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Portrait of Jelly Roll Morton, Music, 20th Century, 1890 — 1941📷 Wikimedia Commons — domaine public — Bloom photograph studio, Chicago — 1927

Jelly Roll Morton(1890 — 1941)

Jelly Roll Morton

États-Unis

6 min read

MusicCompositeur/trice20th CenturyFirst half of the 20th century, the era of the birth and rise of jazz in the United States (from New Orleans to the golden age of the big bands)

American pianist, composer, and bandleader, a major figure in the early days of jazz in New Orleans. He proclaimed himself “the inventor of jazz” and was one of the first to set his compositions down in writing, bridging ragtime and orchestrated jazz.

Frequently asked questions

Jelly Roll Morton était un pianiste, compositeur et chef d'orchestre américain né à La Nouvelle-Orléans en 1890. Ce qui le rend décisif, c'est qu'il fut l'un des premiers à fixer le jazz par écrit, faisant le lien entre le ragtime et le jazz orchestré. Il se proclamait « l'inventeur du jazz » et ses compositions comme Jelly Roll Blues (1915) comptent parmi les premières partitions de jazz éditées. Ce qu'il faut retenir, c'est qu'il a contribué à transformer une tradition orale en un genre structuré, ouvrant la voie au swing des années 1930.

Famous Quotes

« Jazz is a style, not a composition. »

Key Facts

  • Born around 1890 in New Orleans (Louisiana), into the Creole of color community
  • Composed “Jelly Roll Blues” (1915), often cited as one of the first published jazz pieces
  • Recorded with his Red Hot Peppers starting in 1926, laying the foundations of orchestrated jazz
  • Made a series of recordings and interviews for the Library of Congress in 1938 (Alan Lomax)
  • Died in 1941 in Los Angeles in relative poverty, before the renewed interest in his work

Works & Achievements

Jelly Roll Blues (1915)

Published in Chicago, it is one of the very first jazz compositions issued as printed sheet music.

King Porter Stomp (composed around 1906, recorded in 1923)

An iconic piece that would become, in the 1930s, an anthem of the swing era covered by the big bands.

Black Bottom Stomp (1926)

A Red Hot Peppers recording regarded as a model of New Orleans jazz orchestration.

Dead Man Blues (1926)

A musical evocation of a New Orleans funeral procession, blending the solemnity and liveliness characteristic of the city.

Wolverine Blues (1923)

A virtuosic piano composition, one of his best-known and most frequently covered pieces.

The Pearls (1923)

A refined piano piece, illustrating the shift from ragtime to fully composed jazz.

Library of Congress Recordings (1938)

A long series of performances and spoken accounts recorded with Alan Lomax, a major archive on the origins of jazz.

Red Hot Peppers Sessions for Victor (1926-1930)

A body of recordings that captured on disc the balance between written composition and collective improvisation.

Anecdotes

Ferdinand LaMothe, known as Jelly Roll Morton, sported a diamond set into one of his front teeth. This flashy detail was his calling card: he would flash it in a smile to remind everyone that he was one of the best-paid jazz musicians of his day.

Morton unabashedly proclaimed himself “the inventor of jazz,” which he dated precisely to 1902. In 1938, furious at hearing a radio program credit that title to W.C. Handy, he sent a long letter to Down Beat magazine claiming authorship of the genre, sparking one of the most famous controversies in the history of jazz.

As a teenager, Morton earned his living playing piano in the brothels of the Storyville district in New Orleans. When his Creole family, deeply concerned with respectability, discovered this work they deemed shameful, his grandmother threw him out of the house.

In 1938, the Library of Congress invited him to tell the story of his life in front of a microphone. For hours, Morton played the piano and recounted his memories to the folklorist Alan Lomax: these recordings form one of the first great oral histories of jazz, told by one of its pioneers.

For his 1926 sessions with his Red Hot Peppers, Morton rehearsed his musicians with a rigor rare for the time. He precisely balanced what was written out against what was left to improvisation, making these records models of New Orleans jazz orchestration.

Primary Sources

Library of Congress recordings (Alan Lomax interviews) (1938)
In them, Morton claims to have “invented jazz in 1902” and recounts, at the piano, the early days of the music in New Orleans, its pianists, and its Storyville houses.
Open letter from Jelly Roll Morton to Down Beat magazine (1938)
Morton publicly disputes that W.C. Handy is “the inventor of jazz and the blues” and claims for himself the creation of jazz in 1902.
Sheet music for “Jelly Roll Blues” (1915)
A composition published in Chicago, presented as one of the first jazz scores to be printed and distributed commercially.
Jelly Roll Morton's professional business card (1920s)
On it he billed himself as the “Originator of Jazz and Stomp,” proudly proclaiming his claim to have founded the genre.

Key Places

New Orleans (Louisiana)

Morton's birthplace and the cradle of jazz, where he grew up in Creole culture and cut his teeth on the piano.

Storyville, New Orleans

Red-light district where the teenage Morton played in the brothels, a decisive cradle of early jazz.

Chicago (Illinois)

Hub of jazz in the 1920s where Morton recorded his masterpieces with the Red Hot Peppers for Victor.

Washington, D.C.

He lived here in the 1930s and made his historic recordings with Alan Lomax at the Library of Congress.

Los Angeles (California)

City where Morton died in 1941, on the margins of the music scene that had once celebrated him.

Liens externes & ressources

Rechercher

Google : "Jelly Roll Morton"Google : "Jelly Roll Morton histoire"

See also

MusiqueXXe siècle