title: Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend
author:  Jean Pierre Lion 
description: Voted "Best Book of 2004" and awarded the Prix Charles Delaunay by the French "Acad&#233;mie du Jazz"<br /><br />[Lion's] style is elegant and inventive; his point is clear and perfectly framed by his patient study of the colossal documentation of Bix's life.The book comes alive through its intimate connection with one of the most fascinating characters in jazz history.-Frank Bergerot for Jazzman (French jazz magazine) (Franck Bergerot for Jazzman (French jazz mag))<br /><br />The learned and loving book that Jean-Pierre Lion dedicates to Bix takes its place as the biography of reference.-Michael Contat for Le Monde (French newspaper) (Michael Contat for Le Monde (French newspaper))<br /><br />Teeming with anecdotes and historical records, this biography, enhanced by several appendices and a complete discography, reads like a captivating novel.-Le Quotidien (French newspaper) (Le Quotidien (French newspaper))<br /><br />Jean Pierre Lion's work goes beyond mere biography. It examines the birth of jazz from historical and contemporary perspectives.it will serve as the point of reference for those seeking to understand the genesis of this music.-Olivier Kociubinska for Jazz Notes (French magazine) (Olivier Kociubinska for Jazz Notes (French mag))<br /><br />I have received the English translation of your book, and I am enchanted ! You have done an incroyable job ( I lapse into French sometimes when excited !). Really, I had thought that after the Sudhalter-Evans book there would not need to be any further exploration of Bix's life, but I was wrong. I never have seen the late Phil Evans' last book but heard that it is not more than a "catch-up" work, including material that never got into the other book, almost like a scrapbook. Your book, of course, puts this material and more,including photos of so many locations we have not all seen, into a sensible order and fills in the gaps that remained unknown. Thank you. I feel grateful to be included in it. Duncan Schiedt, author of Ain't Misbehavin (biography of Fats Waller)<br /><br />the book delves deeply into the musicians life. Whats Up, June 2005<br /><br />Bix is an exemplary piece of work[Lion] has exploded numerous myths that long ago crept into the Beiderbecke literature, replacing them with a factually trustworthy account of the cornetist's life." Commentary, September, 2005 (<i>Commentary</i>)<br /><br /><div>'An engrossing book, organised around a succession of significant dates and complete with an excellent discopgraphy.'</div> (<i>Times Literary Supplement</i>)<br /><br />"As, for music, Jean Pierre Lion's <i>Bix: The Definitive Biography of a JazzLegend </i>is a superior piece of biography that tells the sad story of jazzpioneer Bix Beiderbecke skillfully and sensitively." <i>nationalreview.com, </i>December 2005<br /> (nationalreview.com)
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  The hero of Rafi Zabor’s sensational first novel is an alto saxophone virtuoso
  trying to evolve a personal style out of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and
  Ornette Coleman. He also happens to be a walking, talking, Shakespeare and
  Blake-quoting bear whose keen sense of irony protects him from the double
  loneliness of the artist and animal in an underappreciative metropolis.
  
  
  
  
  
  The scion of a long line of European circus bears (and the product of an
  amazing roll of the genetic dice), the Bear, when we first meet him, is eking
  out a living doing a routinely humiliating street dancing act with his friend
  and keeper, Jones. But what the Bear is really best at—besides making himself
  cosmically miserable—is playing the alto with his worldclass set of chops. One
  day he makes a bold foray from their apartment to jam with Arthur Blythe and
  Lester Bowie—real-life musicians rub elbows with fictional counterparts
  throughout the novel—at a New York club, thus beginn