Buddy Bolden

"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