Morton, Jelly Roll (1890-1941)
Born Ferdinand Joseph, Jelly Roll Morton is best known for his songs "Jelly Roll Blues" (1905), "King Porter Stomp" (1906), and "Kansas City Stomp" (1919). A composer and pianist, he first found success touring with his band, the Red Hot Peppers, and then later as a recording artist. Raised in the ragtime and dixieland musical tradition of New Orleans, Morton went beyond the formal structure of these forms and developed many of the central characteristics of later jazz music. In 1938, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded an interview with and songs by Morton as part of the Library of Congress' Folklore Archives in which Morton elaborates on the development of jazz music from its birth in New Orleans.
Further Reading:
Lomax, Alan. Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and Inventor of Jazz. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973.
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