Today is the birthday of Bix Beiderbecke, the cornet virtuoso from Davenport, Iowa. As a child, Bix used to sneak down to the levee to hear the music coming from the riverboats, which was mostly jazz at that time. On one of those trips, he heard a young Louis Armstrong. Years later, Bix played a gig at the Chicago Theater with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Louis Armstrong was in the audience listening to Bix. The wear and tear of heavy drinking and life on the road hit Bix hard; he died in 1931 at age 28. Fans from the Quad Cities and the world keep his memory alive with an annual summer jazz festival in Davenport. Here’s Riverboat Shuffle, with Bix on the cornet.
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