Bix’s Early life

Leon Bix Beiderbecke was born on March 10th, 1903 to a Middle-class German family in Davenport, Iowa. Bix’s Parents were named Bismark and Agatha. Bix had two siblings as well: an older brother named Charles(nicknamed Bernie), and a sister named Louise. At the age of three, Bix started learning piano through encouragement from his mother because she played the organ at Davenport's First Presbyterian Church. By the age of seven, Bix had the ability to memorize music by ear, but could not read sheet music, which caused his piano teacher to give up on teaching him. In 1918, Bernie came back to Davenport after serving during the Great War and brought back a phonograph and several records. Bix immediately became attached to a copy of “Tiger Rag” by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Through Tiger Rag and other recordings, Bix self-taught himself the coronet using a secondhand cornet which he got from playing piano for people.

Bix’s education consisted of going to Tyler Elementary school and later, Davenport Highschool where he learned more music and participated in many sports. However, in September 1921, after flunking out of high school during his junior year, Bix was sent to Lake Forest Academy in Chicago, Illinois to help bolster his grades. By then Bix did not have much interest in school work, but more of an interest in Basketball, Tennis, Glee club, and Orchestral Instruments.

Early Music Career

Bix’s Parents were not big fans of Bix’s love for music at first and would discourage him from playing in “American” places like bars or riverboats. However, no amount of discouragement could stop Bix’s passion, so Bix decided to start performing in riverboats on the Mississippi river. While on these riverboats, Bix met an unlikely future friend, Louis Armstrong. Both men, being great musicians, would cause Bix and Armstrong to become friends. They would be together at multiple points in Bix’s life. While at Lake Forest Academy, the two musicians would hang out, and even at later stages in Bix’s career, such as when he played for the Whiteman Orchestra, both he and Armstrong would influence each other, and after their professional gigs, the two would perform late-night jam sessions through the night, bridging the racial gap present at the time, before it was professionally allowed to.

The Goldkette Orchestra 

On September 12th, 1924 the Wolverines received another invitation, but this time to play at New York’s Cinderella Ballroom. This gig would bring Bix into the eyes of many prominent musicians at the time. This included Jean Goldkette, who offered Bix an invitation to join his Orchestra, which Bix accepted. However, the new light in Bix’s career wouldn’t last long, as, within two months, Bix would get kicked out of the group due to not knowing how to read sheet music.

After Getting kicked out of the Goldkette Orchestra, Bix would befriend Frankie Trumbauer and the two would decide to start a new band together. This new band, again, gained the attention of Goldkette who offered a position in his Orchestra to Trumbauer. Being a good friend of Bix, Trumbauer said that he would only accept Goldkette's invitation if Bix could join him again, which Goldkette accepted. Through Bix’s second chance in Goldkette’s Orchestra, he gained much prominence, during which he decided to permanently move to New York.

The Whiteman Orchestra

In 1927, Goldkettte’s orchestra was disbanded due to high overhead costs, which caused Bix to be without a stable job. Now in New York, Bix became a freelance musician with Tram. This period is when Bix created some of his most creative pieces, such as “Singin’ The Blues”, “Riverboat Shuffle”, and “I’m Coming, Virginia”. Bix even dabbled in piano composition during this time and created some of his more influential works, including the piece “In a Mist”. On October 27, 1927, both Bix and Tram have recruited by the Paul Whiteman orchestra while in Indianapolis Indiana. The Whiteman Orchestra was a very demanding orchestra performing in tours, recordings, radio broadcasts, and more, but brought Bix some of his greatest opportunities.

At the time, the Whitman Orchestra was the most popular orchestra in the country, which meant that anyone performing would have grueling travel times, crisscrossing across the United States playing for many prestigious groups. The constant traveling caused Bix to suffer from anxiety, exhaustion, and depression due to the demands, which he tried to remedy through comfort drinking. All this suffering culminated on November 30th, when at the age of 25, Bix would collapse into a physical and mental breakdown.

The Late Years

Over the next year, Bix would find himself alternating performance with Whiteman, and recovery. Through this recovery time, he would have bouts of pneumonia as well. To make things worse, tragedy would strike in April 1929, when his friend, Don Murray, died in a pedestrian accident, which would leave Bix without one of his closest friends, severely affecting his mental state. While in a recording session in September 1929, Bix would collapse again. After this, Whiteman decided to send Bix back to Davenport to recover and would give Bix half his salary for 5 months before he realized that Bix was not returning. 

Bix’s parents tried to help Bix by sending him to the Keeley Institute for alcohol treatment. Through treatment, bix would confess to drinking on average, 3 pints a day. Bix was now suffering from delirium and had a nerve disorder in his legs, which hindered him more. While seeking treatment, the great depression hit the United States, which caused bix to go back to freelancing to make money. A month later, Bix would blackout during another recording session and would be sent back to Davenport to recuperate.

In February of 1931, Bix would find work once more and headed back to New York, however, due to his alcohol consumption, he would quickly lose his job. To make ends meet, Bix did college dates at Yale, Princeton, Amherst, and William College. During this time, Bix would send a letter to his parents talking about a certain Alice O'Connell, which he stated was his future wife.

Through Alice, Bix got a Wurlitzer baby grand piano in June of 1931. However, on August 6th, 1931, at the age of 28, Bix would die of lobar pneumonia, and later would be buried in Oak Dale cemetery in Davenport, on August 11, 1931. Even though Bix went through years of treatment and recovery, his ambition to play music and the ambition of others caused too much stress, never left him with enough sleep, and after the death of some of his closest friends, left him with depression, compounded with loneliness from living so far from home. As Louis Armstrong would put it, everyone killed Bix, “He didn't know how to say no and didn't know how to say goodnight".