Louis Plays Bix's Cornet

Louis Plays Bix's Cornet (uploaded Sep 17, 2004)

The January 17, 1958 issue of the Boston Traveler carries an article entitled "Satchmo Toots Bix's Horn." Rob Rothberg kindly sent scans of the article. The scans follow here.







There is one surprising piece of information.. In the article, we find the claim that Mary Louise was "largely" responsible for fourteen-year-old Bix taking up the cornet and that, by doing odd jobs,  he saved enough money to buy a second-hand cornet. The accepted lore is that an almost sixteen year old Bix became obsessed with the ODJB recording of "Tiger Rag" and then borrowed a neighbor's cornet.

There is an error in chronology. Mary Louise tells the reporter that she saw Bix for the last time in 1931 when the Whiteman orchestra appeared in Atlanta, Georgia. Of course, Bix was no longer with the Whiteman band in 1931. It is likely that Mary Louise must have been thinking of the appearance of the Whiteman band (with Bix and Roy Bargy, but not Teagarden) in Atlanta's City Auditorium on October 23, 1928.