"Candlelights" is a 1930 jazz composition for solo piano by cornetist

Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke ( ; March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical a ...

. It was the second in the series of four piano works which Bix Beiderbecke composed during his career.

Background

Bix Beiderbecke never recorded "Candlelights" but did copyright the piano score on August 29, 1930 as "A Modern Composition for the Piano". Bill Challis assisted with the transcription for piano. The score and the sheet music were published by Robbins Music in New York. "Candlelights" was recorded by jazz pianist Jess Stacy and was released as a 78 single in 1939 on Commodore Records as part of the Classics in Swing series, 517A. Jazz trumpeter Bunny Berigan subsequently recorded it in 1939 in an orchestral arrangement featuring trumpet. More recently, it was recorded by two other jazz pianists: Kenny Werner recorded it in 1977 on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

and pianist Bryan Wright recorded it in 2010. Jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli also recorded a guitar transcription of it in 1986 on his album ''Solo Flight''. In 2020, Juliet Kurtzman and Pete Malinverni recorded it as a duo for violin and piano on the album ''Candlelight: Love in the Time of Cholera''.

Notable recordings

"Candlelights" has been recorded by Jess Stacy,Candlelights by Jess Stacy. Discogs.
/ref> Bunny Berigan, Bryan Wright, Geoff Muldaur's Futuristic Ensemble, Paul Mertz, Ralph Sutton, Oscar Pettiford with Tom Talbert, Tiger Dixie Band, Dick Hyman, Mike Polad, Joseph Smith, Bucky Pizzarelli, Patrick Artero, and Kenny Werner.

Album appearances

The composition appears on the following albums: *Bix Beiderbecke: ''Bix Restored, Vol. 1'', Origin Records, 1995 *Bix Beiderbecke: ''1929-1930, Vol. 8'', Masters of Jazz, 1996 *Bix Beiderbecke: ''In a Mist: His Best Works'', Definitive Classics, 2007 *Kenny Werner, ''The Piano Music of Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, James P. Johnson'', Atlantic, 1977 *Bucky Pizzarelli: ''Solo Flight'', Stash, 1986 *Juliet Kurtzman and Pete Malinverni: ''Candlelight: Love in the Time of Cholera'', 2020

References

Sources

*Berton, Ralph. ''Remembering Bix''. Harper & Row, 1974. *Castelli, Vittorio, Evert (Ted) Kaleveld, and Liborio Pusateri. ''The Bix Bands: A Bix Beiderbecke Disco-biography''. Raretone, Milan, 1972. *Collins, David R. ''Bix Beiderbecke: Jazz Age Genius''. Morgan Reynolds, Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina, 1998. *Evans, Philip R. and Linda K. Evans. ''Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story''. Bakersfield, Calif.: Prelike Press, 1998. . *Lastella, Aldo. "La vita e la leggenda di Bix Beiderbecke". Nuovi Equilibri S.R.L., Roma, 1991. *Lion, Jean Pierre. ''Bix: The Definitive Biography of a Jazz Legend: Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke''. New York: Continuum, 2005. *Sudhalter, Richard M. and Philip R. Evans with William Dean-Myatt. ''Bix: Man and Legend.'' New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974. . *Teachout, Terry. "Homage to Bix", ''Commentary'', September 2005, pp. 65–68. {{authority control Instrumentals Compositions for solo piano