Jazz music is a heritage for Tom Pletcher. His grandfather, Thomas M. Pletcher, was a leader in the piano roll industry in the 1920s. His company, QRS, employed such jazz luminaries as James P. Johnson, "Fats" Waller, and others of stride style piano.Tom's father was "Stew" Pletcher, trumpet soloist with the orchestras of Tony Pastor, Smith Ballew, Red Norvo/Mildred Bailey, Jack Teagarden, and others. While growing up around jazz musicians, it wasn't until Tom happened upon one of his father's original 78 records -Frank Trumbauer's recording of "Baltimore" and "Humpty Dumpty" featuring Bix Beiderbecke- that Tom decided to take up the cornet to perpetuate the style of Bix.

In the decades since, Tom has performed at festivals, concerts and clubs throughout the United States, Australia, Europe, and England. For 17 years, he was the principal cornetist for the "Sons of Bix" band which originated in Chicago in 1973. He has recorded for Jazzology, Fairmont, RCA, Swaggie, Circle, Wolverine, Taylor, Teaspoon, Stompoff, and Arbors. In 1990, he was chosen to play the soundtrack role of Beiderbecke in the Italian film "Bix, An Interpretation of A Legend" which featured Bob Wilber, Kenny Davern and others.

Tom is a founding member of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society, and appeared at several of the early Bix Jazz Festivals in Davenport, IA, with such notables as Bill Rank, Wingy Manone, Spiegle Willcox, Bill Challis, Chauncey Morehouse, Doc Ryker, and Paul Mertz.

In November 2003, Tom organized and led the Bix Centennial Band aboard the Bix 100th Birthday Cruise.

"IN A MYTH."  Part I: “Cloudy.”

    Thanks entirely to the dedication and sincerity of Albert Haim and his immense web site, I have this opportunity to express my concerns and opinions regarding allegations made by persons claiming inside information about Bix Beiderbecke which do not hold up. In this first instalment, I wish to present my case as it relates to Indiana songwriter/musician Charlie Davis. Bix fans know of Davis after seeing the Berman CBC documentary entitled “Bix. Ain’t None of Them Play Like him Yet”. (Playboy Jazz DVD PBV 9043)

CLOUDY.

In the filmed interview, Davis, while reminiscing about his brief encounters in 1924 with Bix and the Wolverines, remembers the following: “I remember Bix played (piano) a tune I had never heard, before or since, but I recorded it in my own mind. I remember he was a great man to play on the black keys. He was a black key man …”

    Sorry Charlie but Bix was anything BUT a black key man. That fact was clearly established while Bix was alive. He played piano in C and F, as other self-taught players prefer or are most familiar. All of Bix’s piano pieces are in concert C. He recorded “For No Reason At All In C” with Trumbauer and Lang. There was a very good reason: Bix’s limitation at the piano.

    “Cloudy” a nostalgic piece made up of a simple melody and block chords has no typical Bixian runs or extended or impressionistic chords so associated with Bix. Nor did anyone with whom I knew and consulted ever hear this piece until Davis’s on camera rendition.

    That Charlie Davis should have been nominated for an Academy Award for his performance does have merit, in my opinion. During the years 1973-92, I was in failry close company with the following men who were associated with Bix during his brief life. They were Bill Challis, Paul Mertz, Bill Priestley, Esten Spurrier, Bill Rank. Other fellow contemporary Bixians were Edwin “Squirrel” Ashcraft, James “Rosy” McHargue, Joe Rushton, with whom I shared the passion. Researcher friends have included Philip Evans and Norman Gentieu. Not one of the guys who viewed and heard Davis perform, thought “Cloudy” was Bix’s composition nor did anyone hear Bix play a piece resembling Davis’s rendition for the documentary. That Charlie wanted to be remembered as a Bix sympathizer is obvious and the film gave him his last moment in the sun and opportunity for immortality along with Bix. Sorry again Charlie.

    Regarding Davis’s claim about Bix having several tones and that “the girls liked his dirty tone”, give me a break! Listen to anything Bix recorded and tell me when you hear anything except that clear sound that only Bix got, even when he had to play into a mute. Incidentally, the above film rendition of “Cloudy” is played in concert Db, a key which Bix and most other self taught and limited pianists would stay away from at all costs.

    My concerns are that Charlie Davis’s claims have already been accepted as fact and recorded by sincere and wonderful musicians as a further tribute to dear Bix.

    The late biographer/author Philip Evans devoted many early years of his fact-finding research into disproving and dispelling the many absurd rumors that had surfaced since Bix’s death. Now, I feel a duty and a need to speak out on suspect matters of conjecture and claims related to the legend of Bix.

    My next instalment of “In A Myth” will deal with Joe Venuti’s 50-year secret recollection of his collaboration with Bix on their so-called composition “Betcha I Getcha.”
 
Uploaded July 5, 2004

Tom Pletcher welcomes replies from interested persons; however, he requests conventional mail. For Tom's address, please write to ahaim@bixography.com.  Alternatively, postings in the Bixography Forum are acceptable. These will be relayed to Tom.

 “IN A MYTH.”  Part II: “Betcha I Getcha.”

    What might become a futile campaign to disprove various claims and allegations having to do with hitherto undiscovered BIX compositions, I wish now to discuss the Joe Venuti story about collaborating with Beiderbecke on a tune called "Betcha I Getcha". This revelation surfaced 30 years ago during a Venuti recording session (1973) during which time he played a piece on piano for Dick Hyman claiming that he and Bix worked it out together etc. Evidentiy, Hyman, believing Venuti to be telling the truth, got Venuti’s piano rendition on tape and transcribed and published the piece many years later in one of his own music books.

    I know Dick Hyman to be a very intelligent, honest, sincere and dedicated man and Bixophile who has lovingly showcased Bix’s music in many ways, the latest being his Arbors CD "If Bix played Gershwin" which Dick and I and his studio band recorded together only last year. Hyman clearly speculated on the validity of Venuti’s sudden claim, but it has since gained dangerous stature. Having grown up around many of the jazz greats of the 20s and 30s, of course I have heard many Venuti stories particularly about his wit, practical jokes, musical skills as well as his widely known reputation for stretching the truth especially if it might further his self image, ego and career. Without attempting to sugar coat his name, he was notorious for lying about his date of birth, place of birth and other matters about which he had personal knowledge. Additionally he was considered a very crude and vulgar man according to more sensitive persons such as other musicians wives who were not charmed by Venuti’s course persona. That he was "one of the boys" within the jazz circles is without question. That he was also the greatest hot violinist of the 20th century also wins my vote.  <>I have absolutely no doubts or suspicions of the intentions of these friends and great musicians in their presentations of what they want to believe are Bix discoveries.     However, having studied the subject of Bix and his music for 50 years as well as having known many of Bix’s closest musical associates, I feel entitled and compelled to question the authenticity of these latter day claims.

    Unfortunately, Joe Venuti’s unfounded image as a real friend of Bix was vastly inflated by a role played in the 1990 Italian film "Bix" in which Venuti, among other highlights, drives to Davenport for a personal visit and brings flowers to Agatha, Bix’s mother. Now that IS funny! Of course being an Italian made film, Venuti had to be shown in the most favorable light regardless of the actual truth. Additionally, this well meaning movie was subtitled "an interpretation of a legend" which allowed for the liberties taken with the                       Dick Hyman 
story. Again, I was honored to participate in the sound track of this film which received high praise by other musicians and knowledgeable critics.                                                                

    Giuseppe "Joe" Venuti was born in Philadelphia, not in Italy or on a ship bound for America as he claimed. The year of his birth was 1903, not 1899 or earlier. Before he died in 1978 at the age of 74, he was giving his age as 82 or 84 whatever he thought would make the boldest impression.

    Betcha I Getcha should never have been credited to Leon Bix Beiderbecke, especially on the word of Joe Venuti. Having now heard the 1945 version of this number featuring Kay Starr’s vocal, it is reminiscent of Ralph Flanagan’s popular hit "Hot Toddy" which I think was of similar vintage. Those who still wish to consider this tune as a lost musical treasure of Bix's are welcome to place it next to Charlie Davis’s "Cloudy" but they totally lack credibility. If anyone has more factual information on these pieces, please let me know about it.

    My expressed complaints as they relate to "discoveries" like these are not a matter of faulty research by believers but a simple matter of no research or scholarship at all!

    Bix’s life, legend and documented works are worthy of respect and proper preservation now and forever after. Having recently had the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth, this is no time to see inventions credited to him when there is no proof, only disproof.

    In part III of "In a Myth," I will write about what some of the better jazz musicians thought about Bix’s selling out by joining Paul Whiteman in 1927. That being a captive of that band was not unlike a good paying "day gig" for Bix with insufficient inspiration or opportunities to play the kind of music be loved and then with only a token number of fellow jazz players on the band.

Uploaded September 14, 2004.

    In Southern California during the 1950s, I got to hang around with my father's jazz friends, especially the musicians who had known Bix personally and had heard him play in after hours places where he was in his element.  A trumpet player I knew very well was Martin Harold Peppie, 1902-1986.  “Pep” had a long career beginning in 1924 as Ben Pollack’s original  (1st) trumpet player.  He was later with Jan Garber, ‘26, Lanin’s Ipana Troubadors ‘27 and numerous Lanin NYC record dates before moving to Hollywood and spending the next several decades in film studio orchestras.  Peppie told me many personal stories about Bix when they were jamming after hours.  Such as Bix losing his pivot tooth on dingy speakeasy floors, having to get on your hands and knees sifting through the spit covered saw dust and peanut shells searching for the cap  (pivot) that covered Bix’s broken front tooth.  I heard that as a boy, Bix tripped on the front steps at 1934 Grand Ave, which resulted in the dental problem.  “Pep” said you had to really love Bix to volunteer for such a chore.  Of course the gang was always pretty lubricated so they didn’t mind it as much.  He went on to say that Bix was often gracious in offering to switch to piano so he could join in on his trumpet.  At the same time he also remembered Bix being able to continue playing piano long after his beverage of choice (gin) had taken its toll on his horn playing ability.  Peppie was only one of many jazz musicians who told me how the guys went into mourning when they heard Bix had joined Whiteman.  My father Stewart Pletcher (1907 -1978) was around Plunketts in those days when not studying at Yale University and he and other musicians and Bix fans were equally brought down about losing Bix to commercialism that early (1927).   Now, in this 21st century, researchers, scholars, and new listeners are getting contrary information about Bix and his career with Whiteman as told by less informed authorities.  PW’s elephantine orchestra has erroneously become named as the band Bix was so happy and proud to be on.  Philip R. Evans, (1935-1999) highly esteemed biographer was invited to attend several Whiteman reunion parties in Los Angeles c 1960s during which time he gathered personal information about Bix and the band.  There is little doubt that Whiteman’s former sidemen would have spoken in glowing terms about the band and Bix’s tenure, which Evans respected.  It should be realized that most of PW's men were legit.  non jazz musicians commonly referred to as “squares”.  These sincere but biased sources have contributed to this misunderstanding.  The number of real jazz musicians employed by “The King of Jazz” could be counted on fewer than two hands.  Most were former Goldkette personnel and previously associated with Bix and Trumbauer.  

    There were others who not only did not understand or appreciate what Bix was doing but resented and scorned him over his poor musicianship skills, undependability and special attention.  Try to imagine what it must have been like for Bix during rehearsals, recordings and performances when he failed to play certain written parts correctly or was too hung over to play well.  To the non-drinkers on the band, Bix was probably no joy to be around.  So why did he join PW instead of going with another jazz group after Goldkette and Rollini’s New Yorkers?  My theory is this:  Bill Challis and Frank Trumbauer were security blankets. So was Bill Rank.  They appreciated him and covered for his shortcomings.  Contrary to what we hear about Bix being able to read, he never was able to sight read well or even know how to properly mark his parts.  Bill Challis told me these things.  Also that he would write Bix “footballs” just to give him something to do and to keep his horn warm.  A football is a slang term for a whole note.  Can you imagine how humiliating this must have been?

     Notice in the long lost 1928 Fox Movietone film what part Bix played on “My Ohio Home”.  He stands to play about 4 repeat notes throughout a 16 bar bridge and even sits down before the end of the last measure.  Bix was obviously never very interested in reading music.  The stories by his sister about his early teachers telling the family they couldn’t teach the boy anything because he played his lessons back to them, with improvements.  The St. Louis symphony trumpet player who is reported to have told Bix he felt like a canary in a cage in comparison to Bix’s “God given” gift.  All these stories are part of the legend; however what has been ignored is Bix’s lack of discipline, ambition and responsibility to learn to read and write as all the other professionals did.  This proved to be Bix’s down fall and early demise.

      Though a self taught amateur, I  personally can relate to what it must have been like for Bix to be in situations where his ignorance  would be exposed.  I never bothered to learn to read music and to this day am always the only illiterate on a reading band.  I’ve been able to memorize parts because arrangers and leaders have given me advance time to “woodshed”.  Bix took parts to Challis for help before having to perform.  Bill said he never let him down.  That is, unless Bix was having bad days which we know he had with increasing frequency after 1928.

     Furthermore, Bix would have avoided taking chances of humiliation and embarrassment by exposing his weaknesses with a less tolerant reading band like Pollack, Goodman, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Casa Loma, and others where he probably wouldn’t get such special treatment. Consider that Red Nichols and Bunny Berigan both played for PW briefly but merely as stepping stones to enhancing their resumes and experience.  Red and Bunny had all the necessary tools to move on to better jazz employment.  Bix did not.

     Then consider all the tunes recorded by PW 1928-29 which included Bix.  How do you suppose he felt sitting through such trite material as “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers”, “La Paloma”, “Oh Ya Ya”, “Dolly Dimples”, “Chloe”.  And then there were the concert performances.... Wilbur Hall playing a bicycle tire pump... endless renditions of “Rhapsody in Blue” until everyone was turning blue with boredom.  Even some of Challis's arrangements featuring Bix were corny compared to the same tunes played by real jazz orchestras.  Hear Whiteman’s “Sugar”.  Poor Bix had to try to make something out of the march tempo so typical of the Whiteman style.  Sorry, but I believe Bix was wasted sitting in that band.  Whiteman’s generosity, the fringe benefits, record dates, continued association with Trumbauer was all well and good but drove Bix to seek more after hour places where he could play his kind of music but also drink more and later each night and then have to be up for the next day of travel or record date.  Bix’s happiest days had to be when he was on the Goldkette band.  Besides having a swinging rhythm section for solos, he was allowed to find his own harmonic 3rd parts in the brass section and ride over the ensemble out choruses as he wished.  Even then, what a tragedy that this wonderful band was forced to record mostly trite commercial crap.  Again, if you scrutinize the library of Goldkette’s recorded works, much of it is pretty bad and was considered as such when it came out. *

     It is regrettable to me that bands today are recreating the same vastly dated material which was an embarrassment to the musicians who were on the original records.  How about those insipid and enforced vocals such as “Idolizing” and “I’d Rather Be the Girl in Your Arms”?   Insiders jokingly referred to alternate lyrics to the 1926 male vocalist Frank Bessinger’s version as “I’d rather be the boy in your pants, than the girl in your arms”.

     Jazz groups, especially white ones were stifled by the so-called authorities (A & R) record company executives who directed what material was recorded with little regard for good taste or what had made the jazz bands and soloists popular with listeners.  The Goldkette band was only one of many who had few of their best numbers recorded.  My father was trumpet soloist on Red Norvo’s 1936-7 Orchestra.  The brilliant Eddie Sauter was principal arranger but Pletcher contributed more than a dozen of his own arrangements which were good enough to be played on coast to coast radio shows!  This band was, in the 1930s, what Goldkette was in the 20s.  They were a sensation according to the best jazz musicians both black and white.  Yet, only a few of their better numbers got recorded. *

     At least the black bands did not suffer the same fate, as their recordings were directed to the jazz minded mostly black listeners and record buyers who rejected the commercial corn marketed to the white general public.

     In summary, Bix managed to provide us with more than enough great recorded examples of himself showcasing the passion and hotness of his horn in spite of the conditions under which he and others were subjected, especially when with PW.

     In Part IV of In A Myth, I will write about the subject of who plays what on the recordings that included both Bix and Andy Secrest...and other recordings erroneously identified as Bix.

*For further examples of enforced trite material, please refer to any alphabetical list of recorded tunes by these otherwise wonderful jazz orchestras.  Then compare to the tunes the bands preferred to play.

Uploaded October 12, 2004.

Tom Pletcher welcomes replies from interested persons; however, he requests conventional mail. For Tom's address, please write to ahaim@bixography.com.  Alternatively, postings in the Bixography Forum are acceptable. These will be relayed to Tom.

    A friend of mine, the late Englishman John R. T. Davies, multi-instrumental jazz musician and sound restoration pioneer was questioned once about the equipment he used to determine the

NO ONE CAN TAKE YOUR PLACE (Take B, April 30, 1929)
Here's another FT date with the musicians vocalist Ballew singing as though he wrote the tune. Smith was regarded by some in the business as Bing's equal in those days and had some distinct advantages over Crosby with matinee idol good looks and a towering physique. After the string intro, it sounds like Bix timidly reading the lead part. Andy plays the counter phrase at :17 and again at :29. After Bill Rank's lovely bridge, both Bix and Andy play 2 horn harmony. Bix and Andy harmonize at 1:07 with the second horn (Andy?) in the low register. Bix comes in at 2:39 (bridge) blowing his soul into either the metal derby or more likely a felt hat, which was easy to pack and produced a soft sound as heard here. Bix finished his solo by ripping up to a high A and the lead out with no audible Secrest. Bix's use of a 6th in the last 2 bars @ 3:05 is totally evocative of the classical impressionists such as Frederick Delius or Maurice Ravel.
 

    In preparing my topics for Part V and reviewing just a fraction of what has already been discussed through Prof. Haim's Bix website, I realize my next topics are not going to be revelations but more of my own experiences of chasing after Bix during the last 50 years.

    After all the frequent visits I made to Davenport during the 1970s, I cannot recollect this mentioned by anyone I knew. Additionally, I still have a large box of personal letters from Phil Evans dating back years before, during and after his books were published. I have spent over a hundred personal hours with Esten Spurrier who told me so many hitherto unpublished anecdotes and little delights about the life and times of Leon. While I remember many conversations I had with Spurrier, especially on matters I asked about, never did he bring up the unopened records. Spurrier told me that he and Burnie had been fairly close friends at some time during their many years as fellow Davenporters. Spurrier was employed by a more prominent cemetery than Oakdale where Bix is buried and brother Burnie was "caretaker". I sensed that Spurrier was resentful of the Beiderbecke's rejection of Bix's jazz friends, like him, but it was understandable considering that they thought the jazz world was responsible for their boy's tragic death.

    My hunch about the records is this. I can believe that Bix sent a few records home. Also, that after 1929, when he was borrowing money from his parents, he hoped his meager 1930 output with Carmichael and others would impress them as he had little else going after Whiteman. That he sent ALL, MOST, or MANY home is more than a stretch of credibility.

    Bix was a lazy guy. He was not disciplined about anything including the condition of his person, his horn or his professional development. The unopened records story has obviously exceeded mythical proportions. It is regrettable that Bix and his parents are still under scrutiny over this when it only serves, as Chris Beiderbecke said, to "gain momentum with no authority" but such stories have "great dramatic value". Indeed.

    While browsing a marvelous Bix bibliography compiled by a good friend of mine, I came across a September 1936 issue of DOWN BEAT magazine in which an article appeared by the highly regarded Marshall Stearns on the subject of "Swing". He writes the following: "Recently, in going over Bix's private records, left untouched in his house at Davenport, I found practically the whole output of this band (NORK) for the records waxed by this group sold well, and spread its popularity all over the country, some of them selling as many as two hundred thousand copies".

    Through the decades of listening to Bix records, I must admit to very infrequent hearings of 

    Playing an LP of the piece and using my primitive steam powered turntable, I hear this: The first and third trumpet passages are clearly Margulis. The second or middle part (Harmon muted) sounds like Goldfield trying to sound like Busse. Regarding the intonation problem, please be advised that a Harmon mute renders any trumpet or cornet out of tune (sharp). The instrument must be retuned, sometimes drastically in order to come down to A440 pitch. What makes me believe this middle was played by Goldfield?

BLUES

titles. Authentic blues recordings (race records) were trendy in the

SWING   

The term swing is another misnomer. Bestowed on jazz during the  depression by some music critic/writers as an ADJECTIVE, as though this was a new style of jazz, swing had previously been properly used in VERB form by aware jazz people to describe when the music was very rhythmic or hot. Then, the non-musician authorities declared a whole new breakthrough in jazz. Swing! Swing music, swing dancers, King of Swing, Mr. & Mrs. Swing. Jazz musicians who either swung or not, went along with the new trendy name and continued either swinging or trying to swing. Pletcher's analogy: If a pre "swing" band stunk, then the band must be a stink band, the dancers stink dancers, the musicians, stink musicians. See the absurdity? The blues have suffered nearly the same confusion and meaningless identity.

PAPER BAG   

Here's another myth like the unopened records that needs closure. Did Bix EVER carry his horn in a paper bag? Most likely he had occasion to conceal his horn in something when his case was elsewhere. Was a paper bag EVER his preferred method? Of course not. In his last years, (1930-31) he had a corduroy and cloth sack made for his Bach cornet which was easy to carry under his arm and less noticeable when walking into places where he was NOT a hired musician. Perhaps this "bag" might be where the paper bag story got its origin. Bix's black corduroy horn bag is still with his personal effects at Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa.

    Evidence of Bix with his horn in a standard hard case can be seen in any of several still photos c. 1924 as well as the later Horvath home movie excerpt where Bix is seen walking with his Conn Victor in a cornet case. Manufactured "gig" bags, which I have always favored, did not become available until decades later. To perpetuate the myth that Bix carried his horn around in a paper bag              belongs with the others.                                                           Bix and Don Murray, 1926, Bronx Zoo

                                                                                                                                            RALPH BERTON 

that it in no way would conflict with the "other one" that was rumored

free help and advice with a Bix project was the Canadian film producer

BIX'S MUSIC

CONCLUSION

Thanks to those of you who bothered to render any comments on this series.