Jelly Roll Morton (1927)

Apr 19, 2013



A compilation of Jelly Roll Morton's classic Chicago "Red Hot Peppers" sessions, recorded in 1926-27. Jelly Roll Morton - ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer from New Orleans, Louisiana - started out his musical career playing brothels as a teenager, then toured the American South as part of a minstrel show, before settling in Chicago where he started to write songs. 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. In 1915, his composition "Jelly Roll Blues" became the first ever published jazz composition. Morton is also notable for naming and popularizing the "Spanish tinge" (habanera rhythm and tresillo), and for writing such standards as "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the latter a tribute to New Orleans personalities from the turn of the 19th century to 20th century. (Wikipedia)