In Young Man with a Horn (1949), Kirk Douglas impersonated a jazz trumpeter whose running battle against the straitjacket of commercialised music was modelled on the life story of Bix Beiderbecke. When his mentor in jazz, an old-time Black musician, was finally claimed by tuberculosis, he was required to improvise a funeral elegy in appropriate tribute.
The result was unbelievably vulgar. Since the secret was proudly proclaimed at the time that this solo was in fact dubbed by Harry James, the rigidly raucous James trumpet has justly had to shoulder the blame for adding one more to the filmâs many grievous offences against New Orleans.
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