Luis Rodriguez

Jazz History I
November 24, y

Buddy Bolden: A Biography

Father of Jazz, Barber and the King. Buddy Bolden was all of these
things. Charles Buddy Bolden was born in Uptown New Orleans to Alice and
Westmore Bolden. Buddy Bolden played the cornet, which is similar to the
now popular trumpet. From 1898 until about 1906, Bolden reigned as the
king of black New Orleans music. He often lived a life of excess, often having
women and drinking heavily. Towards the end of his life he supposedly
started to lose touch with reality. Starting in 1906, Buddy Bolden started
exhibiting paranoia and headaches that resulted in his friends and family
feeling unsafe around him. He was eventually committed to the Louisiana
State Asylum until his death in 1931. There is several rumors circulating
about the origins of his conditions, as psychiatric care is not what it is now. A
popular rumor is that Bolden has a voodoo curse cast on him. The scholar
consensus is that the schizophrenia was alcohol induced.
Buddy was known as the father of jazz and he was known for several key
musical characteristics. He was said to have a powerful, loud, wide open
playing style. He took the existing of elements of ragtime and combined it
with elements of blues. He also drew influences from marching band music

BIBLIOGRAPHY

and black sacred music. Buddy Bolden also used a lot of gospel in his playing
that he incorporated from playing at a Baptist church on Sundays. He played
at uptown African-American Baptist churches. Buddy Boldens music has a
spiritual fervor that combined with almost contradictory solemn blues.
Bolden played his music by ear (otherwise known as head music). It was also
rumored that he was the first to arrange the New Orleans dance to better
accommodate the blues. String instruments, more specifically the bass
instead of the Tuba, became the rhythm section. The melody instruments
would because clarinet, trombone and the the cornet.
Boldens influence would continue to influence trumpet players and jazz
musicians after him. What is amazing about Boldens influence is that he was
able to accomplish it without every making a recording. He did compose the
standard Buddy Boldens Blues (I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say). It
would become a sort of theme song for him. He would perform at it at the
usually hot and sweaty places like the Union Sons Hall on Perdido Street. The
Story goes that Bolden would stomp out a songs tempo and the dancers
would begin to dance. One of Boldens musicians improvised the lyrics
Funky Butt, Funky Butt, take it away, open up the windows and let the bad
air out, which referenced the cramp confines in which the sweat and
whiskey soaked dancers grooved to. Buddy Bolden represents the budding of
Jazz as an independent art form and will forever be remembered as one of its
greatest contributors, some might even say the inventor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY