Bix Beiderbecke

Bix Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 - August 6, 1931) was a notable jazz cornet player.

Leon Bix Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa to a strict middle-class family. As a teenager he would sneak off to the banks of the Mississippi to listen to the bands play on the riverboats that would come up from the south. From these trips, Louis Armstrong became his idol and Bix began playing the cornet. His parents thought he was going to ruin his life by going into music and sent him to a boarding school, but Bix broke out to pursue his music career. Eventually he became successful enough to play with Armstrong in Chicago. Bix and Louis jammed several nights together in a small walk-up apartment, but never played together on stage or even recorded together, due to the contemporary taboo against integrated bands. Being a white musician, Bix was set to eclipse the popularity of the man from whom he had gained his love of music. He and his friend, trombonist Frankie Trumbauer, joined the very popular band led by Paul Whiteman, but in 1931 at the all-too-young age of 28, he died tragically of excessive drinking. Many of his family issues went unresolved.

Beiderbecke is best known for his hit "Singin' the Blues".