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Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Bix And Dick

August 11, 2008 by Doug Ramsey

A British company is releasing a two-CD package tracing Bix Beiderbecke’s influence on musicians of his era. Proceeds from sale of the set will be devoted to medical care of Dick Sudhalter, a musical descendant of Beiderbecke and his greatest biographer. Sudhalter is in bad health with MSA (muscular system atrophy) and getting worse. He needs help. From the Jass Masters news release:

The CD set contains a number of tracks that are being re-issued for the first time since their original release on 78 rpm record. In addition, several sides are transferred from un-issued test pressings and are being released for the first time ever. The recordings have
Bix.jpgbeen faithfully restored using the latest digital techniques while at the same time paying respect to sound of the original recordings. The CD set is completed by two in-depth booklets (one of 28 pages and one of 36 pages) outlining each track and providing detailed information on the bandleaders and musicians responsible for the music heard on each CD; both booklets are replete with many rare photographs, some reproduced in print for the first time.

All profits from this CD set will go towards helping to meet the medical expenses for respected author and jazz musician Richard Sudhalter, who has done much
Sudhalter.jpgto bring Bix’s life and music to wider audiences. His works include Bix, Man and Legend, which was written in collaboration with Philip R. Evans and first published by Arlington Press in 1974, Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945, (Oxford University Press, 1999) and Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael (Oxford University Press, 2002). Sudhalter is also a much acclaimed musician whose Bix-influenced cornet and trumpet solos have graced numerous recordings.

For details about the 51 tracks in the CD set and for ordering information, click here. For a Rifftides posting about Sudhalter, his predicament and the benefit concert for him nearly two years ago, click here. He needed help then. Now, he needs it even more.

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Comments

  1. Gilbert M. Erskine says

    August 11, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    I probably have all of the US items, but I certainly want to hear the European stuff. It will be good to have everything gathered in a 2 CD set.
    I’m certainly impressed that Nick Dellow has gone to all this trouble on behalf of Richard Sudhalter. I have just emailed Dellow to order the CDs.
    I recall Brian Rust some 30 – 40 years ago calling attention to the sudden, dramatic influence Bix had on Sterling Bose. Bose, up from New Orleans, had replaced Wingy Manonne on recordings of the Arcadian Serenaders, and was playing in the white New Orleans style. Then Bose heard Bix with Frank Trumbauer at St Louis’ Arcadian Ballroom, and his subsequent records has Bix phrasing in his ensemble work.
    I will be interested in seeing the critical assessments in the booklets with the CDs.
    ———–GILBERT M. ERSKINE

  2. Norman Field says

    August 12, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Thanks to info. on this issue circulated by the indefatigable Enrico Borsetti of Rome (Italy), I have just ordered a copy of this CD from Nick Dellow. I had the honour to play at a benefit for Richard Sudhalter, organised by Keith Nichols, at the 100 Club in London, some time ago. I even got to play just one gig with Richard himself, along with his old ‘mates’ John R.T. Davies, Jim Shephard and Neville Skrimshire. This was in London, quite a few years ago. Unfortunately, the piano player did not show up, so Dick Sudhalter played piano instead of cornet; yet another of his talents – if a little-known one!
    I’m sure I speak on behalf of us all when I say we send our best and warmest wishes to Richard at this time
    Norman.

  3. David Brent Johnson says

    August 19, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    Dick Sudhalter came to the community radio station where I was volunteering in 2002 and did an extended interview with me about Hoagy Carmichael. The program that resulted made me really visualize, for the first time, a career in jazz radio. I continue to be grateful for that and subsequent interviews that Richard did with me over the phone about Bix and Indiana jazz. Thanks so much for the heads-up on this anthology, Doug; I’ll be ordering it. Dick Hyman has a new Bix tribute out as well.
    (Mr. Johnson hosts “Night Lights” on Indiana Public Radio: http://nightlights.blogs.wfiu.org/ — DR)

  4. Enrico Borsetti says

    August 22, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    There will be a Benefit Concert for Richard Sudhalter on Friday, Sep 5, 2008 at 6:30 PM in the Paumanok Vineyards, 1074 Main Road, Aquabogue, NY 11931.
    The Tribute will feature Marty Grosz and the Destiny’s Tots: Scott Robinson (bass sax), Dan Block (clarinet) and Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet).
    Aquabogue is located on the north shore of Eastern Long Island, about 80 miles from Manhattan. For reservations, call (631)722-8800.
    I am sure you all know that Richard is a distinguished author, musician, and jazz historian. He was artistic director of “Sunset at the Vineyard.”
    Richard currently resides at the Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home in Manhattan, where he is treated for multiple system atrophy. All profits from the concert will go to helping Richard with his medical expenses.

  5. joe moore says

    August 26, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    I would strongly recommend people to buy this double-CD set. Not only do you get over 50 tracks of players influenced by Bix, but also two sides by Fred Elizalde (complete with Adrian Rollini) which until very recently were completely unknown -let alone unheard! And there’s also the “missing” Okeh side of “Broadway Rose” by Dick McDonough.
    I had a very minor involvement in the production of this set, and I’m delighted it is now available.
    Quite apart from the musical enjoyment-and there are some VERY rare British tracks here-buy it to help out someone who very much needs it at the moment, and whose own record as a player and writer speaks for itself.

  6. Doug Longenecker says

    June 26, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    I had the privilege of hearing one of Dick Sudhalter’s recreation of the Paul Whiteman Orch. at a New Jersey Jazz Society jazz picnic many years ago. Heard him several other times at different venues and finally got to meet him and he signed my copy of his “Bix, Man and Legend.” He was a gracious person and easy to talk to. His contribution to jazz and jazz history was memorable. He is sadly missed.

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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