Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) Class of 2004 "Every note went through you like a shaft of light," a friend wrote after hearing Bix Beiderbecke play the cornet for the first time, "making you feel all clear and clean and open." Born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, Bix Beiderbecke fell in love with New Orleans music at the age of 15 and over the objections of his family determined to become a jazz musician. He first came to public attention with, the Wolverine Orchestra and later became a featured "hot" soloist with the orchestras of Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman. But he made perhaps his most important contribution in 1927, when he and the C-melody saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer made a series of recordings, including "Singin' the Blues," that showed how jazz and the romantic ballad could be combined, how music could simultaneously be sweet and hot. Beiderbecke's recording career lasted less than seven years; alcoholism and pneumonia killed him at 28. But the understated eloquence of his solos and the silvery brilliance of his tone – "like a girl saying yes," the guitarist Eddie Condon remembered – brought a new kind of quiet lyricism to jazz and helped convince a generation of eager young white musicians that they, too, could make a contribution to the new American music. Offical Website: www.bixbeiderbecke.com Photo credit: Schomburg/NYPL