Stamp Petition: Don’t Nix Bix Licks

An online petition drive is underway to get the U.S. Postal Service to issue a postage stamp honoring jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke. Confetta Ann Ras, a jazz fan and blogger from San Francisco, started a petition in October on Change.org, asking the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend a commemorative stamp for Bix (1903-1931), whom the petition calls "one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s." The stated petition goal is 1,000 signatures. "It's 50 years overdue," Ms. Ras, said. "It's kind of rare a white musician has been such an influence in jazz music. The unusual thing about it, during times when Blacks had to use different facilities, jazz music and Bix’s playing broke all that down." For the past eight years, Ms. Ras has done a daily blog, On This Day in Jazz Age Music (jazzagemusic.blogspot.com), which notes key facts in jazz history. In 1994, former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa wrote to the Postmaster General in support of a stamp honoring Bix. The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Society strongly promoted "A Stamp for Bix in '96" at its 1995 festival. (A first-class postage stamp then cost 32 cents.) A total of 1,792 signatures were collected and sent to the Stamp Advisory Committee, bu