In 1938 Bunny Berigan recorded a tribute to Bix Beiderbecke. The arrangements were done by the piano player, Joe Lippman. Joe went on to become a successful commercial arranger and is known to Charlie Parker fans for his string and big band arrangements featuring Bird including Temptation, Night and Day, and What Is This Thing Called Love. Berigan's band featured fellow trumpeter Irving Goodman, Ray Conniff on trombone, Murray Williams, Gus Bivona, and Georgie Auld on reeds, Hank Wayland on bass, and up and coming drummer Buddy Rich. Bix's tune In a Mist was a groundbreaking composition in that it employs impressionistic scales and chord sequences that were not common to popular music at the time. In addition, it was originally a piano piece that featured Beiderbecke on the keyboard. Lippman has brilliantly captured the feel of the composition in this 6 horn arrangement. The original score calls for clarinet, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, 2 trumpets, trombone, piano, bass, and drums. We have added a guitar part. In addition, the clarinet part may be played by a soprano saxophone and we have included a baritone saxophone part as an alternate for the bass clarinet - though we encourage you to use the bass clarinet part to achieve the proper balance. |
