Wynton Marsalis Imagines Buddy Bolden's Jazz On-Screen: 'He Was Bringing Fire'
Decorated jazz composer Wynton Marsalis talks about creating music inspired by an artist he's never heard play, Charles "Buddy" Bolden, for the film Bolden.
As much as jazz could possibly have an inventor, that person would be Charles "Buddy" Bolden. But although he is celebrated as a seminal figure in jazz at the turn of the 20th century, very little is actually known about the African-American cornetist and composer's life. There are no existing recordings of Bolden, who spent more than 20 years in an asylum before his death in 1931.
So, how do you write music for a musician you've never heard? You, one of jazz's most decorated composers and performers. Marsalis' proven track record made him the right man for the job of creating and playing the music for , the jazz biopic in theaters May 3 about the New Orleans cornet player.
