>"...Our rebel instincts broke music away from what I'd call the handcuff-and-straight jacket discipline of the classical school, so creative artists could get up on the stand and speak out in their own honest and self-inspired language again. There had been a rebel in Bix too -but a pint-sized one, a little stunted and gimpy, afraid to bust out and romp all over the place. It got even frailer and more anemic when the schooled musicians got after him. American jazz lost one of its greater disciples when Bix strayed away. He should have kept his dirty socks on, and never started sleeping between sheets."
I don't think Bix was ever interested in breaking away from his European influences ever. He seemed to have equal interest in both jazz and the impressionist composers.
I also think Bix had a tendency to occassionally say whatever a person wanted to hear in order to be agreeable, so it's entirely possible that he did say the things Mezz claimed he said. (Of course that is my personal observation from what I've read about Bix.)