Buddy Bolden Band (Bolden is back row, left),
New Orleans, c. 1895.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection.

 

“Bolden Medley”

Bunk Johnson

1947

Cornetist Bunk Johnson often fibbed about having been in Bolden's band, but he did hear him often. This medley of tunes associated with the legend gives us a glimpse of jazz’s first cornet king and of Bunk, a legend of sorts himself.