The unknown grave for the well-known Father of Jazz
Holt is New Orleans’ most unkempt and haphazard cemetery. Founded in 1879, originally it was a potter’s field, or indigent cemetery for those who couldn’t afford burial. Unlike the more famous aboveground cemeteries, here the graves—some shaded by a few beautiful old oak trees—are mostly beneath the earth.
There are two tributes in Holt to Buddy Bolden, credited as the Father of Jazz, but no one knows the site of his actual grave. He was a victim of acute alcohol psychosis and schizophrenia, and spent the last 24 years of his life in the Louisiana State Insane Asylum. Before his decline, Buddy had developed a looser, more improvised version of ragtime to which he added blues and funk. One of his early hits, “Funky Butt,” totally changed the musical landscape. He is also credited with the invention of the so-called “Big Four”—the first syncopated bass drum rhythm to deviate from the standard march beat. The second half of the Big Four is the pattern commonly known as habanera rhythm, or basically, the “New Orleans Sound.” Thus, Buddy Bolden, buried who-knows-where in Holt Cemetery, can be considered perhaps the most important musician in NOLA history, and quite possibly all of America.
Info
Address 527 City Park Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119, +1 504.658.3781 | Hours Mon–Fri 8am–2:30pm, Sat 8am–noon| Tip If looking for bones and unmarked graves leaves you hungry, there’s a classic 24–hour burger joint practically across the street. Bud’s Broiler (500 City Park Ave) opened in 1956 and became famous for Bud Saunders’ “secret Hickory Smoke Sauce.”
While not finding Buddy’s grave, you will find a bizarre landscape of all manner of stuffed animals, dime-store-quality statues of Mary and St. Francis, singing cherubs, plastic flowers, and carpet remnants strewn throughout the cemetery. There are unconfirmed tales of human bones that have worked their way up to the surface. In a sea of wonderful hand-carved and handmade headstones made by loved ones of the deceased, Miss Thelma Lowe has a coveted Zulu coconut on her grave. Many epitaphs are written in magic marker; a few others are spelled out in mosaics made with ceramic shards. One Emily Lorraine’s headstone states that she died in 2004 and was “bone” on June 20, 1947.
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