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Funky Butt Hall: Where Louis Armstrong heard Buddy Bolden play [1]

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Date: 2024-07-01  

A church by day and jazz joint by night, Funky Butt Hall was the place to be in the 1800s. Jazz music often blared through open windows as crowds packed the dance floor.

Some said the music was so loud that it could be heard on the Westbank.

Located on Perdido Street, the Funky Butt’s formal name was Union Sons Hall. It also was called Kenna’s or Kinney’s Hall. “Funky Butt” was based on the lyrics of cornetist Buddy Bolden’s song, “Buddy Bolden’s Blues.” The name also referred to a popular dance of the day, according to Louis Armstrong.

“To a bemused interviewer, Armstrong explained the name of the building as from ‘a dance at the Funky Butt Hall… they named this kind of dancing they did there funkybuttin,’ ” Peter Tamony wrote in the journal article “Funky.”

Several jazz bands played at the Funky Butt, but Bolden’s was the most popular.

“Bolden earned a reputation by playing in his bluesy, improvisational style late into the night, quitting in time for the building to be used as a church (First Lincoln Baptist Church) on Sundays,” WWOZ’s A Closer Walk states.

As long as Bolden was there, the Funky Butt was filled to capacity. The crowds loved his charisma and his loud and rough jazz style. Unfortunately, his popularity and the Funky Butt didn’t last.

“By June of 1907, Buddy was committed to a mental hospital… and never played publicly again,” according to “Funky Butt Hall: Tricentennial Music Moments,” narrated by Norman Robinson. “Time went by, the Funky Butt Hall lost its nickname, and people forgot about Buddy.”

In the 1950s, the hall, which had become a full-time church, was demolished to make room for government buildings. The current City Hall is across the street from where the Funky Butt once stood.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/07/01/bitd-funky-butt-hall-louis-armstrong-buddy-bolden/

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