Even before he died at the age of 28, Bix Beiderbecke had acquired the aura of a dissipated genius. Handsome and likeable, a natural improviser who heard new melodies in his head before he could read themes on a printed page, he was the John Keats of jazz. Italian director Pupi Avati, acclaimed for his work with Pier Paolo Pasolini and for a series of award-winning films at the Venice and Cannes Film Festivals, has interpreted the legend of Bix in a meticulous recreation of the music and look of the jazz age. As the story unfolds in flashbacks through the memory of his friend Joe Venuti (Emile Levisetti), the sensitive cornetist (Brant Weeks) is depicted as one and the same with the compulsive rebel. Bix's musical cronies are also central to the plot and include, in addition to Venuti, Hoagy Carmichael, Frankie Trumbauer, Pee Wee Russell and Paul Whiteman. The music that they immortalized -- "Singin' the Blues," "Riverboat Shuffle," "Dardanella," "Stardust," "Jazz Me Blues" and "In a Mist (Bixology)" -- are recreated under the direction of Bob Wilber with help from Tom Pletcher (cornet), Kenny Davern (clarinet), Keith Nichols (piano), Vince Giordano (bass) and others. "The film has much to recommend it, starting with unusually accurate period music and the use of authentic Midwestern locations, including the Beiderbecke family house in Davenport, Iowa. Dramatically it works too. From The Jazz Singer to St. Louis Blues and beyond, every generation-gap jazz saga has ended with the disapproving family embracing the wayward lad¹s aesthetics at last. Bix works a dark variation on that boilerplate tale, ending with an appropriately bittersweet twist." -- Kevin Whitehead, PULSE!

Description:
1990 Color 100 min. Cat. # BIXDVD Directed by Pupi Avati Produced by Antonio Avati UPC# 7 45475 9022 3