A single photograph, grainy and yellowed with time. That’s all the tangible evidence that remains of Buddy Bolden, one of the first documented players of early New Orleans jazz. Although his memory has long been kept alive in oral tradition, many of the specifics of Bolden’s now-mythic life and career remain obscured in shadow.
The Eagle Saloon, located on the famed 400 block of Rampart Street in the historic black Storyville district of New Orleans, was one of many community hotspots where Bolden, Bunk Johnson and their contemporaries performed the music that would come to be known to the world as jazz, influencing a young Louis Armstrong and countless others. Built in 1851, the Eagle Saloon — a building on the National Register of Historic Places — is one of the few remaining buildings of its kind to survive. A new plan seeks to preserve and refurbish this priceless building, bringing history into the present and reconnecting it to the living traditions of New Orleans.
Over the years, the Eagle Saloon has passed through many hands. Most recently, after a decade of ownership by the now-deceased Jerome “PoppaGee” Johnson and the New Orleans Hall of Fame, LLC nonprofit, the newly formed Eagle Saloon Initiative, governed by new board members for the New Orleans Music Hall of Fame, seeks to once again to undertake a massive renovation effort.
This time around, things look more promising: a charitable foundation matched the first $250,000 raised. A newly launched Indiegogo fundraising campaign has been capitalizing on the ever-growing grassroots power of social media, allowing the group to reach their initial fundraising goals. And a star-studded list of Cultural Ambassadors to the Eagle Saloon Initiative has been assembled, including New Orleans native PJ Morton of Maroon 5, George Porter Jr. of The Meters, Buddy Bolden’s great-grandson Big Sam, Ian and Ivan Neville and “Deacon” John Moore.
“We’re at a point throughout the world right now for these types of efforts to be successful in ways they may not have been before, with the help of social media and a growing realization of the importance of preserving local culture on a global scale,”said Zach Fawcett, project manager for the Initiative’s resurrection campaign. “I walked in the building the other day…it needs to be stabilized immediately. We will lose this building if something isn’t done now. So there is an urgency here where there might not have been before, and the time has come to express that urgency. We have a chance to help preserve and deliver not only New Orleans musical history to the world, but American music to the world. And we want everyone to feel they’re involved and have a voice.”
The Smithsonian called the 400 block of Rampart Street the most important block in the history of jazz. But music hasn’t been played in the Eagle Saloon since the 1930s, and the building itself has sat vacant and crumbling for decades. With the first half million dollars now raised, the building’s stabilization is finally set to begin. While the board has said that a full renovation effort will be an additional 1.5-2 million, the Initiative’s plan for sustainability includes the opening of a performance venue downstairs and a space for music education for aspiring young artists. If the fundraising goals are met, the Eagle Saloon will reopen its doors to the public in 2018, the year of New Orleans’ Tricentennial celebration.
“The renovated Eagle Saloon will not be a traditional jazz hall, but a living, breathing organism, an investment in New Orleans culture both locally and globally,” Fawcett told Uproxx. “Europe and Japan have long been at the forefront of the study and continuation of traditional New Orleans jazz. We want them to be involved. We want everybody to be involved. It is our global responsibility to know more about our own culture but musically we want this to be a grassroots effort that amalgamates and churns into something different…something living.”
To learn more about the Eagle Saloon, go here. To donate, go here.
