Buddy Bolden, first of the Uptown syncopators, has been a source of gratification for Jazz buffs and critics, who long delighted to have a shadowy figure as the first man to play the new music of New Orleans. He was mythologised and mystified, because it was a good story and no one had heard his music. Some thought to play down his contribution. At least that was until, in 1978, a New Orleans historian researched his background and told the story. Bolden was no dream, but a musician who found a new way to play dance music for the black people of Uptown New Orleans.

But what was the music like? How did it evolve in New Orleans? What was its effect on the sound that was to follow? Where did it come from? Jazz lovers have long wanted the answers to these questions. The author has reviewed the available historical evidence, oral accounts of people who knew Bolden and those musicians who followed him, pictures of the bands, surviving music scores and recordings, in order to recreate the performances of the songs and dances Buddy played for his Uptown fans at the Funky Butt Hall on Perdido St.

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