New Orleans cornetist Charles “Buddy” Bolden (pictured) will be portrayed by actor Anthony Mackie (She Hate Me, Million Dollar Baby) in the upcoming film Bolden!. Wynton Marsalis is executive producing the film and will contribute the original soundtrack. First-time director Dan Pritzker and veteran cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond also join the crew. The production is currently filming on location in New Orleans and North Carolina.
Though he never recorded, Bolden has been credited with influencing the sounds of Louie Armstrong and Joe “King” Oliver. By 1905, Bolden had reached his peak as a professional musician in New Orleans, playing in various clubs and parks in and around the city with his band. Over the next two years though, he suffered increasingly from mental degradation and alcoholism. He spent the rest of his life in a mental institution in Jackson from 1907 until his death in 1931.
The biopic currently has no release date other than it is expected sometime in 2008.
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