Bruce Boyd Raeburn
1965
Bruce Boyd Raeburn was born in New York City on November 13, 1948, the son of big band leader Boyd Raeburn and jazz vocalist Ginnie Powell. In November 1958, the family relocated to Nassau, Bahamas, where Ginnie passed away at age 33 due to meningitis. In April 1962, Bruce and his younger sister Susan (Cleveland HS class of 1968) moved to Los Angeles to live with Ginnie’s brother Wallace Powell and his family. After a month at Northridge Junior High, Bruce enrolled at Cleveland High School that fall, where he remained until graduating in summer 1965, after which he attended UCLA 1965-66.
Boyd Raeburn eventually remarried and moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, where Bruce and Susan visited him during Christmas 1965. Based on that experience, Bruce decided to relocate to Lafayette to join his father in the summer of 1966. Boyd died of complications resulting from a car accident in August 1966, with Bruce remaining in Louisiana and Susan returning to Los Angeles. After graduating with BA and MA in History, in 1971 Bruce moved to New Orleans to work on a Ph.D. in History at Tulane University, by which time he was married to Kathy Baldauf, a union that lasted only 5 years. During his Lafayette years, Bruce also began playing drums with various rock bands, which eventually led to 45 years as a professional drummer in New Orleans. In 1991 he completed the doctorate, with the dissertation published as New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History by the University of Michigan Press in 2009.
Since January 1989, he has been the Curator of the William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz, a research facility at Tulane serving an international clientele. In 2009, he became Director of Special Collections for Tulane’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, while also retaining curatorship of the Hogan Jazz Archive. Bruce remarried in 1997 to Linda L. Carroll, a professor of Italian at Tulane specializing in early 16th century theater and popular culture in the Veneto. They live happily with their two cats in an apartment within walking distance of the university. Neither has ever owned a car.
Boyd Raeburn eventually remarried and moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, where Bruce and Susan visited him during Christmas 1965. Based on that experience, Bruce decided to relocate to Lafayette to join his father in the summer of 1966. Boyd died of complications resulting from a car accident in August 1966, with Bruce remaining in Louisiana and Susan returning to Los Angeles. After graduating with BA and MA in History, in 1971 Bruce moved to New Orleans to work on a Ph.D. in History at Tulane University, by which time he was married to Kathy Baldauf, a union that lasted only 5 years. During his Lafayette years, Bruce also began playing drums with various rock bands, which eventually led to 45 years as a professional drummer in New Orleans. In 1991 he completed the doctorate, with the dissertation published as New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History by the University of Michigan Press in 2009.
Since January 1989, he has been the Curator of the William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz, a research facility at Tulane serving an international clientele. In 2009, he became Director of Special Collections for Tulane’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, while also retaining curatorship of the Hogan Jazz Archive. Bruce remarried in 1997 to Linda L. Carroll, a professor of Italian at Tulane specializing in early 16th century theater and popular culture in the Veneto. They live happily with their two cats in an apartment within walking distance of the university. Neither has ever owned a car.
At the Hogan Jazz Archive (2009)
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At "second line" parade (1999)
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On drums during job with pianist James Booker in New Orleans in 1977
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From left: myself, my wife Linda L. Carroll and Ken Burns (2013)
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