Editing Bix Beiderbecke (section)

===Wolverines===
[[File:Wolverine orchestra 1924.jpg|thumb|upright 1.8|right|The Wolverines with Beiderbecke at Doyle's Academy of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1924]]
Beiderbecke joined the Wolverine Orchestra late in 1923, and the seven-man group first played a [[speakeasy]] called the Stockton Club near [[Hamilton, Ohio]]. Specializing in [[Dixieland|hot jazz]] and recoiling from so-called sweet music, the band took its name from one of its most frequent numbers, [[Jelly Roll Morton]]'s "[[Wolverine Blues (song)|Wolverine Blues]]."{{sfn|Sudhalter|Evans|Dean-Myatt|1974|page=95}} During this time, Beiderbecke also took piano lessons from a young woman who introduced him to the works of [[Eastwood Lane]]. Lane's [[Suite (music)|piano suites]] and [[arrangement|orchestral arrangements]] were self-consciously American whilst also having [[Impressionism (music)|French Impressionist]] allusions, and influenced Beiderbecke's style, especially on "[[In a Mist]]."{{sfn|Sudhalter|Evans|Dean-Myatt|1974|page=95}} A subsequent gig at Doyle's Dance Academy in [[Cincinnati]] became the occasion for a series of band and individual photographs that resulted in the image of Beiderbecke—sitting fresh-faced, his hair perfectly combed and his cornet resting on his right knee.{{sfn|Lion|2005|page=60}}

On February 18, 1924, the Wolverines made their first recordings. Two sides were waxed that day at the [[Gennett Records]] studios in [[Richmond, Indiana]]:{{efn-ua|For more about Gennett, see Kennedy.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999}}}}  "[[Fidgety Feet]]", written by Nick LaRocca and [[Larry Shields]] from the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and "Jazz Me Blues", written by [[Tom Delaney (songwriter)|Tom Delaney]]. Beiderbecke's solo on the latter heralded something new and significant in jazz, according to biographers [[Dick Sudhalter|Richard M. Sudhalter]] and Philip R. Evans:

<blockquote>Both qualities—complementary or "correlated" phrasing and cultivation of the vocal, "singing" middle-range of the cornet—are on display in Bix's "Jazz Me Blues" solo, along with an already discernible inclination for unusual accidentals and inner chordal voices. It is a pioneer record, introducing a musician of great originality with a pace-setting band. And it astonished even the Wolverines themselves.{{sfn|Sudhalter|Evans|Dean-Myatt|1974|page=101}}</blockquote>

The Wolverines recorded 15 sides for Gennett Records between February and October 1924. The titles revealed a strong and well-formed cornet talent. His lip had strengthened from earlier, more tentative years; on nine of the Wolverines' recorded titles he proceeds commandingly from lead to opening solo without any need for a respite from playing.{{sfn|Fairweather|2000|page=127}}

In some respects, Beiderbecke's playing was ''[[Sui generis#Creative arts|sui generis]]'',{{efn-ua|The cornetist [[Rex Stewart]] described his friend Beiderbecke as "playin' stuff all his own. Didn't sound like Louis [Armstrong] or anybody else"{{sfn|Teachout|2009}}}} but he nevertheless listened to, and learned from, the music around him: from the Dixieland jazz as exemplified by the [[Original Dixieland Jazz Band]]; to the hotter Chicago style of the [[New Orleans Rhythm Kings]] and the south-side bands of  [[King Oliver]] and other black artists; to the classical compositions of [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel]].{{sfn|Lion|2005|pages=78-79}}

[[Louis Armstrong]] also provided a source of inspiration, though Beiderbecke's style was very different from that of Armstrong, according to ''The Oxford Companion to Jazz'':<blockquote>Where Armstrong's playing was bravura, regularly optimistic, and openly emotional, Beiderbecke's conveyed a range of intellectual alternatives. Where Armstrong, at the head of an ensemble, played it hard, straight, and true, Beiderbecke, like a shadowboxer, invented his own way of phrasing "around the lead." Where Armstrong's superior strength delighted in the sheer power of what a cornet could produce, Beiderbecke's cool approach invited rather than commanded you to listen.{{sfn|Fairweather|2000|pages=124–125}}</blockquote>Armstrong tended to accentuate showmanship and virtuosity, whereas Beiderbecke emphasized melody, even when improvising, and rarely strayed into the upper reaches of the register.<ref>The Kirk Douglas character in ''Young Man with a Horn'' is forever shooting for high notes. "I'm gonna hit a note that nobody ever heard before," he tells Doris Day's character.</ref> Mezz Mezzrow recounted in his autobiography driving 53 miles to Hudson Lake, Indiana, with Frank Teschemacher in order to play Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies" for Beiderbecke when it was released.{{sfn|Brothers|2014|page=218}} In addition to listening to Armstrong's records, Beiderbecke and other white musicians patronized the Sunset Café on Fridays to listen to Armstrong and his band.{{sfn|Brothers|2014|pages=238–39}} [[Paul Mares]] of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings insisted that Beiderbecke's chief influence was the New Orleans cornetist [[Emmett Hardy]], who died in 1925 at the age of 23.{{sfn|Sudhalter|Evans|Dean-Myatt|1974|page=119}} Indeed, Beiderbecke had met Hardy and the clarinetist [[Leon Roppolo]] in Davenport in 1921 when the two joined a local band and played in town for three months. Beiderbecke apparently spent time with them, but it is difficult to discern the degree to which Hardy's style influenced Beiderbecke's—especially since there is no publicly known recording of a Hardy performance.{{sfn|Sudhalter|1999|pages=52–56}}

Beiderbecke certainly found a kindred musical spirit in [[Hoagy Carmichael]], whose amusingly unconventional personality he also appreciated. The two became firm friends. A law student and aspiring pianist and songwriter, Carmichael invited the Wolverines to play at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University in the spring of 1924. On May 6, 1924, the Wolverines recorded a tune Carmichael had written especially for Beiderbecke and his colleagues: "[[Riverboat Shuffle]]".{{sfn|Lion|2005|page=69–72}}