Don Marquis, jazz fan, writer, researcher, and one of the creators of the New Orleans Jazz Museum (the current home of OffBeat Magazine) died on July 29 in his hometown of Goshen, Indiana. He was 88.

In 1978 Marquis wrote the groundbreaking book In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz that examined the beginnings of jazz with the story of the mysterious and revered New Orleans jazz trumpeter Buddy Bolden. Marquis put to rest the numerous myths about Bolden with interviews with those who actually knew him. Marquis also wrote several articles for OffBeat, including Masters of Louisiana Music on Buddy Bolden.

Louis Armstrong and Don Marquis, photo courtesy Louisiana Digital Library

As a high school senior, Marquis, a jazz music fan, talked his way into Louis Armstrong’s dressing room at the Blue Note in Chicago, where they became friends.

In 1962 he moved to New Orleans for two reasons: “a girl and jazz,” Marquis said.

A New Orleans Jazz Museum had already been founded in 1961 by a group of dedicated jazz fans who had started the New Orleans Jazz Club in the in the late 1940s. Marquis became a member of the Jazz Club, and started working with the club’s members after he moved to New Orleans. The collection of the Jazz Club was established with a collection that was consolidated as the New Orleans Jazz Museum, which grew to more than 20,000 items, was moved to several different locations over the years and finally ended up being housed at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. As the members of the Jazz Club became too old to care for the collection, it was donated to the State of Louisiana in 1978-79, and was housed at the Old U.S. Mint, which opened as a state museum in 1981 (much of the collection had been stored in boxes at an apartment in the Pontalba Building on Jackson Square). The Jazz Exhibit opened in the Mint in 1982.

“Don pretty much came with the collection,” Greg Lambousy, the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s director said.

Don Marquis at Jazz Fest, 1978, photo courtesy Louisiana Digital Library.

Marquis retired in the late 1990s and assumed the role of Jazz Curator Emeritus at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Marquis was interviewed for Ken Burns series Jazz and was consultant for Dan Pritzker’s film Bolden. Geraldine Wyckoff interviewed Marquis for OffBeat about the Bolden movie.

Marquis also edited the New Orleans Jazz Club periodical The Second Line.

A full obituary will appear in the September issue of OffBeat.