Before Louis Armstrong, before Joe “King” Oliver and before Freddie Keppard there was Buddy Bolden, the first great cornetist in jazz history and a key figure in the development of the music. He was born on September 7, 1877, in New Orleans.

While many of the details of Bolden’s life have been obscured by time, we do know that he led one of the most popular bands in New Orleans from around 1900 until 1907. Cited by at least one jazz historian as “the father of jazz,” Bolden’s band played a looser style than the ragtime bands of time. They incorporated more improvisation and added aspects of the blues and Black church music to their performances. Bolden himself was known for his powerful playing and was an influence on other early New Orleans cornetists like Oliver, Keppard and Bunk Johnson.

Buddy Bolden’s valve trombonist Willie Cornish claimed to have made cylinder recordings of the band performing, but none have ever been found, so we have no recordings of Bolden playing, only the descriptions of those that heard him. He is credited with developing “the big four,” a syncopated bass drum pattern, and with composing the song Funky Butt, now sometimes called Buddy Bolden’s Blues or performed as the Jelly Roll Morton interpretation I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say.

Buddy Bolden was admitted to the Louisiana State Insane Asylum in 1907 after having suffered an episode of “acute alcoholic psychosis.” He was later diagnosed as being schizophrenic and remained in the mental institution until his death in 1931 at the age of 54.

Here is a link to Jelly Roll Morton playing and singing Buddy Bolden's Blues:

"BUDDY BOLDEN'S BLUES"