Bix Beiderbecke - Born on This Day inJazz March 10th 1903 #injazz #shorts

Leon Bismark Beiderbecke known as “Bix” (a family knickname) was a legendary jazz cornetist and pianist who was born on March 10, 1903, in Davenport, Iowa. Beiderbecke was a prodigious musical talent from a young age, and he began playing the cornet when he was just three years old. When he was four, he began playing songs by ear on his family’s piano and soon he was considered a child prodigy. He grew up in a musical family, and his father was a prominent local bandleader who helped to foster his son's musical talent.

Beiderbecke began to play professionally in his teens, and was heavily influenced by the music of Louis Armstrong and the New Orleans jazz scene, but he developed his own unique sound that incorporated elements of classical music and other genres.

Throughout the 1920s, Beiderbecke played in a number of prominent jazz bands, including the Wolverines and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Beiderbecke emphasized the cornet’s middle register, using simple rhythms and diatonic harmonies. His style is characterized by lyricism and purity of tone. He is known as the first major white jazz soloist.

Beiderbecke was a severe alcoholic and his life was cut tragically short when he died of pneumonia at the age of 28.