Bunk Johnson: A Blues Poem
Inveterate Liar
Drunk
Musical Genius
Historian of JAZZ
is back on top!
June 19, 1949, New Iberia Louisiana, on the grounds of the old plantation home Shadows-on-the Teche, trumpeter Bunk Johnson, much to the consternation of his wife Maud, gathers friends together to announce his comeback! Now that he stands poised to resume his rightful place as a world-famous Jazz cat, he’s throwing a party. The former “yardman” at the Shadows, between tunes, regales his guests with tales of his wondrous, wandering life -- how he was there at the birth of Jazz, played with the great Buddy Bolden and taught Louis Armstrong. Maud, whose family once was enslaved at the Shadows, just wants to go home. But where is home for the wanderer?