ertegunjazzhalloffame

Bix Beiderbecke
at the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame

Bix Beiderbecke was one of the first fourteen inductees to the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame. The Selection Committee consisted of Ahmet Ertegun, Wynton Marsalis, Dan Morgerstern, Albert Murray, Phil Schaap, Gunther Schuller and George Wein, and a 72-person international voting panel that included musicians, scholars and educators from 17 countries. The announcement of this honor from the Jazz at Lincoln Center website follows.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER TO INDUCT INAUGURAL CLASS OF MUSICIANS

INTO THE ERTEGUN JAZZ HALL OF FAME

International Voting Panel Selects 14 Jazz Legends to be Honored

September 30, 2004 (NEW YORK) – Jazz at Lincoln Center tonight will celebrate the dedication of the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame and the official induction of its inaugural class of members. Located within the new home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall, the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, which interactively immerses visitors in the lives and artistry of jazz greats, was named by Jazz at Lincoln Center Board member Ahmet Ertegun and his wife, Mica, in honor of his late brother and Atlantic Records partner Nesuhi Ertegun.

The musicians inducted into the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame are: Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Lester Young. Inductees’ family members, friends and fellow artists will be on-hand to receive the honors on their behalf.

With a welcome by Ahmet Ertegun and introductions by Gunther Schuller, Victor Goines and Wynton Marsalis, inductees’ awards will be presented by Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson, James Carter, Benny Golson, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Wynton Marsalis, James Moody, Nicholas Payton, Randy Sandke, Clark Terry, Frank Wess, Randy Weston, Dr. Michael White and Bob Wilber. Also performing will be the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Rhythm Section: Eric Lewis (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass), and Herlin Riley (drums); Madeleine Peyroux (vocals) and Ryan Kisor (trumpet). Generous support for the evening was provided by Movado.

"The greatest artists speak across epochs of the undying soul that distinguishes man from everything else in creation,” said Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center. “These 14 men and women are the embodiment of the very best in American culture. Their creations will stand for all time as a testament to the richness of our way of living. We're proud to provide the world with a place to celebrate and reflect upon their great achievements." A 72-person international voting panel, which includes musicians, scholars and educators from 17 countries, was charged with nominating and selecting the most definitive artists in the history of jazz for induction into the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame. Criteria for nomination include excellence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of jazz.
“The artists that we will honor as the first class of members into the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame gave something wonderful, passionate, inspiring and eternal to the world,” said Ahmet Ertegun. “My brother Nesuhi, in whose honor my wife and I named the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, helped nurture some of these great artists and I think it is only fitting that we help create a space where people of all ages can come to learn about their contributions to the world of jazz. The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will provide a center where the lives and the artistry of the greatest jazz musicians will be celebrated, and where people will come to learn about jazz, something to which my brother devoted his life’s work.”

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, which was designed by the Rockwell Group and opened to the public on October 21, 2004, is a multi-media installation featuring a 14-foot video wall, interactive kiosks, touch-activated virtual plaques and the great sounds of jazz. The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame’s physical design celebrates jazz by emphasizing flexibility and improvisation, and utilizes materials, such as cork, wood and brass, found in jazz instruments. The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will be free and open to the public between the hours of 10am-4pm, Tuesday through Sunday. The space will also be open to ticket-holders in the evening.

“The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame is a very special part of our new home,” said Derek E. Gordon, Executive Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Whether you come to Frederick P. Rose Hall to see a jazz performance or a classical concert or a dance program, you will be exposed to the essence of jazz and inspired by the talented and celebrated men and women that we honor in the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.”

Every year, the international panel that Jazz at Lincoln Center has assembled will vote on a new class of honorees. Each new class of inductees will be honored at an annual ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall.

Nesuhi Ertegun (1917 - 1989)

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, named for Nesuhi Ertegun, is a gift of Mica and Ahmet Ertegun. Nesuhi Ertegun’s passionate advocacy of jazz music and nurturing of jazz musicians made an indelible contribution to the awareness and appreciation of jazz throughout the world. The son of the former Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Nesuhi Ertegun was born in Istanbul and subsequently raised in Switzerland, Paris, London, and Washington, D.C. A passionate jazz and blues record collector, in 1944 Ertegun moved to Los Angeles, where he ran the Jazzman Record Shop and the Jazzman and Crescent labels. Among his first signings was legendary New Orleans trombonist Kid Ory. Ertegun became the editor of Record Changer magazine, made records for the Contemporary label, and taught jazz studies at UCLA – the first accredited course of its kind in the country. Today, the U.S. Library of Congress is home to the Nesuhi Ertegun Collection of Jelly Roll Morton Recordings.

In 1954, Nesuhi joined his brother Ahmet at Atlantic Records. Moving to New York, he developed an album department and was responsible for building the label’s exceptional jazz roster – producing John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Herbie Mann, and many others. In 1971, Nesuhi’s international expertise led to his establishment of WEA International (now known as Warner Music International). A committed and effective foe of record piracy worldwide, he also served as President of International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers (I.F.P.I.). Among his many other interests, Nesuhi, along with his brother, founded the New York Cosmos soccer team. He was also a world-renowned collector of surrealist art.

The citation for Bix follows.

Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931)

“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.

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Each inductee was presented an award by an artist who then played in honor of the inductee. The award was accepted by a family member, estate, or family friend. Each award read:

Name of Inductee
Inaugural Inductee
Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
Jazz at Lincoln Center
September 30, 2004

Randy Sandke made the presentation of the award to Bix, and Hoagy Bix Carmichael received it. This is what Randy said.

We live in an impermanent world. Just in my lifetime I have witnessed great
corporations, great buildings, even nations and empires rise and fall. And
yet the music of the people we honor here tonight is as eternal and
indestructible as anything mankind has ever produced.

Almost everything written about Bix Beiderbecke includes the word ³legend²
in the first sentence. We must remember, though, that if it weren¹t for his
music he would have been forgotten long ago. Part of the tragedy of Bix¹s
short life was that he held his own talent in such low esteem. No one would
have been more surprised than him that now in the twenty-first century he
has fans all over the world, festivals are held in his honor, his entire
recorded output is widely available, and that he is being honored here
tonight.

His recording career lasted a scant six and a half years. During his
lifetime he was mentioned in print only a handful of times. When he died in
1931 at the age of twenty-eight the New York Times ran no obituary.

And yet no one has played like him before or since. He, along with Louis
Armstrong and Sidney Bechet were the first great soloists in jazz. All of
them showed how divergent and yet valid alternative approaches to the music
could be, and all within the first decade of recorded jazz.

Louis and Bix were friends from the time they met as teenagers, and they
continued to see each other throughout Bix¹s life. On numerous occasions
Louis expressed his admiration and respect for Bix. He referred to him as a
"born genius." His "pretty notes went all through me," Armstrong said. "You can¹t find a musician in the whole world that doesn¹t love Bix¹s "In a
Mist."And in the fifties, Louis remembered an after hours jam session with
Bix at the Sunset Café in Chicago: "I¹ve never heard such good music since," he wrote.

Bix is credited with recording the first examples of a jazz ballad. The
first was "Singin' the Blues" from February of 1927, but I would like to
play his equally famous version of "I¹m Comin¹ Virginia," as recorded on May 13 of that year.

The award, received by Hoagy Bix Carmichael, was a Movado clock inbedded in lucite. [Movado was a sponsor of the event.] There was no certificate. Hoagy told me that it was a nice affair, but went on too long. I asked him, in a diplomatic manner, why was he chosen to receive the award. He told me because of the friendship of his dad with Bix, because his middle name was Bix, and because he knew one of the persons in charge. I expressed my surprise that the award was not received by a member of the Beiderbecke family. He said that the majority of the other 13 awards were, in fact, received by family members, but since there was no direct Bix descendent, he (Hoagy) was designated. Randy wrote, "Hoagy Bix made a speech about his fathers love for Bix and the profound musical debt he owed to Beiderbecke. Following this I played Bix's two choruses on "I'm Comin' Virginia" accompanied by Wynton Marsalis' rhythm section."

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Some Members of the International Voting Panel.

United States

George Avakian
Whitney Balliett
Stanley Crouch
Frank Driggs
Will Friedwald
Marty Grosz
Nat Hentoff
Dick Hyman
Orrin Keepnews
Marian McPartland
Richard Sudhalter
Dr. Michael White

Denmark

Frank Buchmann-Moeller
Cim Meyer

France

Jean-Claude Abreu
Philippe Baudoin
Philipp Charles
Daniel Richard

Netherlands

Cees Schrama
Bert Vuijsje

Sweden
Bo Scherman

United Kingdom

John Chilton
Brian Priestley
Chris Sheridan
Bob Wilber

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Three Images from the Hall of Fame

1. The panel

When the panel is touched, the image and text described in my previous post appear on the screen. Note the number of empty panels for future inductees.

2. Here are two of the images in the mini presentation about Bix.

The text reads "solidified jazz".

The text reads "and helped bring the soloist to the forefront."

This page was uploaded on June 28, 2005.
I am grateful to Randy Sandke, Hoagy Bix Carmichael, and Mary Fiance Fuss, Director of Public Relations, Jazz at Lincoln Center, for their invaluable help. Some of the images and text are from the Jazz at Lincoln Center website ( http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/) and are reproduced here with permission.