Review from The Unofficial Ken Colyer Website: http://welcome.to/the.ken.colyer.website reproduced by permission of the Author

‘The Loudest Trumpet’ by Daniel Hardie.                  Published by toExcel. ISBN 1—58348-607-0. Price $15.95 (USA)
                                                       by Brian Harvey

                           The figure of Buddy Bolden has - as the cover blurb for this book states “been a source of gratification for Jazz Buffs and critics, who long delighted to have a shadowy figure as the   first man to play the new music of New Orleans. He was mythologized and mystified,   because it was a good story and no-one had heard his music”.
                            Well - Daniel Hardie with this book does the best job I have yet had the pleasure of studying in analysing the Bolden legend and turning it into what appears to be very well researched and apparently accurate fact.
                            Using - with due acknowledgements - the major earlier book about Bolden by Donald M. Marquis (In Search of Buddy Bolden - First Man of Jazz - ISBN 0-8071-1857—5) as a major   reference source Hardie adds to this treasure trove of information to traces the full history   of Bolden and with superb musical insight sets out who played what type of music during the pre-jazz and early jazz years.
                         Thus we have for what I think is the first time a critical - but highly readable - analysis and explanation of how jazz emerged from the classic ragtime of the 1890s and early 1900s and more importantly for us - who played in what style in the formationof ‘our’ music. It is not for me to repeat the findings of this seminal research work - let it suffice to say that with a clearly drawn ‘genealogical’ chart Hardie shows how we can trace Bolden’s style to that of Freddy Keppard, Wooden Joe Nicholas and others.
                          This book is the best yet history of the genesis of our music and in providing us with that it lifts the veil of mystery from the many different types of sound that existed in New Orleans in the early years of the last century. It explains how they came about and why and how Bolden was the key to it all and even makes a case for the ODJB being a vital party of the story. Indeed there now appears to be a case for that band having been the only one to have recorded what might be termed “pre-jazz”. You just have to read it - again and again - and then make use of the lists of recordings in the Appendix.

Read more about this book at Dan Hardie's own website:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~darnhard/BuddyBolden.html