If you enter the name “Buddy Bolden” into any search engine, you’re likely to not come up with much information about who that is. Buddy Bolden is a mystery that has yet to be entirely solved and a valuable yet hidden gem. Because of this, many people are not aware that he invented Jazz.
While this may come across as a shock to most, it is important to note that most of the musical genres’ that we know of today were founded by an African American: Rock & Roll, Country, Blues, and the list goes on. As culturally influential as African American’s have been and continue to be to music, those of the past may rarely receive the recognition they deserve. But as a film based on his life is set to release this week, his name will finally be known.
Directed by Daniel Pritzker, BOLDEN follows the life and struggles of Charles “Buddy” Bolden, played by Gary Carr, and his growth from a boy to a man living with his wife, played by Yaya DaCosta (Chicago Med, Whitney) in New Orleans, Louisiana during the late 1800’s. As Bolden became older, he took a liking to jazz music, and rightfully so. Jazz was one of the most popular genres of music at the time along with Blues, Gospel and Swing. The hypnotizing notes he played on his cornet, which is similar to a trumpet but shorter and thicker, were the perfect blend of those genres and completely improvised. Buddy had an ear for great music and took advantage of this skill in his performances.
Buddy and his cornet along with five other musicians who played the bass, clarinet, trombone, and guitar came together and formed The Bolden Band. Because there are no actual recordings of The Bolden Band existing today, the film features music by Grammy-winning Executive Producer, musician, and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The hypnotizing notes flow through an upbeat groove throughout the film.
Buddy Bolden along with The Bolden Band became a household name throughout their hometown but as the achievements came in, the problems followed. Bolden suffered from a severe case of schizophrenia and the film conveys the musician’s battles with his illness. He has a hard time working through it especially with little to no help from the people around him. Not only did this occur during a time period where the psychological health of African American’s were not taken seriously in the medical world but also in the African American community. Due to this unfortunate factor, Bolden’s unofficial diagnosis was not treated properly, and this essentially only caused more harm to him and those around him in the end.
Because a majority of Bolden’s life is unknown, the film rapidly flies through. It jumps from scene to scene, capturing brief glimpses of his story including his wife who, in the film, flees to Chicago with their son once she realizes the man she married is no longer present mentally nor physically. The Bolden Band quickly separated, as many suspected at the time, and Bolden’s career came to a rough halt. Moments shown of him talking to his self, hallucinating in the middle of a conversation and his heavy drug use were just a few of the reasons that determined his inevitable fate. Bolden was admitted to an insane asylum where he spent the rest of his life until his death 1931.
The director of the film does an amazing job at telling Bolden’s story in a way that will surely resonate with the audience emotionally, even with the small bit of information known. We got to sit down with the director and gain some insight on his initial vision for the film, as well as what made Buddy Bolden’s story so necessary to bring to the big screen.
The Knockturnal: What made you want to tell Buddy’s story?
Daniel Pritzker: “I was playing music professionally. I was playing a gig Boulder, CO on New Year’s Eve in 1997 going in to 1998. We were in between [performance] sets and the program director of the radio station said “Oh, I’m reading a book about Buddy Bolden. He invented Jazz, check him out.” I about fell on the floor. What do you mean he invented jazz? That like inventing lightning. So, I started to thinking about the idea that there was this guy that basically turned down the lights for everybody and nobody knows who that guy was. I was very aware, from the time I was a kid, of the through line from Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Jay-Z, whoever you want to talk about. The music that all of us grew up on, as different as it may have been, all had this foundation and it was jazz.
So, the idea that there was this guy we never heard of that turned the lights on for all of us, struck me as tragic and poetic that I had never heard of this guy. I figured if I hadn’t heard of him, a lot of people hadn’t. I loved all kinds of music and it would have been the kind of thing I should have known but didn’t. So, it struck me as American mythology and that’s what made me want to do this.”
The Knockturnal: We saw this amazing film but I want to know about the blood sweat and tears that went into it. You also wrote it. Just tell me about the process and the journey.
Daniel Pritzker: I was a songwriter and guitar player, and loved music all my life. I was very passionate about it. I had never made a film. I had done some videos, MTV type of stuff, but nothing like [Bolden]. I had to teach myself how to do it. When I was writing the script at one point, around the year 2000 after my umpteenth draft of the story, I went over to a book store and I bought a book on scriptwriting from some famous scriptwriting teacher. I go to my desk, I open my book, I read a page of it and I’m like “Oh, oh!” and I put the book back on the shelf. It was something I had to teach myself and there was really no other way for me to do this. So, that’s what I did.
When I started shooting in 2007, It was really a process of teaching myself how to make a film. Meeting crew and actors, this person gets where I’m coming from and this person doesn’t. That not to be critical but it was very important that the people I would work with would be on the same page as I was on, and it took some time to meet those people. I didn’t know anybody in the business.
The Knockturnal: We’re all kind of programmed and controlled by our expectations. So, off the bat I did not know what to expect and I always felt that you were in control. It feels like you took a jazz approach to the whole collaboration and working with people. How has the art form of jazz itself influenced your approach in telling this story?
Daniel Pritzker: “My gig was on December 31st, 1997. I got back from the back on the 1st or 2nd of January and went to the library and found a book by Donald Marquis called “In Search of Buddy Bolden”. That was what really started the whole journey for me. After that book, I read a biography on [Louis] Armstrong and I saw that Armstrong went back to New Orleans and played a gig that was broadcasted on the radio. He was most likely the first black guy broadcasted on the radio in America, this was June 20th, 1931. I thought this is five months before Bolden died. What if the radio gets turned on in the asylum and this schizophrenic guy hears Louis Armstrong? That, to me, was the “A-ha!” moment. The distorted and non-linear nature of [the film] had more to do with this coming through a schizophrenic guy’s mind. That’s’ what it was really about for me.”
“I felt like Bolden’s story, the version I wanted to make, was not a biography of the man because there’s not enough history on the man. I would have had to make up a lot of the story. To me, what this is about is an allegory about the soul of America. That’s really what I was trying to [convey].”
You can watch the trailer for Bolden below which releases in theaters nationwide this Friday, May 3rd.
