He rose to national fame when he started playing with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra in the mid-1920s. They played long improv sets at frat houses and college dances, mostly around Indiana University in Bloomington. He founded a band called the Wolverine Orchestra and made his first record in 1924. Wolverine Orchestra (Bix Beiderbecke Museum and Archives)īix, though, would go on to find success far away from the river. Excursion boats only hired musicians approved by the union. To get a union card, a musician had to read music, which Bix couldn’t do and had no interest in learning. No one was hurt, and, after all the passengers had been evacuated, Bix and the band waded to shore carrying their instruments over their heads.īix wasn’t allowed to return to the Majestic after union representatives from Davenport Local 67 of the American Federation of Musicians realized Bix didn’t have a union card. The captain ordered the band to keep playing, to calm the passengers, so they played Tiger Rag as folks were helped off the boat. The boat got caught in severe weather and grounded on a sandbar. He joined the Plantation Jazz Orchestra in June 1921 for a gig on the steamer Majestic. Armstrong wrote that he and Bix “became friends the 1st we met.”īix had a much shorter riverboat career than Armstrong, though. It’s not clear how much the two young musicians interacted that first time-Bix would have been 18 years old and Armstrong just 19-but a letter that Armstrong wrote after Bix’s death hints that Armstrong heard Bix play at that early meeting: “Bix was a cute little boy, in his early teens blowing a lot pretty cornet.” Regardless, something clicked between the two. One of those boats provided the setting for the first meeting between Bix and Louis Armstrong, probably in 1920 when Satchmo was playing with Fate Marable’s band on the St. One of the regular stops for the Streckfus steamers was Davenport, Iowa, where young Bix heard music floating across the water and would later answer its siren song. The river did a fine job of carrying the songs from the boat to the riverfront.

Music was a major selling point, and you didn’t even have to be on board to enjoy their music. Day trippers dressed up for a few hours of dining, dancing, and connecting with an imagined river past. John Streckfus, Sr., sensing an opportunity, shifted his Rock Island-based river business from packet boats to excursions that catered to the tastes of a growing white middle class.īy 1920, the excursion business was booming along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and the Streckfus family dominated the trade. Tin Pan Alley was busy crafting songs that harkened back to those glory days of river travel (and its unquestioned racial hierarchy). He stayed out late, playing music and drinking, which inevitably led to an early exit from school.Īs Bix grew into his late teens, riverboat nostalgia was on the rise. His academics didn’t improve but his music skills did, thanks to the easy access to speakeasies and their talented musicians. When he was failing high school, his parents sent him to a boarding school near Chicago. At first, he copied their tunes on his piano, then with a cornet that he had borrowed from a family friend.įormal schooling was never a priority for Bix it’s not a stretch to say that he valued experiences over lectures. Bix would fire up the Victrola and listen to the songs over and over until he could play the tunes just like the band did. As a teenager, Bix was captivated by the music of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the New Orleans-based outfit that is usually credited with making the first jazz recording ( Livery Stable Blues).

The Davenport Daily Democrat published an article in 1910 raving about 7-year-old “Little Bickie’s” ability to play a tune just by listening to it.

He was a musical prodigy, which didn’t hurt. Sure, he was also a gifted musician, but his path to the top as one of the greatest jazz cornetists was fueled by the inspiration he drew from hearing the earliest jazz musicians play on records and on riverboats. Bix Beiderbecke grew into a jazz legend because he was born in the right place at the right time.

Bix beiderbecke