In magazine articles, musicians ' memoirs, novels, and Hollywood films, Beiderbecke has been reincarnated as a Romantic hero, the " Young Man with a Horn ".

Beiderbecke, age 8, poses with a neighbor, Nora Lasher, in 1911.

Regardless, Mr. and Mrs. Beiderbecke apparently felt that a boarding school would provide their son with both the necessary faculty attention and discipline to improve his academic performance.

In pursuit of the former, Beiderbecke took the train into Chicago to catch the hot jazz bands at clubs and speakeasies, including the infamous Friar's Inn, where he listened to and sometimes sat in with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

The Wolverines with Beiderbecke at Doyle's Academy of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1924

Beiderbecke made his first recordings 21 months before Armstrong recorded as a leader with the Hot Five.

Beiderbecke apparently spent time with them, but the degree to which Hardy's style influenced Beiderbecke's is difficult to know because Hardy never recorded.

Beiderbecke left the Wolverines in October 1924 for a spot with Jean Goldkette in Detroit, but the job didn't last long.

After a few weeks, Beiderbecke was bounced from the Goldkette band, but soon arranged a recording session back in Richmond with some of its members.

The band was run by Goldkette, and it put Beiderbecke in touch with another musician he had met before: the C-melody saxophone player Frankie Trumbauer.

" They were inseparable for much of the rest of Beiderbecke's career, with Trumbauer acting as a father figure to Beiderbecke.

In the spring of 1926, Trumbauer closed up shop in St. Louis and, with Beiderbecke, moved to Detroit, this time to play with Goldkette's headline ensemble.

In addition to their sessions with Goldkette, Beiderbecke and his friends recorded under their own names for the Okeh label.

Again with Trumbauer, Beiderbecke re-recorded Carmichael's " Riverboat Shuffle " in May and delivered two of his best known solos a few days later on " I'm Coming, Virginia " and " Way Down Yonder in New Orleans ".

When that job ended sooner than expected, in October 1927, Beiderbecke and Trumbauer signed on with Whiteman.

For Beiderbecke, the downside of being with Whiteman was the relentless touring and recording schedule, exacerbated by Beiderbecke's alcoholism.

On his last recording session, in New York, on September 15, 1930, Beiderbecke played on the original recording of Hoagy Carmichael's new song, " Georgia on My Mind ", with Carmichael doing the vocal, Eddie Lang on guitar, Joe Venuti on violin, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto saxophone, Jack Teagarden on trombone, and Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone.

Bing Crosby, who sang with Whiteman, also cited Beiderbecke as an important influence.

The notice appeared in October 1931 and began with a bit of hyperbole and an incorrect fact, two hallmarks of much of the subsequent writing about Beiderbecke: " The announcement of Bix Beiderbecke's death plunged all jazz musicians into despair.

The critic and musician Digby Fairweather sums up Beiderbecke's musical legacy, arguing that " with Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke was the most striking of jazz's cornet ( and of course, trumpet ) fathers ; a player who first captivated his 1920s generation and after his premature death, founded a dynasty of distinguished followers beginning with Jimmy McPartland and moving on down from there.

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 ).

" Candlelights ", " Flashes ", and " In the Dark " are piano compositions transcribed with the help of Bill Challis but never recorded by Beiderbecke.

Beiderbecke also has been credited for his influence, directly, on Bing Crosby and, indirectly, via saxophonist Frank Trumbauer, on Lester Young.

Beiderbecke and Trumbauer both joined Goldkette in 1926.

The following year, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Detroit to join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the country: the New York-based Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

When Trumbauer organized a band for an extended run at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis, Beiderbecke joined him.

Paul Whiteman hoped to snatch up Goldkette's best musicians for his traveling orchestra, but Beiderbecke, Trumbauer, Murray, Rank, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Chauncey Morehouse, and Frank Signorelli instead joined the bass saxophone player Adrian Rollini at the Club New Yorker.

Includes interviews with Frank Trumbauer, Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon, Bing Crosby, Hoagy Carmichael, and Bix's brother Charles " Burnie " Beiderbecke

Robinson composed the jazz standard " Eccentric " (" That Eccentric Rag "), " Margie ", " Jazzola ", " Singin ' the Blues ( Till My Daddy Comes Home )", which was recorded by Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, and Eddie Lang, " Mary Lou ", " Pan Yan ( And His Chinese Jazz Band )", " How Many Times?

Jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke recorded nine compositions by ODJB in various bands and orchestras from 1924 to 1930: " Fidgety Feet ", his first recording in 1924, " Tiger Rag ", " Sensation ", " Lazy Daddy ", " Ostrich Walk ", " Clarinet Marmalade ", " Singin ' the Blues " with Frankie Trumbauer and Eddie Lang, " Margie ", and " At The Jazz Band Ball ".

In 1977, the ODJB classic " Singin ' the Blues ", co-written by ODJB pianist J. Russel Robinson, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in a landmark 1927 recording by Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet and Eddie Lang on guitar, as Okeh 40772-B, recorded on February 4, 1927.

In 2008, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band classic " Ostrich Walk ", written by Edwin B. Edwards, Nick LaRocca, Henry Ragas, Tony Sbarbaro, and Larry Shields, in a performance by Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer, was included on the soundtrack to the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Although unashamedly commercial, these bands often featured front-rank jazz musicians — for example Paul Whiteman employed Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.

Culled from the American OKeh label, artists like Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer, Duke Ellington, Miff Mole, and other major artists who recorded for OKeh.

In 1977, Robinson's composition " Singin ' the Blues " was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in a 1927 recording by Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet as Okeh 40772-B.

On February 4, 1927, Lang featured in the recording of " Singin ' the Blues " by Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet.

In 1977, Lang's recording of " Singin ' the Blues " with Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

*" Singin ' the Blues ", recorded on February 4, 1927, with Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke in New York and released as Okeh 40772

*" For No Reason at All in C " with Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke, recorded on May 13, 1927, in New York and released as Okeh 40871, Columbia 35667, and Parlophone R 3419

*" Wringin ' An ' Twistin ', with Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke, September 17, 1927, OKeh 40916

He led many jazz and dance bands, of which the best known was his Victor Recording Orchestra of 1924 – 1929, which included, at various times, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, Chauncey Morehouse, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Bill Rank, Eddie Lang, Frankie Trumbauer, Pee Wee Russell, Steve Brown, Joe Venuti, and arranger Robert Ginzler among others.