What they said about Claude Bolling
Claude Bolling was privileged to see his style, his talent, and his music recognised and appreciated by his peers.
BORIS VIAN
“Listen to Claude Bolling—the perfect response to those who tell you that jazz isn't music”
LOUIS ARMSTRONG in 1947
"Your piano playing is something I'll always remember"
MERCER ELLINGTON (1989)
"Little would one suspect that a gentleman from the land of the tricolor distinguish himself so well with three shades of brown, that is. Claude at some time or other had to have hung out with the wrong people to get the right feeling of soul interpreted in his version, or should I say this version of Black Brown and Beige. Thank goodness he helps to keep the genius of Duke Ellington alive. And one further word : it takes a genius to know a genius." -
DIZZY GILLEPSIE à Irène Bolling (1982)
"Your husband is a genius"
WYNTON MARSALIS (1994)
Last night Claude Bolling was here at four in the morning. He showed me some stride stuff, Fats Waller stuff ... He's playing! That's what I love ... Jazz, African Americans invented it, but if you listen to those who play it, it's hard to tell the difference. Take what Claude Bolling played to me last night: there isn't an African-American capable of playing like that, apart from perhaps Hank Jones ... "