This passed Christmas, my son Severin bought me "Buddy Bolden & The Last Days of Storyville" and my niece Anna Rose got me "My Life In Jazz," both titles by Danny Barker. Barker was an accomplished guitar/banjo players and played in top of the line jazz ensembles including Cab Calloway's in the 1930's. He was one of the first jazz musicians to start actively chronicling jazz history, especially early jazz history -- a pursuit he undertook because of his dissatisfaction with how non-player music journalists portrayed the both contemporary jazz and its development. Both books are a great read, colorful and insightful and with a lot of valuable insider information on the beginnings of jazz in New Orleans. A significant amount of his reportage can't be documented or is disputed by academics addressing the same material. It seems entirely possible that a certain amount of his account is myth -- either that he'd collected and passed along without further inquiry or had a hand in contriving. But myth is NOT a lie per se -- it's a vehicle for conveying useful information, that's goes beyond naked facts and figures.
The figure that stands out the most in the "Buddy Bolden" book, is of course Bolden. And the academics take issue with just about all the details Barker provides on Bolden, his day job, the narrative arc of his mental health problems that ended his career and eventually landed him in an institution -- EVEN the quality of his playing and showmanship. Which begs the question? So how did Bolden inspire such a pervasive and enduring myth if he was an indifferent player and hammy performer? The great majority of New Orleans musicians from that era have utterly vanished from the historical record and faded, even from popular memory? There must have been SOMETHING happening to have the profound impact that Bolden had on American music history.
One of the tragedies of Bolden's career was that he never recorded a single note (there're rumors...but nothing's ever surfaced). This was not unusual at the time when musicians made their money from live performance and having the most powerful, accomplished and unique playing style and compositions were their stock in trade. So, few registered their copyrights or published their material or recorded -- fearing that'd enable others to more readily copy their playing and songs and have a better shot at competing for live work. One of the more interesting sections of Barker's book is his account of the early career of one Bunk Johnson. Barker claims that he was Bolden's understudy, often playing with Bolden's main band, taking over for him when Bolden - who'd often double or triple book gigs for himself on a given night -- would depart for the next gig. Johnson, reportedly, prided himself on replicating Bolden's style exactly. And also copying his sartorial style, penchant for womanizing etc. And while Bolden left no recordings behind, Johnson in fact produced a significant amount. At the point where aficionados of New Orleans style "Hot Jazz" were on a holy mission to uncover, preserve and perpetuate that style in the '40's as the main body of jazz evolved into more cerebral and abstract forms, Johnson wound up being rediscovered, based on a tip from Louis Armstrong. As any cursory research will show, there's plenty of dispute over Johnson's artistic worth, the authenticity of the claims about his association with Buddy and I leave that to the more academically inclined to delve into. But the fact remains that it is documented that Johnson did play with New Orleans jazz heavyweights like Sidney Bechet. He was the person Armstrong referred researchers to as an authority on the origins of jazz in New Orleans and it has been documented that he was recruited to play with the line-up formed by Bolden's band members after Bolden had to give up performing. Based on all this it DID appear that it was possible that Bunk's music did preserve some elements of Buddy's style - and frankly, if it's only a fraction that's STILL more than we'd have otherwise.
Lately I have started making use of Spotify. It's not quite the miracle that some claim - try finding the work of James "Sugarboy" Crawford - there's maybe 5 songs - which Amazon lists a couple (very pricey) full length releses - BUT it can be useful to check out titles before purchase. There's actually a good amount of Bunk Johnson recordings available -- remember, he was rediscovered as part of a moment to preserve and document "Hot Jazz." I opted to check out "Bunk and The New Orleans Revival 1942- 1947," a 2 CD set with a whopping 43 songs on it - a compilation from 12 different recording sessions. A nice overview. And...I was utterly enthralled. Overall,the playing is by turns soulful, sexy, sad and rambunctiously swinging typifying the allure of New Orleans music throughout its history. The repertoire touches all the main bases of traditional jazz, the reworkings of sacred songs like "Down By The Riverside," early classics like Jellyroll Morton's "Milneburg Joys," brass band parade numbers and a good amount of the "slow drag" blues that'd be the occasion for low down "belly-rubbing" dance late on a Saturday night. The sonic ambience, in most cases, is lively and slightly echoey - honestly sounds like this is being performed on a sidewalk on Burgundy Street in the French Quarter, or in an inner courtyard overhung with lush vegetation. YES I'M OVER-ROMANTICIZING - but this IS one of those recordings that can transport you to a different time and locale within minutes.
So... I dunno if Bunk Johnson played alongside Buddy Bolden, or just studied him from the audience, or just heard accounts of his style from other musicians and did his best to fake something akin to it. Just sounds GOOD TO ME.
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