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Posted March 9, 2008
Bix Beiderbecke, one of America’s most influential jazz musicians, was just 28 when he died, a surprising fact when one considers his legacy. Musicians like Louis Armstrong ranked Beiderbecke as the greatest coronet player of all times. Armstrong often said he would never try to play songs recorded by Beiderbecke, and no one else should either. Armstrong said, "Lots of cats tried to play like Bix; ain't none of them play like him yet,” Armstrong said.

Jazz aficionados still travel from around the world to Beiderbecke’s birthplace in Davenport to pay
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Legacy of Jazz Great 'Bix' Endures
homage. The annual Bix Fest in the Quad Cities is one of the biggest festivals in the state each year.

Beiderbecke was born in Davenport on March 10, 1902, and developed in interest in jazz as a boy by sneaking to the river to listen to the music emanating from the riverboats heading north up the Mississippi River. As a boy, Beiderbecke took a few piano lessons, but he was self-taught on the cornet and developed his unorthodox technique by playing along with recordings.

Beiderbecke’s middle class family disapproved of his interest in jazz and sent him to Lake Forest Academy, near Chicago, in 1921. However, the opportunity to play and hear jazz at clubs in the city caused frequent truancy and eventually led to his expulsion. After several months working for his father in Davenport, he turned to a career in music.
Bix Beiderbecke
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Beiderbecke first recorded with his band the Wolverine Orchestra in 1924. He became a sought-after musician in Chicago and New York City and made innovative and influential recordings with FrankieTrumbauer ("Tram") and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. When the Goldkette Orchestra disbanded after their last recording”Clementine (From New Orleans)", in September 1927, Bix and Trumbauer, a saxophone player, briefly joined Adrian Rollini's band at the Club New Yorker, before moving on to the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, the most popular and highest paid band of the day.

Beiderbecke also played piano, sometimes switching from cornet for a chorus or two during a song. He also wrote several compositions for the piano

Beiderbecke suffered health problems from an early age; the relentless schedule of the road and heavy drinking led to a rapid decline in his health. Bix suffered from severe pain in his legs and other ill effects of prohibition-era alcohol and with declining work around the New York City area, he took a turn for the worse.

Though his death certificate described the cause of death as (lobar) pneumonia, and he was in seriously ill health, the circumstances immediately surrounding his death are still unclear. He died on August 6, 1931, at the age of 28, in his apartment in Queens, N.Y. Beiderbecke is buried in a family plot in Oakdale Cemetery in Davenport.