Buddy Bolden - Music, Bolden in fiction

Jazz cornetist, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He is a putative founder of jazz, a figure of mythic significance. He reputedly played his trumpet so powerfully that he could be heard for 10 miles in all directions. No recorded evidence survives, though scholars spent decades searching for an Edison cylinder said to have been made at the beginning of the 20th-c. In 1907, his uncontrollable fits of violence led to his incarceration for life, and he died in a fire at an asylum.

Charles "Buddy" Bolden (September 6, 1877 – November 4, 1931) was a cornetist and the first New Orleans jazz musician to come to prominence.

While there is substantial first hand oral history about Buddy Bolden, facts about his life continue to be lost amongst colourful myth.

Bolden suffered an episode of acute alcoholic psychosis in 1907.

Bolden was buried in an unmarked grave in Holt Cemetery, a pauper's graveyard in New Orleans.

Music

Many early jazz musicians credited Bolden and the members of his band with being the originators of what came to be known as "jazz", though the term was not yet in common musical use until during the era of Bolden's prominence.

Although Bolden was recalled as having made at least one phonograph cylinder, no known recordings of Bolden have survived. Sounds foreshadowing funk and rap can be heard in one of Bolden's theme songs, known then as Funky Butt (a reference to flatulence) and later as Buddy Bolden's Blues:

I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say,
Funky-butt, funky-butt, take it away.

Bolden in fiction

Bolden has inspired a number of fictional characters with his name. Most famously, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje's novel Coming Through Slaughter features a Buddy Bolden character that in some ways resembles Bolden, but in other ways is deliberately contrary to what is known about him.

Bolden is also referenced in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. with King Hedley constantly singing "I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say...;" and with King Hedley believing that Buddy Bolden will come down and bring him money to buy a plantation, Bolden is prominent in Wilson's drama.

Additionally, August Wilson's King Hedley II continues Seven Guitars, thus Bolden continues in the play as well.

Bolden is a prominent character in David Fulmer's murder mystery titled Chasing the Devil's Tail, being not only a band leader but also a suspect in the murders.