Buddy Bolden
Buddy Bolden
Background information
Birth name	Charles Bolden
Also known as	King Bolden
Born	September 6, 1877(1877-09-06)
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana USA
Died	November 4, 1931 (aged 54)
Genre(s)	Jazz
Instrument(s)	cornet

Charles "Buddy" Bolden (September 6, 1877–November 4, 1931) was a cornetist and the first New Orleans jazz musician to come to prominence and also credited as the founder of jazz. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... NOLA redirects here. ... is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... Bâ™­ cornet The cornet is a brass instrument that closely resembles the trumpet. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bâ™­ cornet The cornet is a brass instrument that closely resembles the trumpet. ... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... “Instrumentalist” redirects here. ...

Life

He was known as King Bolden (see Jazz royalty) and his band was a top draw in New Orleans from about 1895 until 1907, when he was incapacitated by schizophrenia, which was called dementia praecox at that time. He left no known surviving recordings, but he was known for his very loud sound and constant improvisation. Jazz royalty is a term that reflects the many great jazz musicians who have some sort of royal title in their names or nicknames. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

While there is substantial first hand oral history about Buddy Bolden, facts about his life continue to be lost amongst colourful myth. Stories about him being a barber by trade or that he published a scandal-sheet called the Cricket have been repeated in print despite being debunked decades earlier.

Bolden suffered an episode of acute alcoholic psychosis in 1907. With the full diagnosis of dementia praecox, he was admitted to a mental institution where he spent the rest of his life. In medicine, an acute disease is a disease with either or both of: a rapid onset; a short course (as opposed to a chronic course). ... King Alcohol and his Prime Minister circa 1820 Alcoholism is the consumption of or preoccupation with alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the alcoholics normal personal, family, social, or work life. ... Psychosis is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a loss of contact with reality. Stedmans Medical Dictionary defines psychosis as a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... A psychiatric hospital (also called a mental hospital or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ...

Bolden was buried in an unmarked grave in Holt Cemetery, a pauper's graveyard in New Orleans. In 1998 a monument to Bolden was erected in Holt Cemetery, but his exact gravesite remains unknown. The phrase Unmarked grave has metaphorical meaning in the context of cultures that mark burial sites. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... Graves at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York A cemetery is a place (usually an enclosed area of land) in which dead bodies are buried. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses, see Monument (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Music

Many early jazz musicians credited Bolden and the members of his band with being the originators of what came to be known as "jazz", though the term was not yet in common musical use until during the era of Bolden's prominence. At least one writer has labelled him the father of jazz.^[1] He is credited with creating a looser, more improvised version of ragtime and adding blues to it; Bolden's band was said to be the first to have brass instruments play the blues. He was also said to have taken ideas from gospel music heard in uptown African American Baptist churches. Look up ragtime in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... “Blues music” redirects here. ... Gospel music is a musical genre characterized by dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) referencing lyrics of a religious nature, particularly Christian. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Baptist is...

Joe "King" Oliver, Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, and other early New Orleans jazz musicians were directly inspired by his playing. Joe King Oliver, (December 19, 1885 – April 10, 1938) was a bandleader and jazz cornet player. ... Freddie Keppard (sometimes rendered as Freddy Keppard) (February 27, 1890 - July 15, 1933) was an early jazz cornetist. ... Willie Gary Bunk Johnson ( 1879/1889–July 7, 1949) was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s. ...

Although Bolden was recalled as having made at least one phonograph cylinder, no known recordings of Bolden have survived. The earliest method of recording and reproducing sound was on phonograph cylinders. ...

Some of the songs first associated with his band such as the traditional song Careless Love and My Bucket's Got a Hole in It, are still standards. Bolden often closed his shows with the original number "Get Out of Here and Go Home", although for more "polite" gigs the last number would be "Home Sweet Home". Home! Sweet Home! is a song that has remained well-known for over 150 years. ...

One of the most famous Bolden numbers is a song called Funky Butt (known later as Buddy Bolden's Blues) which represents one of the earliest references to the concept of "funk" in popular music, now a musical subgenre unto itself. Bolden's Funky Butt was, as Danny Barker once put it, a reference to the olfactory effect of an auditorium packed full of sweaty people "dancing close together and belly rubbing." ^[2] Other musicians closer to Bolden's generation explained that the famous tune actually originated as a reference to flatulence. For other uses, including related musical genres, see Funk (disambiguation). ... Danny Barker (1909 - 1994) was a jazz guitarist and banjoist from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Flatulence (expelled through the anus in a process commonly known as farting or emitting gas) is the presence of a mixture of gases known as flatus in the digestive tract of mammals. ...

I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say,
Funky-butt, funky-butt, take it away.

The "Funky Butt" song was one of many in the Bolden repertory with rude or off color lyrics popular in some of the rougher places Bolden played, and Bolden's trombonist Willy Cornish claimed authorship. It became so well known as a rude song that even whistling the melody on a public street was considered offensive. However the strain was incorporated into the early published ragtime number "St. Louis Tickle". William Willy Cornish (1 August, 1875 - 12 January, 1942) was an early jazz musician - known for his being very active on the New Orleans scene playing, leading bands, and teaching music for decades. ...

Bolden is the subject of a biography by Donald M. Marquis In Search Of Buddy Bolden: First Man Of Jazz, published by Louisiana State University Press in August 2005 (ISBN 0807130931). This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Founded in 1935, the Louisiana State University Press is a nonprofit book publisher dedicated to the publication of scholarly, general interest, and regional books. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Tributes to Bolden

Sidney Bechet wrote and composed "Buddy Bolden Stomp" in his honor. Sidney Bechet Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was a jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. ...

Duke Ellington paid tribute to Bolden in his 1957 suite "A Drum is a Woman". The trumpet part was taken by Clark Terry. This article is about the American Jazz composer and performer. ... Clark Terry performs with the Great Lakes Navy Band Jazz Ensemble Clark Terry (born December 14, 1920 in St. ...

Bolden in fiction

Bolden has inspired a number of fictional characters with his name. Most famously, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje's novel Coming Through Slaughter features a Buddy Bolden character that in some ways resembles Bolden, but in other ways is deliberately contrary to what is known about him. Alice, a fictional character based on a real character from the work of Lewis Carroll. ... Philip Michael Ondaatje, OC (born 12 September 1943) is a Canadian/Sri Lankan novelist and poet perhaps best known for his Booker Prize winning novel adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film, The English Patient. ... Coming Through Slaughter is a novel by Michael Ondaatje, published in 1976. ...

Bolden is also referenced in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. With a character (King Hedley) whose father, in the play, deliberately named him after King Buddy Bolden; with King Hedley constantly singing "I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say...;" and with King Hedley believing that Buddy Bolden will come down and bring him money to buy a plantation, Bolden is prominent in Wilson's drama. Seven Guitars is a 1995 Play written by noted American playwright August Wilson. ...

Additionally, August Wilson's King Hedley II continues Seven Guitars, thus Bolden continues in the play as well.

Bolden is a prominent character in David Fulmer's murder mystery titled Chasing the Devil's Tail, being not only a bandleader but also a suspect in the murders. He also appears by reputation or in person in Fulmer's other books.

Bolden is the titular character in the film Bolden!, which is currently in production. He is being portrayed by Anthony Mackie. Anthony Mackie (born September 23, 1979 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American actor. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, Oxford/New York 1997, p. 34

2. Barker, Danny. 1998. Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville. New York: Continuum. p. 31.

Further reading

• In Search Of Buddy Bolden: First Man Of Jazz, by Donald M. Marquis. published by Louisiana State University Press. Second edition, August 2005 (ISBN 0807130931).

Founded in 1935, the Louisiana State University Press is a nonprofit book publisher dedicated to the publication of scholarly, general interest, and regional books. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Buddy Bolden

• Buddy Bolden's gravesite on findagrave.com
• Bolden! on IMDb.com
• Photograph [1]
• Photograph [2]
• Buddy Bolden's New Orleans Music [3]