Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville (Bayou) [Paperback]

Danny Barker (Author), Alyn Shipton (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Bayou | Publication Date: May 2000

This is a selection of Danny Barker's writings, beginning with a long portrait of Buddy Bolden, the "first man of jazz", drawn from conversations and interviews with the generation of jazzmen that invented the music. The book also contains Barker's own recollections of Storyville in its dying days, plus more material dating from his pioneering period of work in the big bands, with a memoir of trombonist Charlie Green, and of life on the road with Cab Calloway. Barker has included material from the "Jazzland Research Guild", an organization founded in the 1940s to research the backgrounds of his colleagues in one of the first efforts by any black musician to document jazz history. Barker died on 13 March 1994, and the final text has been edited by Alyn Shipton from Barker's copious drafts and notes, plus transcripts on their conversations together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All in all this is an immensely entertaining book, although you have to make an effort to seperate fact from fiction...it's one of the few books I have picked up and found difficult to put down again. Thouroughly recommended."
-Eddie Cook, Jazz Journal Interantional

"Barker was one of the first African-Americans to record recollections of [New Orleans'] musical and social heritage. Much of it involved his own family; his relations had first-hand knowledge of legendary figures like Buddy Bolden, the cornettist reckoned to be the key figure in the emergence of jazz."
-The Economist

"...it is the story and the manner in which it is told that makes this book an entertaining read."
-Mike Hazeldine, New Orleans Music --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

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 presents jazz radio programs for the BBC and is a critic for The Times in London. He is the author of several books on music, as well as a music publisher and editor. He divides his time between Oxford and the French countryside. In 2010, he was voted UK Jazz Broadcaster of the Year. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826447430
• ISBN-13: 978-0826447432
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,893,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining introduction to early jazz by a pioneer!, December 22, 1998

By 

Kevin Fontenot (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buddy Bolden and the Last Days of Storyville (Bayou Press) (Hardcover)

Anyone who spent anytime around the New Orleans jazz scene knows that Danny Barker was the living voice of the music. Before his death, Danny always peppered his concerts with his spicy, insightful anecdotes (true in meaning if not in every fact). This book brings together some of his stories centered around Buddy Bolden (The "Father" of Jazz) and Storyville. His voice comes through strong and funny, just as he spoke in life. Factually, I am not sure of the accuracy of all these stories, but nothing catches the flavor of early New Orleans jazz like Danny Barker. All of us who had the pleasure to know him miss him, this book reminds us why we loved him so much. He still teaches us.