The Bolden Cylinder Project: Professor Hancock's Orchestra

Professor Hancock's Orchestra: The Bolden Cylinder Project (Member of the 2015 SXSW Film Festival - Teen Film Competition) Directed by: Charlie Ozburn and Mike Dolan. asst. dir - Jaxter Kim and Julia Mewborne Link to a full article on the project, complete with detailed descriptions of the research, musicians and recordings: http://jazz.tulane.edu/sites/default/... Professor Hancock's Orchestra: Colin Hancock; cnt, vcl, arr. - dir. Jonathan Doyle; cl, vcl / Lyon Graulty; cl, vcl / David Jellema; vlvtb, vcl / Jamey Cummins; gtr, vcl / Ryan Gould; sb, lead vcl / Hal Smith; dms, vcl, arr, asst. dir. Filmed by: Mike Dolan, Charlie Ozburn, Julia Mewborne and Jaxter Kim Edited by: Charlie Ozburn and Luca Ring One of the greatest legends in jazz history is the cornetist Charles “Buddy” Bolden. A significant number of jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, have labeled Bolden as jazz’s founding father, yet little attention has been paid his music, and the few recreations that have occurred in the past 108 years have failed to capture his sound accurately, that is until now. Allegedly around the turn of the previous century, Bolden cut some wax cylinder records for a New Orleans grocer named Oscar Zahn. While these have yet to be found, there is still interest in them for their importance and mystery, which drove me to attempt my own recreation. Working with the drummer Hal Smith, I set about finding as many details as possible about the cylinders, Bolden’s playing style, and the popular music of the turn of the last century. In addition, I was given the task of arranging each of the songs. 8 pieces were carefully selected from primary sources who witnessed Bolden and remembered his repertoire, as no written scores (and obviously no recordings) of Bolden’s music exist. We also were assisted by David Sager at the Library of Congress, who is an authority on Bolden and provided many pieces of valuable information and media from his own research which proved to be an integral part of the project. To take the authenticity of the project further, I decided to use my 1905 Edison "Triumph" Cylinder Phonograph to record the tracks, which provided an entirely new set of technical challenges altogether, but it provided results that were beyond rewarding. Those involved are especially thankful to Benjamin Canaday, Jeff Cecil, John Levin and Tim Knapp for their generosity in assisting the assembling the blanks and getting the machinery running smoothly enough for this project. Lastly, Hal and I assembled a group of 7 extremely talented musicians from across the country who were able to capture the sound of Bolden’s band more accurately than anyone before, with myself playing the part of Buddy himself. When the day finally came to record, not only was the group lucky enough to knock out all 8 of the selected songs for sessions songs, but we were also extremely lucky to have some members of St. Stephens Episcopal School Film class videoing the session. The music performed was highly significant historically, being the first music that was truly an American style, and attempting to capture this unique sound a century later was an absolutely incredible experience. We look forward to sharing these tracks around the world and are also quite grateful to the musicians as well as Mike Dolan, Jaxter Kim, Julia Mewborne and Charlie Ozburn who taped the session so that we can also share video of this process, as well as Dr. Mark Kazanoff (director of Jazz at St. Stephen's Episcopal School) who came in support, and John Moon (director of the St. Stephen's Symphony Orchestra) who was there in spirit. Colin M. Hancock