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Introduction
On a very cold day on Jan 25, 1925, a number of musicians converged at Richmond, Indiana, to participate in a recording session in the Gennett studios, the Cradle of Recorded Jazz.
Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael drove from Indianapolis in a brand new Ford automobile, a present Hoagy had made to himself for the 1924 Christmas season. Trombonist Tommy Dorsey, clarinetist Don Murray, pianist Paul Mertz and drummer Tommy Gargano took an early train from Detroit and were in Richmond, waiting for Bix and Hoagy.
Banjoist Howdy Quicksell missed the early train from Detroit and arrived on a later train. In early 1925, Tommy Dorsey and Paul Mertz were members of Jean Goldkette's Book Cadillac orchestra, Don Murray and Howdy Quicksell were with Jean Goldkette's prestigious Victor Recording Orchestra, and Tommy Gargano was a free-lancer in Detroit at that time. He was born in Philadelphia in 1901 into a musical family and was with the Goldkette's Orange Blossoms in late 1925 and early 1926.
Let's go back a few months. In the Fall of 1924 Bix was playing with the Wolverines at the Cinderella Ballroom in New York when he was approached by Charlie Horvath, Jean Goldkette's business manager, with an offer to join the Victor Recording Orchestra. Bix accepted and moved to Detroit in mid-October 1924. Bix stayed only two months with Goldkette at this time and left Detroit on December 8, 1924. He visited Hoagy Carmichael in Indianapolis, and then went home to Davenport for Christmas.
Soon after, he got in touch with Ezra Wickemeyer, [1] recording director and audio engineer for the Gennett division of the Starr Piano Company, to arrange for a recording date [see Rick Kennedy's research on 'Gennet's Audio Genius' in the December 2009 issue]. Wickemeyer passed Bix's letter to F. D. Wiggins of the Gennett Records Division. In early January 1925, Bix received, at home in Davenport, an encouraging response from Wiggins [2] :
"We will be pleased to give you a trial in making some test records any time convenient for you to come to Richmond. .. This work will have to be done on a straight royalty basis of one cent per record of the initial trial. You are to stand your own...