Introduction:
The birth of jazz, with its complex rhythms, soulful melodies, and rich cultural roots, is a tale filled with mystery and innovation. Among the many figures credited with shaping this uniquely American genre, one name often stands out: Charles Joseph “Buddy” Bolden. Often shrouded in legend and myth, Bolden’s contributions to the development of jazz remain a subject of both…
Yesterday I worked across town and was driving home last night. I avoid the toll highway for a direct, but winding route home. It was rainy and dark when I came upon a section of the road which had been closed--a fire or car accident I suspect. One thing about living where there are tight hollows is it isn’t always easy to find your way home. I was lost for awhile. But heard that this film was opening locally this week on the radio.
A friend had done some work on this film. The project has taken some twists and turns and wrong-way turns along the line. Indeed Dan Pritzker has been working on it for 20 years. Here’s a link to a story in Jazz Times with more about that.
Mit fast einem Monat Verspätung findet er heute statt, der Neujahrs-Brunch. Neujahrs-Brunch mit Live-Musik von „Funky Butt“ am Sonntag, den 29. Januar von 10.30 bis 13.00 Uhr im Gerhard Tersteegen Haus. Es wird nicht nur etwas leckeres zu essen geben. Es gibt auch Live-Musik! Eingeladen sind Bewohner und Angehörige. Ich bin gespannt!
His musical influence, however, long outlasted him. No known recordings of his work exist, and facts about his life have become intermingled with no small amount of mythology. This much is certain, though: Bolden's improvisation-heavy blend of ragtime and blues -- which he performed with his Bolden Band under the name King Bolden -- is widely recognized as an originator of the musical form that would become jazz.
Mike Scott in The Times-Picayune. Buddy Bolden biopic to resume production, but without Anthony Mackie
Points scored immediately for its plainspoken title, Funky Butt carries the bittersweet distinction of being Arnett Cobb’s final studio date. Only trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison had him beat in delineating the drawbacks of an unkempt posterior with the contemporaneous “Dirty Butt Blues.”
Cobb considered Coleman Hawkins a patron saint and was a card-carrying member of the Texas Tenor School that also included Illinois Jacquet, Buddy Tate, Booker Ervin and others. Blessed with a lengthy career he still didn’t have an easy time of it. A bad back sidelined Cobb for two years at the cusp of the 1940s, and a tour bus accident roughly a decade later further hobbled his legs (another album on Progressive pictures the saxophonist slumped over the crutches he would rely on for the remainder of his life).
Cobb breaks up any encroaching monotony by doling out solo honors to his colleagues although it’s unclear how much of that deference is a function of the limits of his own constitution. He alternates between the brash and blunt double time blowing that was his signature beginning with his tenure in Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra and a more measured delivery on the ballads.
His purrs and slurs on the opening romp through “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” (his signature feature with the Hampton orchestra) exude a timbral brio that would make his contemporary Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis proud. A string of stampeding fours with Bedford that takes the tune out. Switching gears, the ensemble suffuses both “Satin Doll” and the perennial “Georgia on My Mind” variations on an insouciant “bump & grind” groove and Cobb digs into both with salvos of coarse-grained honking enlivened with extra swagger.
Jazz scholar Dan Morgenstern dismisses the three alternate takes tacked onto the disc’s conclusion as inferior, but there’s something to recommend each particularly the second stab at “Rhythm” which finds Cobb in a more raucous mood. Cobb didn’t stray much from his populist formula during his career and this last trip to the well doesn’t offer any revelations. Instead, it’s an embodiment of the “if ain’t broke…” adage and a satisfying listen stem to stern.
