Christopher Hillman - Bunk Johnson: His Life and Times

This is a series of books about jazz artists, all of whom have made either a significant contribution or have had an impact on the jazz scene. Unlike some jazz books that concentrate upon the detail of the performers lives or music, this series is concerned with much more. Here can be seen the social background into which the subject was born and raised and the environment in which his or her music was formed. The social, domestic, racial and commercial pressures that shaped the person are examined alongside an assessment of other musicians who may have influenced the artist or been influenced by them. Of course, the music is not overlooked and each book carries a discographical essay in which the artists recorded output is summarized and analyzed. Well-illustrated, the Life & Times series of books is an important and long overdue addition to jazz literature.

Copyright 1988 Christopher Hilman
This edition 2012 Omnibus Press
(A Division of Music Sales Limited, 1415 Berners Street, London W1T 3LJ)

EISBN: 978-0-85712-829-4

The Author hereby asserts his/her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with Sections 77 to 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of the photographs in this book, but one or two were unreachable. We would be grateful if the photographers concerned would contact us.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The pictures in this book come from the Max Jones Collection, Jazz Music Books, the Melody Maker, William Russell, Terry Dash, Footnote magazine, Mike Casimir, Paragon Limited Edition Records, and Festa New Orleans Music Productions, Ascona. The illustrations are reproduced by permission. Every effort has been made by the publishers to trace copyright holders, and they apologise to anyone whose name may inadvertently have been omitted from this list.

PREFACE

This is not intended to be an exhaustive biography of Bunk Johnson. Such a work would require a great deal of original research, both in the field and among book-lined shelves, and, starting from scratch, would very likely be impossible at this late date. It would also have to be a very focussed work, severely eschewing self-indulgent analysis of musical trends and the less directly relevant aspects of the story of jazz and of the New Orleans background. I have done no original research, relying for all my information on what has already been published in one form or another. Some of the documentation is readily accessible and already well known to jazz enthusiasts. Some is less easily found, in obscure and long-discontinued publications; but it is all there for one who knows, or is well advised, where to look. Much is at least second-hand, and is the work of committed, and generally thorough and well-informed, enthusiasts to rationalise existing information in order to present the stories of the musicians from the collective memories of their contemporaries. For the source material of many of these, we are in the debt of the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University and its dedicated archivist, Richard B. Allen.

I have tried to correlate all the information about Bunk Johnson, and other musicians who throw light on him, that I could find in print. A certain amount of selection has occurred, and some events and anecdotes which seemed spurious or had an aura of the apocryphal about them have not been included. A good deal of the information about Bunk is open to question, or at least interpretation, and I have tried to show, unambiguously, where this is the case. There are many loose ends, as well as trails which it could well be rewarding to follow to their destination, but time and space forbid me to indulge in that pleasure here. I have included some, possible fanciful, analysis of Bunks convoluted character and have tried, in an inevitably ineffectual way, to see the events of his life through his own eyes as well as from the point of view of a detached enthusiast.

In the life of Bunk Johnson, major events such as the two world wars and the Depression take on a very limited importance. He was, perhaps more than any other, a musician living in the half-world of his own choosing, relating only to others of his own kind and the fellow travellers who attach themselves to his profession. In his self-absorption, he was not even much interested in the wider aspects of his own calling. It is necessary, however, to place him in the context of jazz as a whole, both as a style of music and a way of life, and that has been my main endeavour.

It has also been necessary to evaluate the effect on the development of jazz, particularly New Orleans jazz, and the well-being of its practitioners, of the Enthusiast, that strange embodiment of good-will, scholarship, determination and wishful-thinking, among the ranks of whom I must, gladly but humbly, count myself. It was an enthusiast. Tom Bethell, who, with much original research, compiled the book about George Lewis upon which I have relied heavily for much of my factual matter; another. Donald M. Marquis, provided in his book about Buddy Bolden a resolution of the inconsistencies in Bunks own account of his early life. Enthusiasts have generated virtually all the writings, not all directly relevant but invariably fascinating and enlightening, that I have scanned during my study, as well as most of the recordings of the music.

In my searches and wonderings I have been most generously helped by my friends, enthusiastic and expert, Charlie Crump, Roy Middleton, Mike Tovey and Alan Ward. Most of all, of course, anyone with any interest in Bunk Johnson must acknowledge a debt to William Russell, Eugene Williams and their collaborators. Gene is, sadly, no longer with us but Bill lives on in New Orleans, surrounded by paper, records and memories. If anyone is to write a proper biography of Bunk, Bill Russell is uniquely equipped through his personal knowledge of the man and his involvement in his career; so in a different way, is Paul A. Larsen, who has made the trumpeter his lifetimes study. If those two were to get together, what a book we would have. In the meantime