Bix Beiderbecke

Tom Roberts on Bix: Hot Club Jazz Listening ZOOM Session Stream from Alphabet City. Thursday, March 8

This month features Bix Beiderbecke. The young man with a horn. Bix opened up a new world of emotional complexity coupled with a lyricism that influenced everyone from Lester Young to Miles Davis. Bix was the first jazz musician to gain inspiration from modern European classical composers like Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky, and to incorporate their innovations within his own improvisations.

A consummate improviser, Bix never repeated himself.

These listening sessions share jazz on 78rpm record—the oldest and rarest records that capture truly high quality sound. It’s like book club for jazz heads. Taught by jazz historian, pianist, and collector Tom Roberts and held on zoom. 

Tom Roberts by Scott Hanley

Host/Moderator

Pianist/ composer/ arranger/ historian/ writer Tom Roberts has been acclaimed as one of the foremost practitioners in the art of Harlem Stride Piano. He has been a frequent performer for Jazz in July at the 92nd St Y, The 6th annual Professor Longhair Society’s Piano Night at Tipitinas New Orleans LA,  Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops Orchestra,  The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and The International Stride Piano Summit in Zurich Switzerland. Tom toured throughout the world as pianisy and musical directer for Leon Redbone. As a historian, Tom presents lectures on Why Louis Armstrong Matters and The Forgotten History of Jazz in Pittsburgh . Tom created The Allegheny City Ragtime Orchestra, a professional ensemble comprising members of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Ballet and Opera Orchestras to revive the lost music of Pittsburgh area composers from the ragtime era.