazz festival season. This is the gambling season.” I wanted to punch him, but I didn’t.
 
Back to the music, I always thought that Bix offered not just an original “style” as a new sensibility in jazz. As some have said, he (and Trambauer) were the first cool jazz musicians. Tram’s conception was laid back, but Bix was miles ahead (pun intended) in imaginative improvising. Irving Fazola was another early cool artist, and a stellar improviser. Among young N.O. clarinetists, two acid tests of jazz fluency were playing Picou’s High Society solo and Faz’s on “March of the Bobcats.”

Charlie Suhor