Memories of Don Marquis
To the Editor:
So very sorry to hear about Don Marquis. I knew him fairly well in New Orleans, during the ’90s. To me he was a sweet, unassuming man who came South from Indiana on a wing, a prayer, and a love for jazz music. As he wrote in his slim research log, Finding Buddy Bolden (1978), “After being in the city less than a month, I realized how naive I was and how little I knew about the subject.” You would never have slotted him as an academic—but his In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz has become the definitive work on the subject. I refer to it regularly.
I’ll miss you Don. Happy rambling, old friend!
Peter Gerler
Newton, MA
