Listeners also should be interested in historical facts when trying to identify a musician
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Besides historians, listeners like me should be interested in historical facts when trying to identify a soloist on a recording. For a recording like Cradle of Love by Ray Miller there has to be a historical fact that he was in the city at the time of the recording to have been on it. Aural identification may be the most important to some but these secondary factors have to be considered first. If I look in Evans and Evans just after I think I hear Bix on a record made in Chicago on such and such a date and I learn he was convalescing in Davenport at the time I might as well forget trying to convince anyone by aural identification he was on a record made the same day in another city. When Man and Legend came out and then Evans and Evans with the chronology of where Bix was many many suspect Bix recordings were eliminated.
The really interesting thing to me would be the verification of the identification of Bix solos by Warren Scholl on songs played on the Old Gold broadcasts. Especially that first one he was listed as being on of March 5. He had just rejoined the Whiteman band on March 4. Whiteman had sent Bix home to Davenport on Feb. 3. So he was out of commission for a month. One can assume he was ready to play when he returned but what shape was in he in to play solos on a broadcast the day after he returned?
Possibly Scholl could have misidentified Bix as playing certain solos because of the poor quality of the reception on his radio he listened to the broadcasts on. On page 467 of Evans and Evans Scholl mentions " I listened to all the programs up to this point on an old battery set with earphones. We splurged and bought a 'new' electric set with speakers mounted on separate tables which i used on subsequent programs"
So Scholl listened to all the programs up to June 11 on a battery set with headphones. The point I want to make is that Secrest could sound like Bix and hearing the band in person might be easy to tell the difference between them aurally even if you didn't see who was playing but on a battery set with headphones maybe anyone would have some trouble telling them apart. I know I would.
Ok, maybe some real experts here like Brad could identify Bix by certain phrases he plays that Secrest could not. But remember there is still controversy over Bix being the soloist on the Ray Miller Cradle Of Love. If there is disagreement on that I think there sure could be disagreement on Bix or Secrest playing the solos on Old Gold broadcasts which could possibly turn up on old aluminum discs. My own opinion is that I just don't think Bix plays all the solos Scholl identifies him as playing on those Old Gold broadcasts. Especially the ones prior to June 11.
But unfortunately this may be all a moot question because after all these years of looking for the broadcasts. Even Phil Evans and other dedicated researchers haven't been able to turn up a single one of the broadcasts and Evans seemed to have exhausted every possibility. He contacted radio stations, wrote the tobacco company and no success. I think those were the official channels to try. Now if one does show up I think it will be in somebody's attic or at a yard sale or swap meet or just maybe a wall in some old building will be knocked down and a stack of old radio transcriptions will be there. Get what I mean, Brad? It DOES happen.