JELLY ROLL MORTON
Jelly Roll Morton (born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe; October 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941) was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz’s first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated. His composition “Jelly Roll Blues”, published in 1915, was the first published jazz composition. Morton also wrote the standards “King Porter Stomp”, “Wolverine Blues”, “Black Bottom Stomp”, and “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say”, the last a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century. (More from Wikipedia)
In 1938, Alan Lomax turned to jazz, including eight hours of reminiscences by one of the founders of the musical form, Jelly Roll Morton; and later, blues, prison songs, and other forms of music.
(February 2015)
