Buddy Bolden's Blues, a tribute. |
"I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say, Funky-butt, funky-butt, take it away." -Buddy Bolden's Blues Buddy Bolden lies in Holt Cemetery, down in New Orleans, where indeed some of the dead lie below ground, sadly forgotten. They finally made a marker six feet high and golden to help us remember the blues barker Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden was the inventor of jazz, rag-time, and funk you see. No one lies below the marker six feet high and golden somewhere near lies the blues barker Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden's band was the first to play the blues. They took ideas from gospel music heard in the uptown Baptist churches. He deserves this marker the man with cornet golden, that infamous blues barker Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden played music by ear, created a mix of rag-time, black sacred music, marching-band tunes and blues. He mixed tunes into something darker, the man with the ears golden, that infamous blues barker Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden rearranged New Orleans dance bands to better accommodate the blues; string instruments became the rhythm section, and clarinets, trombones, and his cornet were the front line instruments. A mix of myth, mystery, and something darker, made sounds and feelings that embolden, that infamous blues barker Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden they say was a barber by trade and publisher of The Cricket, a paper that would shame the Weekly World News when it came to playing hard and loose with the facts. True blues were his marker; alcohol his poison, sadly felling the blues barker, Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden went crazy with a bottle in his hand, and slowly suffered in an institution until he passed from this land. No stone was made as marker; for he to whom blues men are beholden. Thus was the fate of the blues barker, Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Buddy Bolden was buried in an unmarked grave in Holt Cemetery, just another pauper in a graveyard in New Orleans. They finally made a marker six feet high and golden to help us remember the blues barker Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. "I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say, Funky-butt, funky-butt, take it away." -Buddy Bolden's Blues |