Buddy Bolden

Buddy Boldens Jazz Band (left to right): Jimmy Johnson, Buddy Bolden, Willie Cornish, William Warner; seated: Jefferson Mumford and Frank Lewis

Charles Joseph "Buddy" Bolden (born September 6, 1877 in New Orleans , † November 4, 1931 in Jackson (Louisiana) ) was an American cornet player in New Orleans around 1900.

Live and act

Bolden to the legendary very first bandleader of Jazz have been. His main occupation was, according to Danny Barker (who knew musicians who played with Bolden, such as Bunk Johnson ), a barber and owner of a barber shop, even if he played with his band in the evenings and on weekends. According to Donald M. Marquis this is unlikely, but he worked as a paver. His jazz band was probably formed in 1895 and accompanied parades and dance events in New Orleans. From 1900 to 1906 he was the most popular musician in town. Contemporaries describe him as someone who played a very clear and loud sound. Bolden did not make recordings, so that no examples of his music have survived. In 1907 Bolden was admitted to a psychiatric clinic, in which he lived until his death (diagnosis of dementia praecox , alcohol-related psychosis). The trombonist Frankie Dusen , who had been leading the band for a long time and finally dismissed the increasingly forgetful Bolden, took over the management of his jazz band . The successor band was then the Eagle Band , named after the Eagle Saloon on the corner of Perdido and Rampart Street, where the Bolden band mostly played next to Lincoln Park (now a listed building).

The musician and jazz storyteller Jelly Roll Morton dedicated the song "Buddy Bolden Blues" to him, which goes back to Boldens composition "Funky Butt". He is the protagonist of the novel "Buddy Boldens Blues" (Coming Through Slaughter, 1976) by Michael Ondaatje . The novel "Tiger Rag" by Nicholas Christopher (The Dial Press 2013) also revolves around Buddy Bolden and a (fictional) clay roller, which he recorded in 1904.

Bolden was buried in an unknown grave in Holt Cemetery , New Orleans, where a memorial was erected for him in 1998. The publisher buddy's knife jazzedition is named after him. The important Norwegian jazz prize Buddyprisen commemorates him.

literature

• Donald Marquis: In search of Buddy Bolden. First man of jazz. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press 1978, 2005
• Danny Barker (edited by Alyn Shipton ): Buddy Bolden and the last days of Storyville , Cassell 1998, Continuum 2001

Web links

Commons : Buddy Bolden  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Buddy Bolden in the database of Find a Grave (English)