Leon Bismarck “Bix
” Beiderbecke was the first great white jazz musician. Born in Davenport, Iowa, on , Bix was something of a child prodigy, and from the age of three began to pick out tunes on the piano. To the dismay of his wealthy middle-class family, Bix displayed an early interest in jazz, listening to recordings, and haunting the waterfront along the Mississippi, where riverboats brought jazzmen upstream from St. Louis and New Orleans.
At 14,...