Search - Bix Beiderbecke :: Felix the Cat

A great sampling of Bix's music

"Gimpy" Peach Johnson | 01/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion, this disc offers one of the best overviews of Bix Beiderbecke's career on one disc. If you only buy one Bix CD, this is a good one to get. It features several of his earliest recordings with the Wolverine Orchestra, some of his small-group sessions under the title of "Bix's Rhythm Jugglers," many of his finest "big-band" sides with Jean Goldkette, Paul Whiteman, and Frankie Trumbauer, along with the last sides he ever recorded in 1930 with Hoagy Carmichael. This disc also contains his famous piano solo "In A Mist." It's extremely difficult to boil all of Bix's recordings down to a "best of" CD since so many of his records were outstanding, but the folks at Jazz Archives in France have done a nice job in selecting the tunes for this set. The sound quality, while not as good as the famous "Bix Restored" series, is quite acceptable. Listening to the disc, I suspect that most of the tracks were dubbed from previous LP reissues of these titles, but still, the listening's good.If you just want one or two discs of Bix Beiderbecke, this is a good one to get, and I'd also recommend the two Columbia discs currently available. If you're more serious about building your jazz CD collection and have a little money to spare and want more Bix, I'd recommend the "Bix Restored" series with excellent transfers by John R. T. Davies."