Bixophile Musicians Adopt Bix’s Endangered Boyhood Home

You’ll read my report of the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in next month’s issue, but something happened there last month that deserves your immediate attention

If you’re a Facebook user or friend of any musicians who post there, you may already know that Bix’s boyhood home has been bought by a group of musicians who revere Bix and often appear at his eponymous festival. Their plan is to buy and preserve the house before any further deterioration that threatens its existence occurs.

The buyers are familiar names like Andrew Oliver, T.J. Muller, Mike Davis, Colin Hancock, Josh Duffee, and Andy Schumm and his wife Jenny Vidal. They have set up a corporation to effect all this, and donations are being solicited. Send your contributions to Bix House Band LLC to 7320 SE Insley St., Portland, OR 97206. This is Andrew Oliver’s address; he is the treasurer of the group. They have a website: www.bixhouse.com.

I was beyond thrilled to hear this at the festival and have made a contribution. I asked Jenny, who unknown to me is a paralegal, why the LLC is not a non-profit. She said that would prevent them from seeking grants. Becoming a non-profit, to which tax-deductible donations could be made, may happen in the future. Or perhaps Common ChordQC, which recently became the umbrella organization under which the Bix Society operates, will adopt this as a project. In any case, in addition to raising the purchase price, the house needs extensive repairs in addition to regular ongoing maintenance.

As soon as the announcement on Saturday night at the festival was made, there was a line of people who virtually had their checkbooks in hand. Donations are requested by mail, although the buyers, being right up there with the latest technology, had a QR code that attendees were photographing with their phones, so you may be able to donate online. I, a technological Neanderthal, cannot do that with my flip phone, hence a paper check from me.

What is most inspiring about this is that the buyers are not independently wealthy—they’re jazz musicians, after all. Yet they are pooling whatever resources they have into this endeavor.

More details will emerge in coming days, but I wanted to get this off in time for the September issue. Please do what you can to preserve this very tangible artifact of Bix’s legacy.

(Below are photos of the house.)