ArtistInfo

Bunk Johnson
"This Is Bunk Johnson Talking, Explaining To You The Early Days Of New Orleans

Album US 1952 on American Music label
Jazz and Spoken Word (Interview, Dixieland)

A Buddy Bolden's Style – A Study In Variation: Although King Bolden has long been recognized as the originator and greatest cornet player of New Orleans music, no one ever described his musical style, (other than telling how powerful he was) until Bunk in 1942 demonstrated it by whistling and talking. In a little studio on Baronne Street Bunk whistled one of Buddy's old "make-up" tunes – no title, just "makin runs," Bolden and Cornish, his trombonist, called it. This is a typical New Orleans break number – most of the breaks being taken by Bolden and Cornish. Then Bunk showed how, when he joined the band in 1895, he added variety by introducing diminished chords during his cornet breaks. One afternoon in May 1943, at a rehearsal in San Francisco with Bertha Gonsoulin, Bunk played four version of this same tune as part of a medley of Bolden tunes (with Pallet on the Floor). With his fertile imagination Bunk could play a chorus a hundred different ways. Excerpts from three of these versions are presented here – the first as background to Bunk's account of his first night in the Bolden Band, and finally sections of the second and fourth "takes." Bertha Gonsoulin, pupil of Jelly Roll Morton, was King Oliver's pianist in 1921-22 and as a child had played with Bunk in her father's orchestra in Louisiana. B Funeral Parades (& Tonks) Tony Jackson at the Big 25 Pete Lala's and Dago Tony's Bunk's 9-piece brass band (with Shots, Barbarin, Robinson, Lewis, Dodds, etc.) plays three funeral hymns – "Saints," "Nearer My God," "Just a Little While," to illustrate the class of music used in these unique New Orleans processions. The Big 25, for many years the favorite hangout of musicians, is almost the last old Storeyville landmark still standing. Bunk himself plays the piano on "Maple Leaf Rag" and "Baby I'd Love to Steal You." The piano background during Bunk's talk on Tony Jackson is by Knocky Parker. Pete Lala's was the most popular colored cabaret in Storyville. (The high fidelity recording and voice of the Pete Lala announcement is by E. D. Nunn; all other, low fidelity recording as usual by WR). Dago Tony's was a typical honky-tonk in the tough uptown district. There Bunk played "nothing but the Blues" all night long.

Musicians

Bunk Johnson tr, 1879-1949 US album by

ArtistInfo App

Acknowledgements

ArtistInfo for Mac, iPad, and iPhone