Bix: Singing The Blues
by Robert Forrest
Drama on 3: Sunday 17 November 2013
Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes
The jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) has been described as a genius: how did he manage to create such beautiful and influential music with such a troubled mind?
Apart from their genius, the musicians Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong had little in common. Armstrong was black and Beiderbecke was white and musical segregation was complete in the 1920's. Armstrong would go on to be one of the first musicians to challenge this racial divide, and his life story is well documented. Beiderbecke was an alcoholic who died young - but perhaps his greatest tragedy was that he never got to play with the best - because in his view the best were black.
Bix and Louis met on several occasions but only ever played together once - in a private, after-hours session. Creating a fictionalised version of that meeting, Robert Forrest's play explores the heart and mind of Bix Beiderbecke and his relationship with Louis Armstrong.
After being close to death in 1959, Louis Armstrong is quoted as saying: 'Bix tried to get me a gig in Gabriel's band last night, but it didn't work out.'
CAST:
Bix Beiderbecke ..... Bryan Dick
Louis Armstrong ..... Eric Kofi Abrefa
Roy/Zutty ..... David Seddon
Alpha ..... Pryianga Burford
Original music composed and played by Iain Johnstone
Producer/Director: David Ian Neville
There is a featurette before the start of the play. The end of the featurette was placed after the end credits of the play, where it could easily be missed, so I made those final 3 minutes a separate file.
Feature produced by Mark Rickards.
and
The Bix Beiderbecke Story
Radio 4, Thursday 12 June 2003, 11.30am-12.00noon
To mark the centenary of the birth of the first great white jazz
musician, Russell Davies traces Bix Beiderbecke's short but
extraordinary life. He looks back on Bix's career, through his
phenomenal success as a white jazz musician - an anathema to
many at the time - to working with Bing Crosby and Benny
Goodman, amongst others, and his ill-health and subsequent death
at the tender age of 28.
Despite being the first white musician to make a significant
contribution to the formation of jazz, Beiderbecke's vain struggle
to win the approval and support of his white, middle-class parents
was a constant source of anguish.They were outraged when he
turned his attention away from his classical studies to follow the
likes of Louis Armstrong and Joe Oliver. Following his parents'
deaths, he discovered all the records he'd proudly sent them in
a cupboard at their home - unopened.
Producer: Nick Barraclough
Replies
Thanks, Rick!!
Thanks for this reminder, I started to list to this at the time but thought it a waste of my time I would be interested to hear what others think of this. Still find the music that involved him in the band the best.
Paul