Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville

by Danny Barker

The first volume of Barker's memoirs, A Life in Jazz, followed him from New Orleans into the big bands of Cab Calloway and Benny Carter. He was working on this-the second volume-for some years before his death in 1994. Beginning with an extended portrait of Buddy Bolden as recalled by the likes of Jelly Roll Morton and Bunk Johnson as well as Barker himself, this book draws together a lifetime of stories and the vivid characters who populated "Storyville."Danny Barker (1909-1994) sang and played the guitar and banjo on over 1,000 jazz, swing, blues, and bebop records. He is a member of the Jazz Hall of Fame and recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Music Master Award. Alyn Shipton is a writer and broadcaster on jazz. He is the editor of A Life in Jazz, the first volume of Danny Barker's memoirs.

Genres: Music, Biography

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Carly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is all over the place. It was compiled from Danny Barker's notes after his death, but there's not much unity to the stories. The first chapter is a testimony from one of Buddy Bolden's acquaintances, but there are blatant misrepresentations of fact that make it hard to take this whole volume seriously. After that, Bolden is never mentioned again except once in passing. Some stories about the red light district, some about New York, all very random. All this plus the spelling and grammar issues leave me confused. I learned a few things from this book, and it provides an interesting glimpse of New Orleans if you've never been here, but I'm concerned about its validity.