Page "Bix Beiderbecke" Paragraph 59

Beiderbecke plays piano on his recordings " Big Boy " ( October 8, 1924 ), " For No Reason at All in C " ( May 13, 1927 ), " Wringin ' and Twistin '" ( September 17, 1927 )— all with ensembles — and his only solo recorded work, " In a Mist " ( September 8, 1927 ).

Critic Frank Murphy argues that many of the same characteristics that mark Beiderbecke on the cornet mark him on the keyboard: the uncharacteristic fingering, the emphasis on inventive harmonies, and the correlated choruses.

Those inventive harmonies, on both cornet and piano, eventually helped point the way to bebop, which abandoned melody almost entirely.