"Finding Bix: The Life and Afterlife of  a Jazz Legend"
By Brendan Wolfe.
The University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2017.
A Review by Albert Haim
Stony Brook, June 2017.

Introduction.

“Finding Bix” by Brendan Wolfe is a self-centered account of the author’s efforts to “find Bix.” A more accurate title would be “Finding Brendan Wolfe and the Meaning of Calathumpic.” [Note 1]. When I read a book or an article, the first thing I look for is a statement of purpose, either in the introduction or early in the text. I could not find such a statement under the torrent of words in “Finding Bix” until page 64 “who was Bix Beiderbecke and what else didn’t I know about him?” and page 74: “this mission of searching Bix’s personality for clues to his music.” The latter is not what I found in “Finding Bix.” The music is presented as an after thought and treated in a very superficial manner. There is a general statement of purpose in the page for “Finding Bix” in the University of Iowa Press website: “after writing a newspaper review of a book about Beiderbecke, Wolfe unexpectedly received a letter from the late musician's nephew scolding him for getting a number of facts wrong. This is where Finding Bix begins: in Wolfe's good-faith attempt to get the facts right.” Undoubtedly, Mr. Wolfe needed to get the facts right. He wrote in July 2000: “No, it actually took a pair of Italians to alert me to the fact that a musical genius had once lived down the street from me.” Clearly, Mr. Wolfe had failed to do any research about Bix Beiderbecke. By the time he had  published his review of Ralph Berton’s “Remembering Bix,” all of the following were available:
- “Bugles for Beiderbecke,” by Charles Wareing and George Garlick, London, 1958.
- "Bix Beiderbecke" by Burnett James., London, 1959. 
- "Bix: Man and Legend" by Richard M. Sudhalter and Philip R. Evans with William Dean-Myatt, NewYork, 1974.
- "La vita e la leggenda di Bix Beiderbecke" by Aldo Lastella, Rome, 1991.
- "Bix Beiderbecke: Sein Leben, Seine Musik, Seine  Schallplatten" by Klaus Scheuer, Germany, 1995.
- "Bix Beiderbecke: Jazz Age Genius" by David R. Collins, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1998. The late David R. Collins was a teacher and author from Moline, IL, one of the Quad Cities.
- "Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story"by Philip R. Evans and Linda K. Evans,Bakersfield, California, 1998. The late Philip R. Evans devoted 50 years of his lie to uncovering facts about Bix. He interviewed nearly 1000 persons who knew Bix or about Bix and published the results of his detailed, profusely documented research in this tome of more than 600 pages.
- Countless chapters in jazz history books and articles in magazines.
- A set of set of 20 LP's, "Sincerely, Bix Beiderbecke," issued in 1988 and accompanied by a comprehensive booklet with detailed information about Bix’s life and music .
- A set of 12 CDs, “Bix restored” issued beginning in 1999.
-  Innumerable LPS containing Bix’s recordings and detailed information about Bix’s life and music. These were issued beginning in the 1950s, including the legendary set of George Avakian’s Columbia LPS where many current Bix admirers learned about Bix’s music.

“Finding Bix” corrects the previous ignorance of the Bix Beiderbecke literature, but, as explained below, some crucial pieces of information are still missing.

General Comments.

There is no new factual information about Bix in “Finding Bix.” The book consists of quotations from earlier books (both fact and fiction), articles, films (one a documentary, the others fiction), postings in social networks, private communications, many of them anonymous, and the author’s remarks. Bix did no leave diaries or gave interviews (except one, plagiarized, as detailed in “Finding Bix”). The only primary source about Bix consists of the letters he wrote to his family mostly in 1921-22 and a few in 1931. There are several second-hand accounts from some of the people who knew Bix personally. The majority of these accounts –interviews via letters and telephone conversations a few decades after Bix died– come from Phil Evans’s 50-year research about Bix. These second-hand accounts are necessarily colored by the passing of time and faulty recollections. Moreover, the comments of Bix’s fellow musicians are often anecdotes and chronological information that shed little light about the “essence” of Bix.

Thus, the effort expended in “Finding Bix” (which I take it to mean to find the real Bix) is necessarily a failure, as acknowledged by the author himself. The author reports what others have said about Bix in a disorganized, rambling, verbose, pretentious and repetitive style. But that is not the most serious problem with the book. To me, one of the major flaws is the false equivalence assigned by the author, in his efforts to “find Bix”, to books and articles by scholars and historians on one hand; and on the other hand, inventions in works of fiction (books and films), casual comments from contributors in social media/discussion groups, and private communications, often from unnamed individuals. The conflating of fact and fiction is a very serious fault that invalidates the few inferences the author draws.

I will provide a few examples. 

- In pages 142-143, the author provides some information from the detailed biography of Trumbauer by Evans and Kiner. Wolfe cites the circumstances under which Goldkette hired Bix in 1926. In the second half of page 143, the author brings in an invented dialogue between Bix and Tram from the Avati’s film. If the goal is to “find Bix,” then it seems to me that bringing in fictional material and mixing it with fact is counterproductive and misleading.

- In page 154, Wolfe cites Kraslow’s (the rental agent for Bix’s last residence) account of Bix’s last days and then throws in a quotation from Turner’s fiction book “1929.” How does the quotation from a fiction book help “Finding Bix”?

- In page 90, Bix and the fiction character Rick Martin in Dorothy Baker’s novel “Young Man with a Horn” are both viewed as victims: “Better make Rick, like Bix, the perpetual victim.” In fact, according to Wolfe the real person and the fictional character are fused together as one: “Rick will always be Bix, and Bix will always be Rick.” It sounds good, but it is a preposterous proposition. If Wolfe is trying to “find Bix” he is not going to find him in an invented character of a novel, regardless of  how much Bix was an inspiration for Dorothy Baker to create Rick Martin in her novel “Young Man with a Horn.” See also page 3: “Someday when I’m really good, I’m gonna do things with this trumpet nobody’s ever thought of doing,” a wide-eyed Douglas (actor Kirk) tells Doris Day.” And later, “Poor Kirk. I always feel bad for him at this moment---stamps?!?--- even as I am left wondering what part of all this is Bix and what part is legend.” Does Wolfe seriously expect to “find Bix’ in the words of an actor playing a fictional musician in a movie based on a novel?

More General Comments.

From the University of Iowa Press webpage about “Finding Bix”: “What follows, though, is anything but straightforward, as Wolfe discovers Bix Beiderbecke to be at the heart of furious and ever-timely disputes over addiction, race and the origins of jazz, sex, and the influence of commerce on art. “

I will discuss each of these topics now.

Race and the Origins of Jazz.
While Bix was alive, race in jazz was not an issue. Of course, there was segregation, but that was a part of life in America in the 1920s. There are three well documented interactions of Bix with African Americans. As a student in high school, Bix was part of the May 28, 1920 concert at the Grand Opera House. Bix was one of the Jazz Black Babies Quintet and played cornet while Raymond Moore, a black classmate, tap danced. In a September 20, 1921 letter to Burnie and Mary Louise, Bix writes about going to Chicago to listen to “real jazz niggers.” In the summer of 1928, Bix and some of his fellow musicians in Whiteman’s band sat, after hours, with Louis Armstrong’s band at the Savoy Ballroom. Undoubtedly, Bix interacted with other black musicians in St. Louis, Chicago and New York. The issue of Bix and race in jazz was developed by historians and jazz critics after Bix died. Thus, I don’t see how this issue can help to “find the real Bix.” Granted, the subtitle of Wolfe’s book is “The Life and Afterlife of a Jazz Legend.” But scholarly and/or politically correct articles and/or books about the origin of jazz, segregation and other racial matters do not help understand the essence of Bix’s personality. Moreover, the long sections about the origin of jazz and race in jazz do not provide new insights upon these important subjects. One specific comment. In page 46, Wolfe writes: “Bix Beiderbecke was not, as it turns out, the only White Iowan to have embraced 1920s black culture.” There is no evidence that Bix embraced black culture. He certainly embraced black jazz, but there is a lot more to 1920s black culture than jazz.

Sex.
Wolfe brings in two sex issues about Bix: 1. his arrest in April 1921 for his interaction with 5-year old, visually impaired Sarah Ivens;  and 2. his alleged homosexual encounter with Ralph Berton’s older, gay brother. Bix’s arrest is first mentioned/hinted briefly in pages 31, 34, 62. As a matter of fact, the mention in page 34 consists of a four-line chapter!

I have the suspicion that the brief, repetitive specification is done for dramatic effect, with the idea of whetting the reader’s appetite. I think it is a cheap trick.

All details associated with the arrest, including all extant documents and extensive discussions have been covered ad nauseam in social websites, (Bixography Forum and Facebook), in Rich Johnson’s “The Davenport Album” and in Jean Pierre Lion’s “Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend.” All Wolfe does is rehash the available information and provide the opinions of several Bix scholars/aficionados, but not his own conclusions.

Just a few clarifications. Wolfe quotes what Geoffrey Ward writes about the arrest in his “Jazz: A History of America’s Music.” “a lewd and lascivious act with a child-apparently just a fellow teenager”  Evidently this is a false account. The child was five-years old. It turns out that Ward obtained the information about the girl being a teenager from Phil Evans. On August 10, 2002, I reported that Evans had misled Ward. http://www.network54.com/Forum/27140/message/1029004042

Chapter 36, page 125 begins with an account of Bix’s arrest. But by page 127, Ralph Berton’s alleged fling of Bix with Gene Berton is brought in and this is followed by a discussion of Sudhalter’s “Ominous Note.” Then Wolfe writes: “Sudhalter never explains how this context might shed light on whether Bix was gay, but it’s not difficult to connect the dots.” First, Bix’s arrest and Berton’s alleged fling with his gay brother Gene have nothing to do with each other. Wolfe acknowledges that “Whether Bix was gay, bi- or anything else should be irrelevant to the facts of April 22, 1921-and yet it never has been.” No documentation for the connection between the arrest and the fling is presented – and I don’t know of any such connection in the Bix literature- so why bring the fling when discussing the arrest? Moreover, the connection of Sudhalter’s Ominous Endnote and an allegation of Bix being gay is highly misleading and perhaps dishonest: Wolfe knew the facts. He had asked Sudhalter in 2003 about the facts behind the “carefully husbanded documentation.” Sudhalter’s answer was clear: he was referring to the arrest, not to homosexuality on the part of Bix. Why the unjustified innuendo?   

The last point. Wolfe fails to report that the Ivens family returned to Davenport in 1936 for Sarah to enroll in Palmer’s Chiropractic School. She graduated on April 25, 1938. While in Davenport in 1939, the Ivens family lived at 1904 Walling Court, about 200 yards from the Beiderbecke residence at 1934 Grand Avenue.

Alleged Homosexual Encounter. 
This comes exclusively from Ralph Berton’s “Remembering Bix.” There is no other report. There are several mentions of the incident. First, in another very short chapter (chapter 21, 14 lines) which cites a “fling” and ends with the sentence: “Wait a minute,” he told his brother. “What do you mean by a fling?” Is again Wolfe presenting a bit of a preview for dramatic effect, without providing all of the information in one location? Another brief mention in page 128: “Ralph Berton’s bombshell claim that Bix had had a “fling” with Berton’s brother Gene.” And in page 129: “When Ralph Berton’s book was published, the homosexual story was a big shock for Bix fans.” Finally, in more detail in pages 133-134, Wolfe again uses the misleading technique of conflating reports in a pseudo-biographical account with lots of fabrications, Berton’s “Remembering Bix,” and a novel, Laura Mazzuca Toops “Hudson Lake.” In the novel Bix is described as a “baby doll-small red mouth snub nose.” And Wolfe adds the gratuitous and distasteful comment: “Only thing left is a cute little flapper dress-nothing frilly- and maybe shave those legs.” Is this a scholarly approach to “Finding Bix”? There is no evaluation on the part of Wolfe of the accuracy of Berton’s report. If Wolfe is trying to find Bix, it seems to me that his opinion of Berton’s account should have been included in the book. Just repeating it several times is not productive and gives no help to the reader.

The Influence of Commerce on Art (and Authenticity).
This is a well visited subject and includes the myth that Bix had “sold out” when he accepted Whiteman’s offer and, except for a few solos, was very unhappy because he no longer could play “authentic” jazz. Some of this has been debunked by Sudhalter and Evans in 1974 and by Evans and Kiner in 1997. Why bring it back in 2017? Jazz snobs are always emphasizing the question of “authenticity.” What is unauthentic about a hot dance band recording by Jean Goldkette with Bix? It may not be “real jazz” according to jazz snobs, so what? We must realize that Bix’s career was mostly that of a dance band musician.

Bix’s Relations With His Parents.
Several Bix biographies discuss the failure of Bix’s parents to support Bix’s decision to become a dance band/jazz musician. Wolfe echoes: “And his parents’ failure can be summed up neatly in this single anecdote (the story of the unopened records, which I cover below).” It is not unexpected that for Bix’s parents, an upper middle class couple, born and raised in the Victorian era, Bix’s chosen career as a dance band/jazz musician was regrettable. However, the Beiderbecke family was close-knit and Bix’s parents helped Bix whenever he was in need. The failure of Wolfe to point this out represents, in fact, a distortion. There is ample evidence of a genuine love in the family. Two examples will suffice.
- A letter of condolence on the occasion of the death of Bix's grandmother. The letter starts with "Dearest Dad" and later continues as follows (verbatim, with errors uncorrected; underlined text is my own.) It was written from Syracuse on Nov 1, 1922. “Received sis’s sweet letter containing the sad news but of course which seemed inevitable in the near future, at least and pop on top of Oma's death my sorrow was heighten by the fact that I couldn't be home, but even if I wasn't there personally I was in thought because I didn't realize how much Oma meant in my young life until she died. It's kind of hard to write a letter of this kind home because in our happy home I have nothing to write but stories of good times that I've had and of those I'm going to have with a feeling that everything as usual is O.K. at home but it happens in the best regulated families and we've got to take it as it comes but Dad I can see your part of it. of all the troubles that I can imagine and that are bound to come in time the trouble I dread worse is to have the time come when mother and you & all of course must go and I sometimes feel I'd as soon not live to see the time. well I'll check this as I know it isn't making you feel any better but just between you and me Dad I think that we can say that when Oma was living we had the best mothers in the world, am I right?"
- Bix spent Feb 1929 at home, recuperating from his breakdown in Cleveland. Bismark's letter to his daughter Mary Louise dated Apr 4, 1929. This is a portion of the letter. From Rich Johnson's "The Davenport Album." 
"Bickie is still with us. We dread to think of his leaving because he is such a peach to have around & heaven only knows when he will spend another vacation with us. 
With the exception of a slight cold he's feeling fine but believe me, he needed the rest he had here & I'm sure he is in the pink of condition now to get back into the harness. 
Whiteman plays in Seattle next Tuesday,[see note] so we believe he will be going East soon.
We dread to think of his leaving because he is such a peach to have around & heaven only knows when he will spend another vacation with us." 
Of course, Bismark was concerned about Bix, but the above sentence is very revealing of the love Bismark felt for Bix. Bismark's own words about his son to his daughter mean a lot more than anything that anyone has ever written about the interaction of Bix with his parents. 
Note: Whiteman played the Old Gold Hour on Apr 8 from KOL in Seattle. Note that Bismark wrote on April 4, a Friday. He knew that the following Tuesday Whiteman would be in Seattle. Clearly, the Beiderbeckes were following Whiteman in the Old Gold Hour, as Bix's mother had told the reporter of ta Davenport newspaper in 1929.

Why didn’t Wolfe include these two letters in “Finding Bix.”? In my opinion, they represent crucial documentation in any effort to “find Bix.”

The Unopened Boxes of Records. This has become one of the most widely circulated stories about Bix. Wolfe appears to accept the accuracy of the unopened boxes of records story (pages 121-122). However, he also reports Scott Black’s account that the records were not Bix’s, but records by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Evans and Evans write: “Bix’s life has been filled with many rumors and colorful stories, none has been more damaging then the “false” story of his finding unopened boxes of records he had sent home over the years.” Moreover, considering that this story is included in most Bix biographies and biographical sketches, I am surprised that Wolfe does not provide more information and fails to analyze the story in detail in his quest to “find Bix.” Here are some of the missing data.
- A portion of a letter from Bruce Foxman to Phil Evans dated March 10, 11 1964 in which Bruce tells Evans the result of his interview of Esten Spurrier. Here are the exact words from Bruce's letter to Phil. The account is slightly different than what Spurrier told Sudhalter in Davenport in September 1958.

- There is a letter from Bix’s brother to Evans. Charles B. Beiderbecke (12/4/59) totally dismissed this story: "Bix never did send home any test pressings or recordings."

- There is another fact to be taken into consideration. Bix’s brother, beginning in 1925, was the manager of the Victrola division of the Harned and Von Maur Store in Davenport. If there were unopened boxes of records in Bix’s house, maybe Bix’s brother picked them up in his store and brought them to his parents home (thanks to Bix historian Gerri Bowers for this suggestion.)

It seems to me that Wolfe, in his efforts to “find Bix,” should have analyzed the whole question of the unplayed records and/or unopened boxes of records more thoroughly and provide any conclusions he might have reached..

A Few Detailed Comments.

- Page 17. “Rich Johnson, a tall and ornery Bixophile.” A gratuitous and patently false comment about one of the nicest guys in the world of Bix. Rich got along very easily with everyone. In the world of Bixophiles, where personal enmities are common, Rich was a notable exception. He even got along with some of the nastiest Bixophiles.

-  Page 166. "Chris Barry in pursuit of the piano..." That is incorrect. Chris's discovery of the true identity of Alice Weiss O'Connell had nothing to do with the piano. Chris wrote in the Bixography Forum in April 2009: " it would seem that Bix inadvertently had the name associations reversed. By that I mean Weiss was Alice's -father's- name and O'Connell was her -mother's- maiden name." Chris then was able to tentatively identify the mystery woman as Alice Gavitte, nee Alice Weiss, mother's maiden name O'Connell. In July 2011, Alice Clare Weiss (the niece of the Alice Bix wrote to his parents about) posted in the Bix Forum:" My Dad was Alice's brother Freddy." I wrote to her, and she sent me her copy of the photo Bix had sent to his parents. After some additional research, I announced in the Bixography Forum on Feb 12, 2012 "Thanks to Chris Barry, Joan Fabrizio and Alice Clare Weiss, we have a definitive identification of Alice O'Connell." The search for Bix's piano was a follow up piece of research that I conducted independently.

- Pages 32-33 and 78-81. Wolfe often treats a subject in installments. Here is another example. First cited and discussed briefly in pages 32-33 and then in more detail in pages 78-81, readers will find what I can only describe as a pompous and overblown analysis of Gregory Elbaz’s graphic novel “Bix.” I wonder how a surreal graphic novel can help the author “find Bix.” Wolfe mentions me twice in the pages cited above. 1. “Perhaps flipping through is all Albert Haim did.” Perhaps, Wolfe has no idea of how I looked at the book. 2. "Albert Haim is bloody Saint Giles protecting his poor beast from the slings and arrows of vulgar men." “Bloody Saint Giles”? Bix, my “poor beast”? My understanding is that Saint Giles was the patron of beggars and cripples, certainly a totally inadequate description of Bix. Moreover, I do not consider myself a Bix protector, but a Bix researcher who tries to dispel incorrect information and to express his opinion of all things related to Bix in a direct manner.

- This is irrelevant to the subject of Bix and is admittedly nitpicking. But as a teacher for nearly 50 years and an admirer of Jorge Luis Borges, I find the following error offensive. In page 6, Wolfe writes “If this were Borges, there might be talk of el asombro or la sagrada horror.” Horror in Spanish is a masculine noun; the correct form is “el sagrado horror.”

- Wolfe quotes Scott Black in pages 171-172: "There were no test pressings [that Bix was supposed to have sent home to his parents."]  The Institute of Jazz Studies has one such test pressing with Bix's mother inscription.

The Coda. The Culmination of the Book?

The Coda covers a lot of unrelated subjects. Written in a disjointed manner, it fails to provide an appreciation of the most important aspect of Bix’s life: his remarkable and long-lasting music.

The coda begins with the description of a (somewhat nauseating, in my opinion) "reenactment of Bix and Hoagy's hot night listening to The Firebird" in Barbara Wascher’s room in the Marriott, Tribute to Bix, Racine, 2010. In attendance were Barb and husband and Wolfe; Brad Kay had contemplated going, but had chosen instead to go the "spinning room" in another suite in the Marriott.  Before a detailed description of the Firebird reenactment, Wolfe introduces two digressions, nothing to do with listening to The Firebird.

First, Wolfe mentions a commotion in the “spinning room.”At this point the negative comments about me begin to pile up:

What Wolfe has done is highly unethical: Wolfe quotes the individual who proposed the murder of Haim in Racine, does not give his name, but gives the name (me) of the recipient of the murder suggestion. Moreover, Wolfe does not provide the substance of the defamatory remarks. "several men loudly disparaged Haim's view of things;" what things? "the little professor was wrong again;" wrong in what respect?  If Wolfe wanted to include these derogatory remarks, he should have also specified the substance of the vague allegations. Otherwise, what he has done is dishonorable and contemptible. Are we dealing with a scholarly work or a gossip rag?

The Coda continues with the interview, the morning after the Stravinsky experiment, of an anonymous Bixophile. Wolfe reports, among other things, the Bixophile’s reaction to Bix’s arrest. He also throws in the unjustified remark that Rich Jonhson “was completely and totally in love with Bix.”

Then, Wolfe goes into excruciating detail about what Barb told him about The Firebird, throwing in, out of context, the names of Sarah Ivens (Bix’s arrest) and Gene Berton (the alleged fling with Bix). The chronology of events is confusing. As I understand it, there is a flaw:
- First the Firebird listening thing. 
- Then the passage transcribed above. 
- Then the interview of the unnamed individual (next morning). 
- Then back to the Firebird thing the night before where "I was depressed but also strangely energized by the things the Bixophile had said [the next morning]."

The Bottom Line.

Individuals who know little or nothing about Bix are not going to find in "Finding Bix" objective information about his life and music. I venture to guess that, if they have the patience to go through the book, most will be turned away from Bix. Wolfe may have found himself, but surely he did not recruit new Bixophiles.

Albert Haim, Stony Brook, June 2017.

Note [1] There are six mentions of the word calathumpic in “Finding Bix.”