Bix Beiderbecke: Royal Garden Blues

Track

Royal Garden Blues

Group

Bix Beiderbecke And His Gang

CD

Bix & Tram (JSP Records 9133)

Buy Track

Musicians:

Bix Beiderbecke (cornet), Bill Rank (trombone), Don Murray (clarinet), Adrian Rollini (bass saxophone), Frank Signorelli (piano), Chauncey Morehouse (drums).

Composed by Clarence Williams and Spencer Williams

Recorded: New York, October 5, 1927

Rating: 93/100 (learn more)

When the Goldkette outfit disbanded, Adrian Rollini rounded up a few Old Reliables for a gig at the Club New Yorker, which promptly went out of business. Bix, meanwhile, decided to ditch Tram and record under his own name again. On “Royal Garden Blues,” a standard popularized by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (and recorded by Bix’s first band, the Wolverines), he leads the Gang with great confidence. Bix’s close friend, the equally short-lived Don Murray, goes first, then the surprisingly nimble Rollini, who moans like a moose. Bill Rank swings and then wisely steps out of the way – here comes Bix. There’s nothing fancy about his 12 bars, nothing French; they just arrive out of nowhere, effortless and astonishing.

Reviewer: Brendan Wolfe

Welcome to Jazz.com