LP-659

The Metropolitan Jazz Octet - The Legend of Bix

Released 1959

Recording and Session Information

The Metropolitan Jazz Octet
Ed Haley, trumpet; Ed Avis, valve trombone; Dave Edwards, alto saxophone; Tom Hilliard, tenor saxophone; Benny Baileys, britone sxophone; Gerry Lofstrum, bass; Jim Gianais, drums
New York, August, 1959

9649 In the dark
9650 Nick La Rocca
9651 Candlelights
9652 Little Louis and the King
9653 In a mist
9656 Flashes
9657 Paul Mares
9658 Davenport blues
9659 The ballad of Emmett Hardy

Track Listing

Nick La Rocca	Tommy Hilliard	August 11-12 1959
Little Louis And The King	Tommy Hilliard	August 11-12 1959
Paul Mares	Tommy Hilliard	August 11-12 1959
The Ballad Of Emmett Hardy	Tommy Hilliard	August 11-12 1959
11-12 August 1959	Bix Beiderbecke	August 11-12 1959
Flashes	Bix Beiderbecke	August 11-12 1959
Davenport Blues	Bix Beiderbecke	August 11-12 1959
In The Dark	Bix Beiderbecke	August 11-12 1959
Candlelights	Bix Beiderbecke	August 11-12 1959

Liner Notes

About Bix

BIX BEIDERBECKE was obviously the sort of man about whom legends insist upon growing. He lived for only twenty-eight years, and his career actually spanned less than a decade (most of that time spent in bands that could not do justice to his sensitive, lyric jazz talents). Yet he was a tremendous influence on all the musicians who heard him: the Chicagoans, not much younger than he, made him their idol; and such listeners as Louis Armstrong, Red Nichols, and the men who worked alongside him in the Paul Whiteman and Jean Goldkette orchestras seem to have been uniformly awed and amazed. He remains a vivid, affectionate and larger than life-size memory to almost all who knew him — and to a great many who didn't. He remains, in short, the number one jazz legend.

Grauer and Keepnews
Pictorial History Of Jazz

Born in Davenport, Iowa, on March 10, 1903. From a comfortable and cultivated family, he studied piano briefly under Professor Grade of Davenport, who claimed that the boy did well for one who played so entirely by ear. He picked up the cornet shortly after hearing Nick LaRocca on The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recordings. His interest led him next to King Oliver and the young Louis Armstrong.

As to who was the most important influence on his cornet playing, there is much controversy to this day. Some feel that Paul Mares from the New Orleans Rhythm Kings was strongly felt. Others are of the idea that near legendary Emmett Hardy (died at twenty-two, having never recorded), must have been the most important influence. As it is with legends, it is difficult to keep the facts straight.

Of the more persistent images of him that are drawn for us, we discover an absent-minded kind of Peter Pan who drank too much, played cornet like no one else, and when too inebriated to blow, would sit down at the piano and improvise strange, haunting melodies, of which, only five were ever set down on paper. He died on August 6, 1931. The mortal remains of Bix were interred on August 10, 1931. The immortal remains on his recordings, and in the five pieces for piano that we still have with us.

About The Music

We have tried to create a fantasy on the coming of age of a young man who was deeply involved in the beginnings of a very new art form, It is based, primarily, on the music of the men who were supposed to have influenced him, chronologically : Nick LaRocca, childhood;
King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, adolescence;
Paul Mares, youth;
Emmett Hardy, the man who could have been.
The composition Nick LaRocca is based on two different phrases played by La Rocca.

 

This one is from The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recording of Tiger Rag.

 
This is from The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recording of Clarinet Marmalade, Both phrases are lightly introduced, developed, and ultimately restated.

Little Louts And The King is derived from a re-rhythmitization of King Oliver's West End Bluer and two consecutive Louis Armstrong cornet choruses on Oliver's Dippermouth Blues.

Paul Mares is represented by the chord progressions of Shim-Me-She-Wobble and the Mares chorus from the New Orleans Rhythm Kings' recording of same.

The Ballad Of Emmett Hardy begins with the name Emmett Hardy, musically stated. It is broadened and finally concluded by Bix' famous chorus from I'm Coming Virginia.

The five pieces for piano were orchestrated with thought to their original value and meaning.

About The Group

The Metropolitan Jazz Octet began as a rehearsal group in August, 1957. They have been enthusiastically received on all their public appearances, including a first-time-ever performance by a jazz group at the celebrated Old Town Art Fair in Chicago.

Tom Hilliard