TEXT B The person most often
credited with inventing jazz is cornettist Buddy Bolden, a barber. Since his
career was over before the first jazz recordings were made, all we have left is
legend. He was famous for his big bold cornet sound, as well as for his bold
personality. His band started playing around 1895, in New Orleans parades and
dances, and eventually rose to become one of the most popular bands in the city.
He made up one song after another, and when be wasn’t playing, his rich voice
was capturing attention. His band had one feature that later jazz authorities
recognized as indispensable—"the trance", an ability to sink himself in the
music until nothing mattered but himself and the cornet, in fervent communion.
Legend has it that he was so popular he had eight bands playing on the same
night, and he’d rush from band to band playing a few tunes with each. Several
early Jazz musicians, like Sidney Bechet and Bunk Johnson, apparently played in
Bolden’s bands occasionally. The Bolden style had blues
foundations, however, his music was more like ragtime with improvised
embellishments. His band featured cornet, clarinet, trombone, guitar, bass and
drums, playing a mix of popular dance numbers in both ragtime and blues style.
By the turn of the century, many New Orleans’ bands had begun playing in the
collective improvisational style pioneered by Buddy Bolden. One of those groups
was the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the group which made the first ever jazz
recording. In 1906, Bolden began suffering periods of
derangement. The following year he was committed to a mental hospital outside of
New Orleans, and remained there for 24 years until his death in 1931 at the age
of 54. Trombonist Frankie Dusen took over the Bolden Band, renamed it the Eagle
Band, and they continued to be very popular in New Orleans until around 1917.
Although we have no recordings of Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton’s "Buddy Bolden
Blues" did immortalize this pioneering musician. According to paragraph 1, the Bolden legend says that he was in a hurry______.
A.to develop his style of music B.because that was the style of music he played C.to play with each of his bands D.to make up tunes