Around 1922 Carmichael first met Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke, a cornetist and sometime pianist from Iowa. The two became friends and played music together. Around 1923, during a visit to Chicago, Beiderbecke introduced Carmichael to Louis Armstrong, with whom Carmichael would later collaborate, while Armstrong was playing with Chicago-based King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.Hasse, p. 6. Armstrong would continue to influence Carmichael's compositions; Carmichael reflected in a letter to his wife in the early 1930s that he was going to see Armstrong to learn about the "purty notes". Under Beiderbecke's influence Carmichael began playing the cornet, but found his lips unsuited to the mouthpiece, and soon stopped.Sudhalter, 2002, p. 79. He was also inspired by Beiderbecke's impressionistic and classical music ideas. Carmichael's first recorded song, initially titled "Free Wheeling", was written for Beiderbecke, whose band, The Wolverines, recorded it as "Riverboat Shuffle" in 1924 for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana. The song became a jazz staple. (Mitchell Parish's lyrics were added in 1939.)Hasse, p. 19. Carmichael's other early musical compositions included "Washboard Blues" and "Boneyard Shuffle", which Curtis Hitch and his band, Hitch's Happy Harmonists, recorded at the Gennett studios. The band's instrumental rendition of "Washboard Blues", recorded on May 19, 1925, was the earliest recording in which Carmichael performed his own songs, including an improvised piano solo.Hasse p. 22.
