Buddy Bolden

Buddy Bolden's New Orleans Music
Or the Barber of Franklin Street
A Biographical Sketch

@ ChickenBones: A Journal
In New Orleans, after the Civil War, Negroes began more and more to use the usual wind and string instruments of the whites. Such instruments were already widely used by the Creole Negroes, most of whom, though skilled in written music, were not so close to the blues background. (The blues were improvisational in character.)

Soon Negro groups, having learned to play by ear, were engaged to play for dances and, by 1880, were found on some of the packets on the Mississippi River. here they worked as porters, barbers and waiters during the day and entertained the passengers with music at night.

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Historians point out that few of these early musicians could read music; that they were "fake" players. this is a highly significant fact when one considers how the music of the jazz band evolved and reached maturity during the last years of the nineteenth century. Although naturally influential by the music of their former masters, the Negroes retained much of the African material in their playing. The leader of the first great orchestra, Buddy Bolden, was already in his teens before the Congo dances were discontinued.

The Negroes were accustomed to endless repetition of short motifs and were not bothered by the brevity of form in the white man's popular song. Nor did they worry about the trite character of the melodies, for, being unaccustomed to read music, they quickly altered the tune, anyway.

With the New Orleans Negro, improvisation was an essential part of musical skill, as is the case with every extra-European musician. In all cultures except that of Europe, where for a century improvisation has been a lost art, creative performance is a requisite. Thus where there was no premium on exact repetition and hide-bound imitation, only those with the urge to express themselves and an innate power of invention took up music. When a musician could play only what he started, and mediocre talents soon fell by the wayside.

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It is important to note that the greatest talent went into dance orchestras, the only field open to those with professional musical ambitions. The fact that these men were not primarily note readers also explains, when collective improvisation was attempted, the origin of the characteristic New Orleans polyphony, which in its more complex manifestations became a dissonant counterpoint that antedated Schönberg.

The young new Orleans aspirant, having no teacher to show him the supposed limitations of the instrument, went ahead by himself, and frequently hit upon new paths and opened up undreamed-of-possibilities. in classical music, the wind instruments had always lagged behind in their development. The brasses, especially, were subordinated to the strings. But the freedom of the New Orleans musician from any restraining tradition and supervision enabled him to develop on most of the instruments not only new technical resources but an appropriate and unique jazz style.

So when Buddy Bolden, the barber of Franklin Street, gathered his orchestra together in the back room of his shop to try over a few new tunes for a special dance at Tin Type Hall, it was no ordinary group of musicians. Nor was Buddy an ordinary cornetist. In his day, he was entirely without competition, both in his ability as a musician and his hold upon the public. The power of his sonorous tone has never been equaled. When Buddy Bolden played in the pecan grove over in Gretna, he could be heard across the river throughout uptown New Orleans.

Nor was Bolden just a musician. he was an "all-around" man. In addition to running his barber shop, he edited and published The Cricket, a scandal sheet as full of gossip as New Orleans had always been of corruption and vice. Buddy was able to scoop the field with the stories brought in by his friend, a "spider," also employed by the New Orleans police.

Before the Spanish-American War, Bolden had already played himself into the hearts of the uptown Negroes. By the turn of the century, his following was so large that his band could not fill all their engagements. Soon "Kid" Bolden became "King" Bolden.

When he wasn't playing out at picnics during the day, Buddy could probably be found blowing his horn at Miss Cole's lawn Parties. Miss Cole's was an open-air dance pavilion up on Josephine Street. At night, he, might work at any of a dozen places -- at private parties, although his music was too "barrel house" for the most refined tastes. The nature of his music may be inferred from Herbert Asbury's description of these taverns in his book The French Quarter:

As its name implies, the barrel house was strictly a drinking-place, and no lower guzzle-shop was ever operated in the United States. it usually occupied a long, narrow room, with a row of racked barrels on one side, and on the other a table on which were a large number of heavy glass tumblers, or a sort of bin filled with earthenware mugs. For five cents, a customer was permitted to fill a mug or tumbler at the spigot of any of the barrels, but if he failed to refill almost immediately he was promptly ejected.

If he drank until his capacity was reached, he was dragged into the alley, or, in some places, into back room. In either event, he was robbed, and if he was unlucky enough to land in the alley, sneak thieves usually stripped him of his clothing as well as of the few coins which he might have in his pockets. most of these dives served only brandy, Irish whiskey and wine, and the liquors which masqueraded under those names were as false as the hearts of the proprietors.

From barrel houses and honky-tonks came many of the descriptive words which were applied to the music played in them, such as "gully-low," meaning, as its name implies, low as a ditch or "gully," hence "low-down," and "gut-bucket," referring originally to the bucket which caught drippings, or "gutterings" from the barrels, later to the unrestrained brand of music that was played by small bands in the dives.

A Kid Ory (2nd from left) early band, La Pace, Louisiana, circa 1908 - Sketch-1 =>>>>>>>>>>>

More often, Bolden played at one of the dance halls in the Negro district, such as Perseverance Hall, downtown on Villère Street, or Tin Type Hall, uptown on Liberty. George, the janitor of Perseverance, rented the hall on condition that the clubs who used it would hire the Bolden band. Some of the clubs they played for were the Buzzards, mysterious babies, and the Fourth District Carnival Club.

In the daytime, Tin Type Hall was used as a sort of morgue, for here the hustlers and roustabouts were always laid out when they were killed. The hustlers, gamblers and race track followers were often hard-working musicians in their off seasons, or when luck turned and they needed a little ready cash. At night, however, the Tin Tin Type trembled with life and activity, especially when Bolden was "socking it out." The "high class" or "dicty" people didn't go to such low-down affairs as the tin Type dances.

At about twelve o'clock, when the ball was getting right, the more respectable Negroes who did attend went home. Then Bolden played a number called "Don't Go 'Way, Nobody," and the dancing got rough. When the orchestra settled down to the slow blues, the music was mean and dirty, as Tin Type roared full blast.

Bolden's band was of the rough-and-ready school, without the polish of the note readers, such as the veteran Claiborne Williams' band, or the sweetness of Robichaux's orchestra. It was usually a small bunch, of from five to seven men. Buddy used William Warner or Frank Lewis, or sometimes both, on clarinet. Warner had a C clarinet, while Lewis played the usual B flat instrument. Willy Cornish, the only member of the original band living today, played a piston (valve) trombone.

For a mute, Cornish used an empty bottle. Bolden, who almost always played with an open horn, sometimes used a rubber plunder, water glass, half a coconut shell, derby hat, piece of cloth, or his hand, for muted effects. Bolden, as a rule, played everything in the key B flat. the rhythm section, as usual in early New Orleans, had no piano, and consisted of Mumford, guitar, James Johnson, bass, and drummer Cornelius Tillman, or McMurray, with his old single-head drum and its bright red snares.

Bolden's band played for a while at Nancy Hank's Saloon on Customhouse Street, down in the red-light district. They used to sell fireworks in front, which, one one occasion, set the place on fire. At times, this joint got too rough for even the Buddy Bolden band.

Carnival time always saw New Orleans in its most festive mood. It was also the busiest time for musicians. Everyone was needed in the street parades which celebrated Mardi Gras. There was at least one parade a day for a week before Mardi Gras, and, on the final Tuesday, there were usually five or six. There were six gay weeks of masked balls. During the final week, balconies were decorated and maskers danced in the specially lighted streets.

The parades, during the final week of pageantry, always started at Calliope Street and St. Charles Avenue, and after going up Canal, Royal and Orleans, ended at the site of the old Congo Square where, in the case of evening parades, the event was climaxed with a masquerade ball. King Bolden got his share of jobs in the carnival balls, as well as the parades.

In later years, there were several changes in King Bolden's band. Around the corner from the Odd fellow's Hall, at Perdido and Rampart, there was a regular "gin barbershop" where musicians were accustomed to hang out while waiting to get calls for jobs. here Bolden picked up Bob Lyons, the bass player, and Frankie Dusen, his trombonist. Others were Sam Dutrey, clarinet; Jimmie Palao, violin; and Henry Baltimore or "Zino," drums. His guitar player was Brock Mumford, around whom Buddy wrote a little song, "The Old Cow Died and Old Brock Cried." On this number the whole band sang the vocal chorus.

Buddy used to hang around a saloon on Gravier and Rampart run by "a guy named Mustache." He called it "my office." But he was never very businnesslike. When it came to paying the men, he always had a check but he never got it cashed. When the men cornered him, he'd tell them to go to his office and stay there until he came.

"If you want anything to drink, tell Mustache I said to give you a good hot Tom and Jerry. I'll be there in about ten minutes." He never got there. . . .

But a dance was never anything around new Orleans without King Bolden. Whenever he opened up the window at the Masonic or Globe Hall and stuck his old cornet out and blew, people came from far and wide to hear him.

Finally the day came when buddy Bolden marched in his lat procession. For years he had been mentally and physically overtaxed. Under the stress of excitement, his mind snapped and he went on a rampage during a Labor Day parade. Down in New Orleans, there are those who say that women killed Buddy Bolden, but wiser heads know it was also overwork, that at last Buddy had played himself out. The king of them all was committed to the East Louisiana State Hospital on June 5, 1907, where he was listed as a barber, his reputation as cornetist promptly forgotten; he was known only as one of several Boldens from New Orleans. He died there in 1931.

Source: "New Orleans Music" (1939) by William Russell and Stephen W. Smith =>>>>>>>>>>>

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“The blowingest man that ever lived since Gabriel”

Peter Hanley @ Doctor Jazz
The story of Buddy Bolden, generally regarded as the first jazz musician, was steeped in legend. His life and music were surrounded by myth, fantasy and hearsay, perpetuated by both early and later writers on the history of jazz. Much of the myth, fantasy and hearsay has been cleared away by the research of the New Orleans writer and historian, Donald Marquis, culminating in the publication of his fine book In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz. (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1978, 176pp) However, there were only limited records available to the author during the period of his research so that some questions about Bolden remain unanswered, waiting for later researchers to pick up the trail and find answers to those questions.

Three of those questions relate to more finite information about Buddy’s ancestors: where they were born, were they born into slavery, and how much African blood they carried.

Many musicians and writers (none of whom had ever seen Bolden or heard him play) described Buddy Bolden as a black Baptist from Uptown New Orleans. Jelly Roll Morton was, without doubt, the best and most accurate chronicler of musicians, sports, and events in New Orleans in the early years of the twentieth century, and, fortunately for us, his recollections were documented by the late Alan Lomax for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in Washington D. C. In response to a question by Lomax whether Buddy Bolden was a Negro and dark, Jelly Roll had this to say:

“Buddy Bolden was a New Orleans boy . . . as far as I know. . . . He was a Negro, yes. Right in New Orleans. . . . No, no . . . he was light complected. He was what you call a light brown skin boy.” [AFS 1658-B]

Don Marquis discovered that Buddy was born in New Orleans on 6th September 1877 as Charles Bolden, the son of Westmore Bolden and Alice Harris. As is the case of many children born in 19th century New Orleans, whether black or white, there are no official birth records for Bolden. Details of his birth were recorded on 7th March 1884 in the Baptismal Register of the First Street Baptist Church, which was also known as the St. John the Fourth Baptist Church, in uptown New Orleans.

Buddy’s father, Westmore Bolden, was the son of Gustave Bolden and Frances Smith. On the strength of a rather peculiar statement on Gustave Bolden’s death certificate issued in the name of “Augustus Bolen” on 4th August 1866 that the deceased was “a native of the United State of Louisiana,” Don Marquis incorrectly assumed that Gustave Bolden was born in Louisiana. In actual fact, both Gustave and his wife were born in the state of Virginia. Their three children, however, were born in Louisiana but not in New Orleans. I have certified copies of the birth certificates of the three children whose births were registered in Orleans Parish on the same day, 31st August 1868, many years after their birth. I quote from the birth certificate of Westmore Bolden, which provides the necessary proof where the family came from:

“Mrs Frances Bolden born Smith a native of Virginia residing on Calliope Street No. 354 in this city who hereby declares that on the twenty second day of February eighteen hundred and fifty one (February 22nd 1851) at Tensas Parish (Louisiana) was born a male child named Westmore Bolden lawful issue of deponent with Gustave Bolden a native of Virginia.” (Orleans Parish Birth Records Volume 50, page 214)

The other children were Thomas who was born on 4th July 1848 (Orleans Parish Birth Records Volume 50, page 214) and Cora who was born on 23rd December 1853. (Orleans Parish Birth Records Volume 50, page 215) Thomas and Cora were also born in Tensas Parish. For some unaccountable reason, the clerk at the office of the Recorder of Births and Deaths wrote “Thomas Belden” on the birth certificate and Frances Bolden signed her name as “Frances Belden.”

The earliest documentation of the Bolden family in New Orleans or elsewhere, was the death certificate of Gustave Bolden in 1866, (Orleans Parish Death Records Volume 32, page 525) which stated that Gustave died “at the residence of Mr W Walker on Caliope Street near the R R Depot.” Frances Bolden and her three children continued to live on at the Walker property at 354 Calliope Street where they were employed as domestic servants. (U.S. Census 1870, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, New Orleans, 2nd Ward, page 87, lines 1-6, and Westmore Bolden’s birth certificate quoted above) All the members of the Bolden family were recorded as mulattoes in the census.

It seemed to me to be obvious that the key to the background of the Boldens was tied up with William Walker, a white person, and this proved to be correct. At the time of the 1870 census, Walker was the proprietor of a successful carrying business, but his activities before he came to New Orleans in the 1860s would give the answers sought.

William Wallace Walker was born in Virginia about 1812, according to his death certificate, or about 1814, according to the census records. He made his way to Louisiana sometime before 1840 for he was listed in the 1840 Federal census as a resident of Concordia Parish, Louisiana, which is located in the north east of the state, bounded by the Mississippi River on the east. Walker was a cotton planter and owned eight slaves including a male about the same age as Gustave Bolden and a female about the same age as Frances Smith. (U.S. Census 1840, Louisiana, Concordia Parish) By decree of the Louisiana State Legislature on 17th March 1843, the northern part of Concordia Parish was incorporated into Tensas Parish, regarded by some as one of the most beautiful and fertile parts of the United States. Tensas Parish, sparsely populated but with an area of about 414,000 acres (647 square miles), is bounded by Madison Parish on the north, the Mississippi River on the east, Concordia Parish and Catahoula Parish on the south, and Franklin Parish and the Tensas River on the west.

Walker married a Kentucky girl by the name of Eveline, and the couple had two children, a daughter, Mary, in 1842, and a son, William Wallace Walker, known as Wallace Walker in 1845. By 1850, he was a successful planter with a plantation worth $20,000 and twelve slaves listed under his ownership in the Slave Schedule for Tensas Parish. (U.S. Census 1850, Louisiana, Tensas Parish, Western District, page 298, lines 1-4)

Prosperity continued for the Walker family so that by 1860 William Walker was a wealthy man with real property valued at $56,000 and personal property of $51,000 which consisted mainly of 47 slaves. (U.S. Census 1860, Louisiana, Tensas Parish, St. Joseph Post Office, page 31, lines 14-18 and Slave Schedule for Tensas Parish, page 47) The Walker Plantation was called “Glen Wild” with over a thousand acres of land. It was located in the Western part of the parish just over the Tensas River near the road from Winnsboro (the seat of Franklin Parish) to St. Joseph (the seat of Tensas Parish), which is situated near the Mississippi River in the eastern part of the parish.

But the Civil War and emancipation ensured that such prosperity did not last for long. The residents of Tensas Parish foresaw the troubles ahead and formed two home guard units in the early part of 1860 for the protection of both the people of the Parish and their property. William Walker served as a private in the Tensas Rifles while his son, Wallace Walker barely 17 years old, rode with the Tensas Cavalry.

Although there were no battles fought in Tensas Parish, it became a key area in the struggle for control of the fortified city of Vicksburg, situated on a strategic bend of the river, the last stronghold on the Mississippi River controlled by the Confederacy. By March 1863, the attempt by General Grant’s Army of the Tennessee to take Vicksburg from the north had stalled. Grant conceived the bold and brilliant plan to deploy 30,000 troops from his army north of the Yazoo River, transport them across the Mississippi at Milliken’s Bend and march south through Madison Parish and Tensas Parish in Louisiana to the area around Lake St. Joseph and Lake Bruin. A small fleet of the Union Navy would sail down the Mississippi past Vicksburg, rendezvous with the army, and ferry them across the river at Grand Gulf, enabling Grant’s forces to move on Vicksburg from the south.

When the Union soldiers swept through Tensas Parish, some plantations were destroyed and many slaves deserted their masters. In turn, plantation owners set fire to their cotton crop rather than let it fall into the hands of “those damned Yankees.” The Union Navy fleet with its accompanying transport barges, under the command of Admiral David Porter, ran the barricades at Vicksburg with only minor losses but the guns of its ironclads could not force the small fort at Grand Gulf into submission. Rather than expose his men to the Confederate artillery, Grant decided to make the crossing a few miles to the south. An old Negro, who worked in the area, told Grant that there was a good landing at Bruinsberg about ten miles to the south on the eastern side of the river. The historic crossing of the Mississippi on the night of 30th April and the morning of 1st May was the largest amphibious movement of troops known up to that time.

Grant’s forces won a decisive battle at Port Gibson and disarmed the fort at Grand Gulf on 1st May before pushing north east, with another victory against the Confederates at Raymond on 12th May, and taking Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, on 14th May. The Union forces then turned westwards to Vicksburg defeating the Confederates at Champion Hill on 16th May and the next day at Big Black River Bridge before making the first assault on Vicksburg on 19th May. Grant lay siege to Vicksburg for the next six weeks until the Confederate commander, General Pemberton, formally surrendered on 4th July 1863.

When Vicksburg surrendered on 4th July 1863, the old life in Tensas Parish had gone forever. William Walker sold his plantation to one of his neighbours, S. C. Montgomery, and made his way to New Orleans about 1865 where he bought a carrying business, which he ran from 354 Calliope Street near the Rail Road Depot. Montgomery had little success with the Walker plantation, which was sold for non-payment of taxes by the Collector of Taxes, Louisiana, on 6th July 1872. By the turn of the century, re-growth of trees had turned the property back into a wilderness. Known as the Walker Place, no one remembered its previous owner when it was acquired by McKinney and Trimble Oil Company of Eldorado, Arkansas in the early years of the twentieth century and restored to profitable production.

Gustave Bolden, Frances Bolden and their three children went to New Orleans from Tensas Parish with William Walker and lived in a small house behind the Walker residence at 354 Calliope Street. They made the transition from trusted slaves to trusted employees and continued to live at the Walker property for over a decade. It is quite probable that Frances Bolden, described as a mulatto in later census records, carried Walker blood in her veins. The 1870 Federal Census lists Walker’s wife as Jennie Walker, age 31, who was born in Mississippi. (U.S. Census 1870, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, New Orleans, 2nd Ward, page 4 (218), lines 1-6) It is not known what happened to Walker’s first wife, Eveline, or his two children, Mary and Wallace. William Wallace Walker, whose name suggests a strong Scottish ancestry, died in New Orleans on 23rd April 1875. (Orleans Parish Death Records Volume 63, page 437, age 63 years)

The rest of the history of the Bolden family is well documented and needs no further comment from me. Suffice it to say that Jelly Roll Morton was absolutely correct when he described Buddy Bolden as “a light brown skin boy.” The surviving portrait of Buddy as a young man and the only photograph of the Bolden band taken about 1905 give added testimony to that statement. The Bolden family could never have imagined how famous Buddy and his music would become. The jazz music he played could be heard all over New Orleans in early years of the 20th century. Within 20 years of 1907 when “he went to the crazy house,” as Jelly Roll said, it echoed around the world and has continued to do so ever since.

© October 2004 Peter Hanley =>>>>>>>>>>>

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