Beiderbecke, (Leon) Bix 1903-31
US cornettist

The archetypal white youngster smitten by early jazz (and the posthumous subject of Dorothy Baker's novel Young Man With a Horn, 1938), he was born to musical parents in Davenport, Iowa, and was largely self-taught on piano and cornet. He played in local bands as a teenager and quickly progressed to working with established professionals. On being expelled from military academy at the age of 19, he began the short career that made him one of the most celebrated jazz performers of the 1920s. His bell-like tone and lyrical solo improvisations were heard to best effect in various small groups; but despite being an indifferent reader of music, he also transformed the commercial sound of such big bands as the Paul Whiteman and Jean Goldkette orchestras. His later career was ravaged by alcoholism, and he died of pneumonia at the age of 28.