I agree with you. This is a valuable document.

Thank you so much for setting the record straight. I knew Phil Evans and would drive up to Bakersfield California where he lived and exchange Bix information and talk about records while we listened to them. Evens amazing research over decades made the Bix Man and Legend book possible. Phil Evans wrote a book on Bix later after Man and Legend and I have that book too. Another very friendly person always willing to talk to me about Bix and answer my questions was Ralph Berton who also wrote a book about Bix which I am sure you don’t think much of and I fully understand why. I just wanted to say Ralph Berton did know Bix and he was a very cooperative kind man who allowed me to repeatedly call him and answer questions about Bix and he never complained. I knew both Phil Evans and Ralph Berton for many years. It was fun when Phil Evans would call me and ask me to come see him as he wanted to play some new record he had found and suspected Bix might be on it and wanted my opinion. Phil Evans was the top researcher because he valued others opinions and never looked down on anyone. He was never a know it all expert.

I knew someone else as angry as you are about Phil Evans not being mentioned. I knew Paul Mertz who played piano in the Goldkette orchestra and I tape recorded an interview with him about the Goldkette Orchestra and his whole career in music. He had helped Phil Evans with his Bix research and got angry that Sudhalter seemed to be receiving all the credit and he thought that Phil Evans was being left out of the credit he deserved. This thing with Sudhalter got really involved. Sudhalter wrote in the book and said in this interview that Bix’s parents did not support him with the music and were even ashamed the son of upstanding German folk of Davenport could have a jazz musician in their family. Then other writers and researchers said that was not true and Bix’s parents did support him. They said Sudhalter’s parents actually didn’t support him and he projected that rejection on Bix. This is kind of too complicated for me. I just like to listen to the records and read the books and let others argue about it.

I think he could read or he wouldn't have been able to play with Whiteman or Goldkette

Colin Ball He wasn’t particularly good at it, though. Sudhalter said that Bix only became competent at reading when he was with Whiteman.

This is the worst comment on the internet. Bix Biederbecke is the beginning of American Jazz.

lanco001 It's the beginning of "Bless You, Sister", a Frank Trumbauer date.

)))))

"Traddies" have been lambasting Whiteman by applying the narrowest musical outlooks in the entire history of music, popular or otherwise. I'll be glad when all those revivalist bigots are dead, so that we can analyse and appreciate the music of that period without the bigotry of Panassie or others of his ilk.

@@AusRadioHistorian Cha, you think so?

@Gavin Rice gratz to you man. Please keep me informed how your progress goes. As i said, i could never get the flat pick down. Something about it!

Pourquoi être réaliste ? Quand on aime , tout réalisme s'efface pour céder la place aux sentiments . Et parfois , c'est très bien ainsi !!!......

Armstrong and Bix. The first great trumpet soloists. Kings of 20's Jazz.

​@@sandydennylives13921927

It never made the assertion that Bix was the King of Jazz. Paul Whiteman’s nickname was King of Jazz. Also show me a high schooler who is in Bix league.

@David Just go to an audition for any music school in America.

John Love dumb comments man. First of all, Armstrong himself admired Bix as formidable second best in the world when they were both alive. Secondly, Bix’ genius is less to do with his unique tone and more to do with his phrasing. Anyone technically competent on an instrument can imitate an existing artist after the ideas have already been revealed, but to be the first to think them up and execute them is another story. As of his lifetime Bix was the most harmonically inventive improviser in the Jazz idiom. Period. And he still stands to day among the short handful of most unique players of the trumpet. Forget about high school competitions, Clifford Brown, Wynton Marsalis, and Freddie Hubbard, all among the greatest of all time would acknowledge the greatness and importance of Bix Beiderbecke whom without the jazz story would have played out slightly different.

David Solomon Louis admired Bix personality & how he was as a person. He never claims he was a great player, he just appreciated him as a friend. Bix wasn’t the first to do anything he jacked from black artist. Thats why he’s celebrated because he was white & in that period. Freddie, Wynton & others would still exist without Bix. You’re overstating & emphasizing his importance. He has 0. If your argument was about somebody like Chet Baker, then sure. Chet was actually an amazing player, he actually had an influence on music. Bix is often given a lot of over-celebration. Which was my criticism from the beginning. Theres way better players that came after him. Same for a lot of greats, King Oliver included. Difference between Oliver & Bix is King Oliver should be celebrated because of his business side. Because without him Louis wouldn’t had gotten his start and with that actually creates a ripple effect. You’re gonna actually have to give concrete proof if we remove Bix what would change? He’s celebrated for being the great white hope. To deny that a lot of his celebration isn’t built on racism is tone deaf. Theres history books that say “Bix Biederbecke is the greatest cornetist of all-time”. Thats absolutely insulting.

It was Paul Whiteman who was proclaimed to be the "King of Jazz," not Bix. The "real" King of Jazz, Louis Armstrong, was a great admirer of Bix's musicianship.