Riverboat Shuffle
78 rpm Parlophone R 2492
As always when he is present, Bix Beiderbecke, with his cornet, is the protagonist here. There are several facets of his genius, and here on this session with Frankie Trumbauer’s Orchestra in 1927, it’s mostly his attack and drive.
The composer of the tune is Hoagy Carmichael. On his road to fame, I think that one important push forward happened when he presented this tune to the Wolverines in 1924, and they liked it and recorded it. When he heard the record, he could hardly believe that it was his own composition.
And on this second version, Bix and the band take it one step further. The cornet solo is one of his best, and behind everything there is the steady, yet elastic, rhythm from Eddie Lang’s guitar. I’ve never seen any praise for Don Murray’s clarinet on this record, but his driving execution of the difficult 30 bar solo is impressive. It’s most probably written, richly varied, and well rehearsed. Except for one note, it’s flawlessly played, including a break in the altissimo register.
Furthermore, all musicians should be complimented because the arrangement “sketched” by Bill Challis is played with the utmost precision and conviction, and in the last eight bars, we hear Bix leading one of the most forceful “ride outs” that you can imagine.