Lincoln and Johnson Parks

The two blocks bounded by Carrollton Avenue and Fern, Forshey, and Oleander Streets were the site of Lincoln and Johnson Parks, where jazz bands performed on Sunday evenings in the 1900s and 1910s. Buddy Bolden’s performances at Lincoln Park are legendary, as he was known to attract crowds by blowing his cornet loudly in the direction of a competing band at adjacent Johnson Park. John Robichaux’s Orchestra could only compete against Bolden’s band at these events when he hired Manuel Perez to play cornet. Jelly Roll Morton recalled:

“I remember we’d be hanging around some corner, wouldn’t know that there was going to be a dance out at Lincoln Park. Then we’d hear old Buddy’s trumpet coming on and we’d all start. Any time it was a quiet night at Lincoln Park because maybe the affair hadn’t been so well publicized, Buddy Bolden would publicize it! He’d turn his big trumpet toward the city and blow his blues, calling his children home, as he used to say.”