Bix: Man and Legend [first edition]

Dust jacket notes: "He was an American musical genius - and an American tragedy. Along with Louis Armstrong, he towered over jazz in the Twenties. And, together with Louis, he brought jazz to maturity. The genius of Bix Beiderbecke, his lovable yet sometimes eccentric ways, above all his early, tragic death in 1931 - this was the stuff of legend, and Bix indeed became a legend, here and abroad, as early as the Thirties. His life loosely inspired Dorothy Baker's celebrated Thirties novel, Young Man with a Horn (later a film.) But as the legend waxed, the facts grew fuzzier - until this remarkable book. It restores the real Bix, and actually adds to his stature. Documented in lavish detail are Bix's early years...why his cornet playing with the Wolverines hit American music like a thunderclap...Bix and the trailblazing Jean Goldkette band...Bix's widely misunderstood tenure with Paul Whiteman...his frustrating private life...and the losing battle with alcohol...." Illustrated with numerous photographs; also includes a Chronology of Bix's life, Discography, and Index.