Buddy Bolden

Cornetist Buddy Bolden

Buddy Bolden is widely regarded as the first musician to partake in the practice of spontaneous improvisation within the jazz tradition, and therefore many scholars claim that Bolden created the jazz genre. Buddy Bolden was born as Charles Bolden in 1877 in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. When Buddy Bolden was six years old, his father Westmore passed away and left Buddy and his sister in the hands of his now-single mother Alice Harris for the rest of his upbringing. When Bolden was ten years old, his family relocated from their first home to 2309 First Street (still in New Orleans).¹Bolden likely attended the Fisk School in New Orleans (not to be confused with Fisk University), which is interestingly the same school that famous jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong later attended. 

Bolden grew up hearing the music of brass bands on the streets of New Orleans, and as a result began to take cornet lessons. Bolden would often perform at Lincoln Park, an outdoor entertainment hotspot at the center of New Orleans developed in 1890 by Jeff Poree. Bolden would reportedly attract crowds from across the state of Louisiana who wanted to listen to his incredible musicality and technical facility. Bolden and his band became extremely successful between 1900 and 1907, maintaining regular gigs at Lincoln Park events and a nearby restaurant called G.W. Johnson’s. It is said that Bolden would provide both music and a show to audiences that came to see him play in Lincoln Park. ² Scholar and historian Danny Barker interviewed friends and family of Bolden’s in New Orleans who claimed that Bolden would buy a hog, shave off the hair, cover it in lard, and let it loose in the audience for the audience to attempt to catch while Bolden played his cornet. ³Unfortunately, Bolden’s music career came to an abrupt end in 1907 due to mental health issues likely catalyzed by his struggles with alcoholism. 

Bolden was arrested for the first time in 1906 in what is described as a fit of psychosis where he believed his mother or mother-in-law had poisoned his meal and subsequently attacked her with a water pitcher. In 1907, Bolden was arrested twice more; He ultimately received a sentence leading to his institutionalization in the State Insane Asylum in Jackson, Louisiana. Bolden spent the rest of his life in the State Insane Asylum and according to the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, likely joined a musical group in the asylum that at one point in 1907 toured the state capital and held a performance at the Elk Theatre. ⁴ Bolden died in the State Insane Asylum in 1931.

The map below shows Bolden’s career in the New Orleans area in the early 1900s before he began his stay at the State Insane Asylum in Jackson, Louisiana. Map points include places related to Bolden’s birth, the construction of his second house at 2309 First Street and subsequent move to that house, his childhood studies at Fisk School, Jeff Poree’s conception of Lincoln Park and Bolden’s performances there, Bolden’s restaurant gig at G.W. Johnson’s, his last public performance on Labor Day of 1907, all three of his arrests, his institutionalization at State Insane Asylum, the asylum’s musical performance trip to the State Capitol and the Elk Theatre, and Bolden’s death and burial. This map shows that although Bolden was one of, if not the earliest influential jazz musician, he was really only centered in the city of New Orleans over a period of seven years. Bolden’s short time in the spotlight and little travel makes all of his successes and influence all the more incredible.