A jazz week this week on the Allen Ginsberg Project in honor of Wednesday – Jack Kerouac‘s birthday. We thought to begin with Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke (today being Bix Beiderbecke’s birthday), but then, as Amiri Baraka has observed, there’s real issues about the over-veneration of Beiderbecke, jazz and race, the particular placement of Beiderbecke..
from Brendan Wolfe’s 2009 phone interview with him (the whole transcript is, of course, very much worth reading):
AB: ….as far as my views on Beiderbecke, they remain pretty much the same. I think that he was a very singular kind of, you know, artist. But the point about Bix is that he represented a particular set of influences in the music and he brought a kind of, you know, singular lyrical style to the music. And then you know all the other story that would be heaped upon him to make myth out of it, you know, but I think the whole question of Beiderbecke, the Chicago style, Beiderbecke and Whiteman, the whole Bing Crosby cross-civilization. They’re interesting things to know about, you know, if you’re interested in American music as a total kind of statement, you know what I mean. There’s always been, there’s always been excellent white players in jazz from its inception. The point is that the racist nature of the society has always tried to make them the creators of it, the innovators in it, or just to leave out, you know, the real innovators and originators, and that’s the only thing I’ve ever said. A lot of the critics seem to be more intent on establishing a false kind of history of the music and its development than just evaluating what exists, you know.”
and from the same interview, later on:
BW: So there’s two things that we’re talking about here: one is a kind of critical reception to people like Bix. And in your book, Blues People, you make an argument about the importance of, and the social context of Bix’s music versus Louis Armstrong’s music independent of their critical reception over the years. And I wrote something that I think, in two sentences, tries to sum up your argument that you make there. And I want to read you that and have you tell me whether I’ve got it right or whether I’ve got it terribly wrong.
AB: Okay.
BW: I say, “For Baraka, the bottom line is that these two men—Bix and Louis—different as they were, came together—figuratively—to create a fully American music. And Bix Beiderbecke played a critical role, maybe even the critical role. He took Louis Armstrong’s African-American music and made it American”.
AB: Well, see, the point is this – It’s all American. The point is, what Beiderbecke does, he is recognized as a kind of avatar of a great thing. But the point is, you cannot make that a separate thing. You understand what I’m saying? They’re both playing American music, but Beiderbecke is recognized as playing American music. Louis is then made into some kind of extension of American music that ain’t really American music, and that’s not true. They both American music. What distinguishes them ultimately is the social context that they created in. You know, Beiderbecke might have amazed people to be playing, quote, jazz then, you know, which made him, I guess, to a lot of people unique and very interesting. But you know Louis Armstrong was a great figure in that music from its mainstream. You understand, from the mainstream of Afro-American music he was a great figure, and therefore, he was a great figure in American music. It’s just that how they come by that is what’s important. How they come by that. You know. You listen to Bix, you listen to what Bix knows about the world and how he does it. Now what they’re going to do with that in American society [chuckles] is another thing. But you can’t possibly, like say, “you know I like Langston Hughes but I don’t like William Carlos Williams“. That’s not an intellectual argument, you know what I mean? But the point is you have to acknowledge where they are coming from, each, to get what they got. I mean, to me, a more important musician, in terms of American music, is obviously Louis Armstrong. But I’m not gonna deny the importance of Bix Beiderbecke. That’s crazy. But then, you’re not, you’re closing one of your eyes, you know, you’re not looking at the whole thing.
Allen: “..I ran into a kid in ’48 when I was in the bughouse, who was a real jazz connoisseur. He gave me a huge course in Bix Beiderbecke and everybody else of that era – all the white bands and a lot of the black bands..”
and, from another interview:
“I listened to Lead Belly when I was a kid on WNYC, where he had a half-hour weekly program. I’d always been familiar with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Bix Beiderbecke and all the old moldy-fig stuff, and so was Kerouac”