I don’t know if any of you know who Buddy Bolden is. I didn’t know anything about him, until I stumbled across him on Find A Grave. I don’t remember exactly the trail that I followed to learn more about his life, but I was immediately interested in his story. His band was apparently very popular in New Orleans from about 1900 to 1907 as rag-time was cutting its teeth, when he dropped out of the picture. He is credited with being the first bandleader to play improvisation, mixing and mashing styles and sounds that would eventually come to be called “jazz” though the term didn’t exist yet. He is remembered for having a loud and clear tone, for using brass instruments to play the blues, and stringed instruments as the rhythm section. In the foreground were clarinets, trombones and Buddy with his cornet. Louis Armstrong was a little boy in the front row, to name just one man he influenced.
His father and 5 year old sister died of Yellow Fever along with thousands of others, and apparently his mother “lost her mind” and all interest in everything around her. He is said to have suffered an episode of acute alcoholic psychosis in 1907 with a full diagnosis of schizophrenia during the height of his success. He was admitted to a mental hospital where he spent the rest of his life….. 30 years of the rest of his life… in a dismal and likely arcane mental institute. He was forgotten by the world outside, and the world inside of the hospital (though it must have been Hell on Earth–was probably nothing like the Hell inside of his own mind). The mind of a creative young god dethroned and locked up, lucky to fight off demons with heavy narcotics in a racist South– (though sleep itself is an endless torment when the mind can’t rest) … It breaks my heart.
I thought there were no recordings of him–because that’s what all the articles about him said which I had read– except this one. I find it sad that there isn’t more of a record, because he left such an impression on his community. It was an impression that he would never witness himself as he was locked away during a time when little about his illness was understood and even less was tolerated.
He was left to live his days alone for 3 decades– as the most exciting time in jazz went forward without so much as a wink in his direction. He was buried with little fanfare in a cemetery that would later fill his grave with the bodies of 8 or 9 more deceased “indigents”… right on top of him. How many strangers buried in one plot constitutes a mass?
The below excerpt was painstakingly transcribed from “In Search Of Buddy Bolden: The First Man of Jazz” by Donald M Marquis.
“Bolden’s body lay in state at the Geddes-Moss Funeral Home for only a day, and according to the witnesses, there were very few at the wake. Cora, of course, was there. Cordelia Alcorn, Alvin Alcorn’s sister; Ida Baker, who had taken care of Alice Bolden in her final days; Lena Kennedy and Gertrude Peyton, both cousins, all paid their respects. Cordelia Alcorn remembered hearing that Buddy Bolden was being waked. She knew some of Buddy’s cousins but had also heard some of the tales of Buddy’s music and confessed to being a little curious. She recalled that he looked like an old, old man. Few, if any, musicians came by; it is doubtful that many were aware of Buddy’s death. There was no brass band to say farewell, nor even a former sideman to act as pallbearer or to “walk the final mile” with the “king.” The job had to be done by Geddes-Moss employees.
The pine-box coffin was taken to Holt Cemetery, a city-owned cemetery behind the Delgado Trade School, where many of the city’s indigents were laid to rest. Bob Griffin, the caretaker and handyman, had dug out the customary six feet of hard, clayish earth and the remains of Buddy Bolden were lowered into plot C-623.
The news on page one of the Picayune for that day was of an airplane crash in Camden, New jersey, Huey Long, China asking for help against Japan, and Mussolini visiting the Vatican. The temperature was a cool 65 degrees. There was a typhoid epidemic in New Orleans and Griffin was kept busy digging graves. On the Steamer Capitol, Charlie Creath’s Orchestra was playing for evening cruise dances. Nowhere was there a mention of the passing of Buddy Bolden.
Cora was unable to keep paying the upkeep on her brother’s grave and in accordance with Holt policy, after two years his remains were dug up, reburied deeper, and another burial made on top. The plot number C-623 was changed, with no record being kept of the original burial. Records were not accurately kept until the 1940′s and there have probably been at least eight or nine burials since Bolden’s in that spot. Even if one knew exactly where to look it would be difficult to locate Bolden’s grave. It is possible to find section C– about the size of a quarter of a city block and guarded by a wide-spreading majestic oak tree-and to know only that Bolden’s grave lies somewhere in that space.
Bolden’s departure from the New Orleans music scene did not at first make any noticeable ripple… Bolden just sort of faded away. “Then we realized he wasn’t around any more.” It is almost certain that Bolden was no longer playing after September 1906, though people have mentioned hearing him later. Harrison Barnes recalled that one afternoon in 1907 he was playing a Bolden number with a band in the District, when out of the houses and saloons came the guys and dolls, waving and laughing, expectantly shouting, “It’s Bolden’s Band! It’s Bolden’s Band!” Few knew where Buddy was or what had happened to him, but the spell he had cast over black New orleans lived on-for a time at least-without him.”
Buddy has been remembered in a few oral histories, books and a film in production (I think) called Bolden!
The map below can be zoomed in and out of. Somewhere in this plot lays Bolden and who knows how many other forgotten luminaries. Katrina had her way with these grounds and many others in New Orleans. Follow the link provided in the map window if you have time. I have been to this cemetery, and knowing what I know now of the amount of graves I actually walked upon.. makes me shudder.
I didn’t realize I would need to post today, and I wish I had more time to devote to Buddy and his story.
On to something cheery…
I have been meaning to mention (if I didn’t already) how totally fucking badass this Hydraulophone business is.
Unfortunately, your link to the All About Jazz article about his “only” recording is published on April 1st, 2008. Ah, the second NAPper to fall, me being the first with Wednesday’s link to the story about the experimental Chicago Restaurant.
Michael Ondaatje’s book on Bolden, COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER, is pretty fantastic as I recall. I bought IN SEARCH OF BUDDY BOLDEN shortly after that but it wound up in a big pile of unread books and it never quite made it to the top.