Editing Bix Beiderbecke (section)

===Style and influence===
In New Orleans, jazz had traditionally been expressed through polyphonic ensemble playing, with the various instruments weaving their parts into a single and coherent aural tapestry. By the early 1920s, developments in jazz saw the rise of the jazz soloist, with solos becoming longer and more complex. Both Beiderbecke and Armstrong were key figures in this evolution, as can be heard on their earliest recordings. According to the critic [[Terry Teachout]], they are "the two most influential figures in the early history of jazz" and "the twin lines of descent from which most of today's jazz can be traced."{{efn-ua|Teachout, ''Homage to Bix''{{sfn|Teachout|2005|page=65}} See also Teachout, ''Pops''.{{sfn|Teachout|2009}}}}

Beiderbecke's cornet style is often described by contrasting it with Armstrong's markedly different approach.<ref>Teachout in ''Homage to Bix'', for instance, contrasts Beiderbecke's and Armstrong's personalities, styles, and the approach historians have taken to their stories. "Beiderbecke's style, which was all but fully formed when he made his first recordings, was completely different from that of the New Orleans-born cornet and trumpet players who preceded him, Armstrong included," Teachout writes. "Unlike them, he played with precise, at times almost fussy articulation and a rounded, chime-like tone […] sticking mostly to the middle register and avoiding the interpolated high notes that became an Armstrong trademark."</ref> Armstrong was a virtuoso on his instrument, and his solos often took advantage of that fact. Beiderbecke was largely, although not completely, self-taught, and the constraints imposed by that fact were evident in his music. While Armstrong often soared into the upper register, Beiderbecke stayed in the middle range, more interested in exploring the melody and harmonies than in dazzling the audience. Armstrong often emphasized the performance aspect of his playing, while Beiderbecke tended to stare at his feet while playing, uninterested in personally engaging his listeners.{{sfn|Evans|Evans|1998|page=xxii}} Armstrong was deeply influenced by the blues, while Beiderbecke was influenced as much by modernist composers such as Debussy and Ravel as by his fellow jazzmen.{{efn-ua|For the blues influence on Armstrong, see Brothers ,{{sfn|Brothers|2014|pages=132-163}} especially Chapter 7, "Ragtime and Buddy Bolden". For Bix's listening, see Lion, pp. 78–79.}}

Beiderbecke's most famous solo was on "Singin' the Blues", recorded February 4, 1927. It has been hailed as an important example of the "jazz ballad style"—"a slow or medium-tempo piece played gently and sweetly, but not cloyingly, with no loss of muscle."{{sfn|Sudhalter|Evans|Dean-Myatt|1974|page=196}} The tune's laid-back emotions hinted at what would become, in the 1950s, the cool jazz style, personified by [[Chet Baker]] and [[Bill Evans]]. More than that, though, "Singin' the Blues" has been noted for the way its improvisations feel less improvised than composed, with each phrase building on the last in a logical fashion. Benny Green describes the solo's effect on practiced ears:

<blockquote>When a musician hears Bix's solo on 'Singing the Blues', he becomes aware after two bars that the soloist knows exactly what he is doing and that he has an exquisite sense of discord and resolution. He knows also that this player is endowed with the rarest jazz gift of all, a sense of form which lends to an improvised performance a coherence which no amount of teaching can produce. The listening musician, whatever his generation or his style, recognizes Bix as a modern, modernism being not a style but an attitude.{{sfn|Green|1991|page=34}}</blockquote>

Like Green, who made particular mention of Beiderbecke's "amount of teaching," the jazz historian [[Ted Gioia]] also has emphasized Beiderbecke's lack of formal instruction, suggesting that it caused him to adopt "an unusual, dry embouchure" and "unconventional fingerings," which he retained for the rest of his life. Gioia points to "a characteristic streak of obstinacy" in Beiderbecke that provokes "this chronic disregard of the tried-and-true." He argues that this stubbornness was behind Beiderbecke's decision not to switch from cornet to trumpet when many other musicians, including Armstrong, did so.{{sfn|Gioia|1997|pages=71–72}} In addition, Gioia highlights Beiderbecke's precise timing, relaxed delivery, and pure tone, which contrasted with "the dirty, rough-edged sound" of [[Joe "King" Oliver|King Oliver]] and his protégé Armstrong, whose playing was often more energetic and whose style held more sway early in the 1920s than Beiderbecke's.

Beiderbecke's playing – both as a cornetist and a pianist – had a profound effect on a number of his contemporaries. Eddie Condon, for instance, described Beiderbecke's cornet playing as "like a girl saying yes"{{sfn|Condon|Sugrue|1992|page=85}} and also wrote of being amazed by Beiderbecke's piano playing: "All my life I had been listening to music […] But I had never heard anything remotely like what Beiderbecke played. For the first time I realized music isn't all the same, it had become an entirely new set of sounds"{{efn-ua|Condon{{sfn|Condon|Sugrue|1992|page=84}} quoted in Berton.{{sfn|Berton|2000|page=89}}}} "I tried to explain Bix to the gang," Hoagy Carmichael wrote, but "[i]t was no good, like the telling of a vivid, personal dream […] the emotion couldn't be transmitted."{{efn-ua|Carmichael{{sfn|Carmichael|1999|page=110}} quoted in Berton.{{sfn|Berton|2000|page=91}}}}

Mezz Mezzrow described Beiderbecke's tone as being "pickled in alcohol […] I have never heard a tone like he got before or since. He played mostly open horn, every note full, big, rich and round, standing out like a pearl, loud but never irritating or jangling, with a powerful drive that few white musicians had in those days."{{efn-ua|Mezzrow{{sfn|Mezzrow|Wolfe|1998|page=80}} quoted in Gioia.{{sfn|Gioia|1997|pages=73}}}}

Some critics have highlighted "Jazz Me Blues", recorded with the Wolverines on February 18, 1924, as being particularly important to understanding Beiderbecke's style. Although it was one of his earliest recordings, the hallmarks of his playing are evident. "The overall impression we get from this solo, as in all of Bix at his best," writes the trumpeter [[Randy Sandke]], "is that every note is spontaneous yet inevitable."{{efn-ua|Quote in Lion.{{sfn|Lion|2005|page=65}}}} Richard Hadlock describes Beiderbecke's contribution to "Jazz Me Blues" as "an ordered solo that seems more inspired by clarinetists Larry Shields of the ODJB and Leon Roppolo of the NORK than by other trumpet players."{{sfn|Hadlock|1974|page=81}} He goes on to suggest that clarinetists, by virtue of their not being tied to the melody as much as cornetists and trumpet players, could explore harmonies.

"Jazz Me Blues" was also important because it introduced what has been called the "correlated chorus", a method of improvising that Beiderbecke's Davenport friend Esten Spurrier attributed to both Beiderbecke and Armstrong. "Louis departed greatly from all cornet players in his ability to compose a close-knit individual 32 measures with all phrases compatible with each other", Spurrier told the biographers Sudhalter and Evans, "so Bix and I always credited Louis as being the father of the correlated chorus: play two measures, then two related, making four measures, on which you played another four measures related to the first four, and so on ad infinitum to the end of the chorus. So the secret was simple—a series of related phrases."{{sfn|Sudhalter|Evans|Dean-Myatt|1974|pages=100–101}}

Beiderbecke plays piano on his recordings "Big Boy" (October 8, 1924), "[[For No Reason at All in C]]" (May 13, 1927), "Wringin' and Twistin'" (September 17, 1927)—all with ensembles—and his only solo recorded work, "[[In a Mist]]" (September 8, 1927). Critic Frank Murphy argues that many of the same characteristics that mark Beiderbecke on the cornet are also reflected in his piano playing: the uncharacteristic fingering, the emphasis on inventive harmonies, and the correlated choruses.{{sfn|Lion|2005|page=156}} Those inventive harmonies, on both cornet and piano, pointed the way to future developments in jazz, particularly [[bebop]].{{sfn|Williams|1993|page=136}}