Dear Bix

March 10 was the birthday of Bix Beiderbecke. He would have been 112 years old, if he hadn't died at 28.

Beiderbecke's legend has grown over the decades, but he is more often written or talked about than heard. A few recordings are available, including "Bix Beiderbecke - Singin' the Blues," which includes his most famous solos, and "Bix 'n' Bing," performances from the time both he and Crosby were members of Paul Whiteman's band.

Bix Beiderbecke played B-flat cornet, which might be thought of as the little brother of the trumpet. He also occasionally played piano, and his solo keyboard composition "In a Mist" is a small Impressionist gem that Ravel and Debussy might have admired.

More important in jazz history is that Beiderbecke was the first "cool" horn player--cool as distinct from the "hot" style played by Louis Armstrong, and most other jazz musicians. Neither style is superior to the other, but it's interesting to trace their lineage: Armstrong's descendants include Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie; Beiderbecke's include Chet Baker and Miles Davis.

Dorothy Baker's novel "Young Man with a Horn" and the resultant, misguided film are thought to be based on Beiderbecke's career, but the finest tribute, in its oblique way, may be Dave Frishberg's song "Dear Bix," in which the singer tells Bix he's "not just an ordinary B-flat guy."

Whitney Balliett, in his book "American Singers," wrote this:

"'Dear Bix' is addressed to the legendary cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who died of alcoholism at twenty-eight in 1931. It is addressed to him as if he were still alive, and, cognizant of his problems with drink and of his various aesthetic frustrations, it wishes him well and cheers him on."

Here are the last lines in Frishberg's lyric:

"I wonder, Bix, old chum,
When you reminisce in years to come,
Will you ever hum that someday song
You've been looking so long to find?
So, do what you got to do--
'Cause you're one of the favored few,
Dear Bix, you're one of a kind."