Buddy Bolden,

by Barbara White

Every jazz aficionado knows that a key ingredient in the music is improvisation. When a tune really starts to cook musicians and fans alike get caught up in the fever. That is the power of jazz improvisation. Improvisation was the invention of one man, Buddy Bolden.

Charles "Buddy" Bolden played the cornet. He blew notes loud and clear as the church bells in Jackson Square. And when he played, he was king of New Orleans. Creole, white, black, it made no difference; they all loved to hear him.

It was a new sound that didn't fit into any of the old molds. It didn't even have a name. It had roots in the sad laments and work songs of the slaves. But it wasn't slave music. It had the beat and rhythm of the African music played in Congo Square, but it wasn't the same. It even took some of its flavor from the Creole songs, but it didn't fit there either. Later, they called it Jazz.

Buddy was born in New Orleans in 1877. He went to the Fiske School for Boys in New Orleans. The school was a sort of technical training school. There, Buddy trained to be a barber.

Those days in New Orleans, Yellow Fever was a regular summer visitor. Every year citizens died of it. One summer, when Buddy was still a boy, Yellow Fever reached epidemic proportions. Buddy's five-year-old sister and his father perished along with thousands of others. The story goes that Buddy's mother about lost her mind after her husband and little girl died. She seemed to lose interest in everything and everybody around her. Buddy began come and go as he pleased visiting the dance halls where the new jazz music was being played. Somewhere along the line he learned to play the cornet.

As with so many other details of Buddy's life, when he began to play is not clear. This much is clear; he played with a proficiency that was second to none. Sitting in with other musicians, Buddy learned technique and improved his skills. By 1895, he had formed the Bolden Band. They played to packed houses at dance halls along Rampart or Canal with names like, The Big Easy, Come Clean and The Funky Butt.

For Buddy, life was the proverbial combination of wine, women and song. He indulged in all three of these passions to excess. Every ounce of the life he lived ended up in his music. Every emotion, good or bad, Buddy brought to his playing. Of all the music he wrote, the only song that remains is one called "Buddy Bolden's Blues" or "Funky Butt Blues". Many of Bolden's songs had lyrics written by him as well. He sang them in his fine, rich voice. Audiences couldn't get enough. In New Orleans, Buddy had fame and wealth, but he never seemed to find happiness in any of it. He drank more and more and was arrested at least three times for fighting. Even his music became a burden as he plunged into it ever deeper, searching for perfection.

By 1905, Buddy was in the prime of his musical life. The Bolden Band was playing regularly, but not exclusively, at The Funky Butt. On the nights when the band was there a young boy would sit listening to the music. The youngster was Louis Armstrong. Other musicians, still unknown at the time, would listen to or even sit in with the band. Most notable of these, perhaps, was Sidney Bechet who would go on to become one of the world's premier jazz clarinet players.

But in 1907 it all became too much. While marching in a parade, Buddy suddenly screamed and fell to the ground frothing at the mouth. He was taken home, but remained in a state of complete distraction. After several weeks, he was committed to the state mental hospital at Jackson, Louisiana. It was there that he lived the remaining twenty-five years of his life. He never touched the cornet again. On November 4, 1931, at the age of fifty-four, Buddy died.

There has been a lot of speculation about the cause of Buddy's mental collapse. Could his mother's insanity have been passed on to him? Was it the alcohol? Was it venereal disease or something else? But almost every part of Bolden's life is subject to debate and speculation. Some even doubt that he existed-although we have his death certificate to prove that he did. Other's doubt that he was the musician we are told he was. For that, we must take the word of those that saw and heard him and played with him. They all agree, he was the father of improvisation and one of the best musicians who ever played.

On one hand it is our loss that Buddy Bolden never recorded a note of music. But on the other, maybe it is fitting that music based in the soul and the heart should have a founder who is the perfect blend of myth and reality. Like the music genre he helped to shape, Buddy is something different to each and every one of us.