Frank Trumbauer & Bix Beiderbecke: Mississippi Mud

Track

Mississippi Mud

Group

Frank Trumbauer & His Orchestra (With Bix Beiderbecke)

CD

Bix Beiderbecke, Volume 2: At the Jazz Band Ball (Columbia CK 46175)

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Musicians:

Frankie Trumbauer (C-melody saxophone, vocals), Bix Beiderbecke (cornet), Bill Rank (trombone), Jimmy Dorsey (clarinet, alto sax), Adrian Rollini (bass saxophone), Matty Malneck (violin), Eddie Lang (guitar), Bing Crosby (vocals),

Charlie Margulis (trumpet), Chester Hazlett (alto sax), Lennie Hayton (piano), Hal McDonald (drums)

.

Composed by Harry Barris & James Cavanaugh

.

Recorded: New York, January 20, 1928

Albumcoverbixbjazzbandball

Rating: 90/100 (learn more)

"Just as happy as a cow chewin' on her cud," regales Bing Crosby, "when the darkies beat their feet on the Mississippi mud." No track better exemplifies the diamonds-in-quicksand contradictions of Jim Crow jazz. The jewels are supplied by Bix Beiderbecke, whose cornet glitters gloriously amidst the muck of racial condescension. Instead of attacking a note head-on, Bix would sneak up on it, rolling the note delicately through his horn as if massaging a caterpillar, and finally spring it surprised from his bell, newly arrayed. Bix's laid-back lyricism redeems a track that would otherwise belong at the bottom of the swamp.

Reviewer: Alan Kurtz

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Related Links

Bixology, an excerpt from a book by Brendan Wolfe
The Dozens: Twelve Essential Bix Beiderbecke Performances by Brendan Wolfe
Remembering Bix by Ted Gioia
Bix Beiderbecke from jazz.com’s Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians


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