Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings

 

In the early history of jazz, no figure occupies a position as large as Ferdinand LaMothe, better known as Jelly Roll Morton.

The New Orleans native, who claimed to have invented jazz itself in 1902 [Yeah, right - Ed.], was a composer, pianist, vocalist, vocalist, pool shark, and was without doubt one of the key figures in the creation of jazz.  Jelly Roll made numerous recordings in the 1920s but fell into relative obscurity in the 1930s.

Fast-forward to the summer of 1938, Alan Lomax, the assistant in charge of the Library’s Archive of American Folk Song, recorded over nine hours of Jelly Roll’s singing, playing and boasting.

The sessions were born when BBC radio journalist Alistair Cooke advised Alan Lomax to seek out Jelly Roll at the Music Box, a small Washington, D.C., nightclub where he played piano, treated the audience with tales of his glory days and expressed his strong views on jazz history.

Alan visited the Music Box and chatted with Jelly Roll, who suggested the recording sessions as a way to cement his place in history as the inventor of jazz.  This suited Alan, who had his own purposes for the sessions: in his words, "To see how much folklore Jelly Roll had in him", and capture it for posterity.

In the Library of Congress' Coolidge Auditorium, Jelly Roll, played blues, ragtime, hymns, stomps and his own compositions at the auditoriums' grand piano, while Alan recorded every second of it all.  Jelly Roll incorporated the music in a series of swinging lectures on New Orleans music history and its influence on his style — everything from 19th-century opera to formal French dance music to the chants he sang as a "spyboy" or scout, for a Mardi Gras Indian krewe.  The recordings not only documented Morton’s playing and his stories, they were the first — and last — significant documentation of Jelly Roll as a singer.

Shortly after the sessions, Jelly Roll was stabbed by a Music Box patron and never fully recovered.  He left for New York and then Los Angeles, intending to restart his career, but died in 1941.  Alan Lomax used the interviews to write a 1950 biography, “Mister Jelly Roll,” which is still considered a classic of jazz literature.

Illustration by R. Crumb

'Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings', an 8CD set, were released as a piano-shaped box set by Rounder Records in 2005 and won Grammy Awards for best historical album and best liner notes.  Speaking of liner notes, I've included the 244-page liner notes that contains a complete transcription of all the recorded dialogue and lyrics, which are more than well worthwhile read.

Jelly Roll’s earthy and remarkably detailed stories (which he recounts with great dignity) of the atmosphere that surrounded the formation of jazz music are punctuated with his musical illustrations and stunning solo piano versions of his best-known compositions.

Jelly Roll was well acquainted with the sleazy underbelly of life, so there's some obscene language, crude depictions of commercial goings-on, the "Dandies", piano players, hookers, hustlers, musical legends, and the brutality and heartlessness of the era depicted in this oral history are vividly brought to life and riveting.

To me, listening to his voice and fragments of tunes and stories weaving in and out is like nothing else, and reminds me a little of Mark Twain, if of course, Mark could compose, sing, play masterful piano, and was a hep (you'll see what I mean).

This set is an essential testimony to the origins of America’s greatest cultural art form, and a perfect addition to any serious collection of jazz and roots music.

For the freeload, tell us what recordings you consider to be the most important of the 20th century.