Bolden

I look forward to seeing this movie and have long thought Buddy Bolden would be an ideal subject. But where is Jelly Roll Morton -- and how could anyone miss an opportunity to depict this amazing character!

I really wanted to like this film. Buddy Bolden is largely unknown, but his legacy is immense. I love Jazz and love New Orleans and have visited many times- the combination of Jazz, New Orleans and the story of Buddy Bolden had the potential to make a great film, sadly this was not the case. The facts of Bolden's life are sparse, so there was a lot of room to tell a story. Racism was touched on, but should have been explored more fully. What you get is an impression and very little story telling. The story seems to be told in the first 20-30 minutes of the film, and then just repeated to the end. I was expecting more of the music, given Wynton Marsalis's involvement, but was again disappointed. There was very little of New Orleans itself in the film- again a missed opportunity. Overall, extremely disappointing.

The story could have been told more clearly. I understand that they were trying to mirror the flashbacks of an insane genius, but it would have worked just fine if the story had a little more order and clarity. I honestly figured from the trailer that the storytelling might have been off, but I was so drawn in by the music and the overall look of the movie that I still just had to see it. Despite some major drawbacks in plot, I do not regret watching it at all. The music! That's what I came for. The actor playing Bolden wasn't half bad to look at either. The actor playing his manager (who also had a significant role on Boardwalk Empire) has a look that seems to fit that time period so well. He is fun to watch on screen. Not much to the plot, but the look and sound (the sound!!!) of this film definitely worth the watch. If you like jazz or if you don't, watch it for the music. Now that I've finished I can do some of my own research into Buddy Bolden who seems like a fascinating enigma.

Many reviewers must have missed the part of Ken Burns Jazz that centers on most of the roots of the truly American form of music from the last century? Buddy Bolden was the style influencer for Louis "Pops" Armstrong, who grew up in an adopted setting in New Orleans. Armstrong often heard Buddy Bolden playing on river boats from the river banks into the wee hours of the morning. His adoptive parents recognized the value of music and instrument training early on. When they took Armstrong to select an instrument to learn, they hinted around about a woodwind or string instrument, but Armstrong was already hooked on the Coronet from listening to Bolden and others in the City.

What may be very distracting to some of the viewers is the fact that Bolden was a schizophrenic with hallucinations and deep depression, For this, he was eventually institutionalized. The story is managed as Bolden sees it, eventually from his cell at the asylum that he was interned into. This is not any harder than following about any Quentin Tarantino movie or others which find a way of describing current and past sections of time into 90 or so minutes of film.

This film has the burden of also showing how even the most talented people of color were often taken advantage of by crooked, managers, record companies, theatre owners and other grifters and swindlers in the entertainment industry of the time. I believe they do an exceptional job of placing Bolden within the reach of several unsavory characters beset on separating him from his music and talent in order to pad their own pockets.

Wynton Marsalis wrote and orchestrated the music for this film and likely is the only living human being capable of doing so with the true essence of the time, characters and musical theme of the times. From "Jazz", by Burns et.al., Marsalis explains the voices of the New Orleans sound and the POP of the Bolden style that he was ultimately famous for both as unique and as a major influence to Armstrong, one of Marsalis's iconic performance player. In "Jazz", Marsalis narrative and emotion in discussing these two, Bolden and Armstrong, reveals his feelings for them and their places as Jazz icons of the first degree.

If only they had a scene with Sidney Bechet (1897-1959), the New Orleans sax player that would have been about Bolden's age. Mr. Bechet was a brawler. If he didn't get paid right for a gig, he would take his fee out in damages upon the locale he was playing in. He was also a victim of unscrupulous dealings with the white ownership structure in New Orleans. Early in life, he left the US for Europe where he and many other Jazz musicians of the time went to play to full houses of appreciative, jazz starved fans. Remember, those fans did not yet have records. Live performances were the rage of the time.

I was much more excited to see how well the movie trailer was put together, promising a well done historical biopic film. While the scenes are beautifully done in a fantasy fashion, the costumes and scenery seemed period correct; the story was a bit hard to follow, pieced together like a patchwork quilt. I would love to see the working script from this film as it must have taken a genius to put this hodgepodge film together! I did wind up deciding the writer/director must have taken his cue from the inner thoughts of the troubled soul of this musical genius, Buddy Boldon. As it is said, there is a fine line between genius and lunatic. I will give this film 5 stars as I feel the settings, acting, musicial orchestration, etc, was well done, even though the story was a bit hard to follow.