Jazz Articles about Jelly Roll Morton

Newk, Clarinet Madness & More

by Marc Cohn
July 12, 2019

June 2019 was one of those months with 5 Saturdays, so we got to play around with the music more. As usual, a mix of newer music from the likes of Theo Hill, Kate Reid and Anat Cohen--the latter two duos with Fred Hersch on piano. Then we have two, yes two, “compare and contrast": one funky and one 'high brow.' Clarinet work by Don Byron leads to Jelly Roll Morton (trios with Barney Bigard) leads to Air (doing Jelly ...

New Orleans Diaspora - Jelly Roll Morton & Sidney Bechet (1923 - 1928)

by Russell Perry
November 20, 2018

In this hour, we'll explore the music of two more giants of the New Orleans diaspora, pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton, who left Louisiana in 1908 and clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, who hit the road in 1916. In the complex racial landscape of New Orleans, both Jelly Roll Morton, born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, and Sidney Bechet, like Kid Ory, were creoles. Creoles were lighter skinned mixed-race people, who brought conservatory musical training to the mélange that became ...

Jelly Roll Morton Front and (Lincoln) Center

by Nick Catalano
September 19, 2017

With a three-night gala celebrating the music of Jelly Roll Morton, the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra marked its 30th season at Rose Hall. Focusing on Morton's pioneer arranging achievements with amplifications of them from Jazz at Lincoln Center performers, the evening offered a penetrating exploration of the Creole legend's multifarious compositional musings and featured a quintet of sparkling piano soloists who recalled his keyboard wizardry. The full breadth and scope of Morton's talents--his multiple syncopations, latin-textured musical ...

Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties

by Nenad Georgievski
May 16, 2014

Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties Robert Nippold, Hans-Jürgen Schaal 144 ISBN: 3836545012 Taschen 2013 The period in the 1920's America is known as the Jazz Age, the Golden Twenties or the Roaring Twenties. The history books say that this decade after the WWI was a prosperous one, where the nation's total wealth nearly doubled in between 1920 and 1929 which resulted in an unprecedented expansion in industry, technology and consumerism. ...

Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax

by Ken Dryden
November 5, 2005

Near the end of his life, Jelly Roll Morton was bitter and in financial straits, feeling overlooked for his contributions as a jazz trailblazer while others got the credit. In 1938, folklorist Alan Lomax began documenting Morton's career and music by conducting private sessions with the pianist in a concert hall, transcribing his comments and performances onto two primitive battery-operated portable disc cutters, which had problems keeping a consistent speed.

Various editions of these historic Library of Congress ...

Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton

by Jim Nelson
October 20, 2003

Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton Howard Reich and William Gaines DaCapo Press ISBN: 0306812096 2003

Howard Reich and William Gaines make an eye-opening understatement in their preface to Jelly's Blues. Speaking about a treasure trove of long-lost correspondence hoarded by jazz collector William Russell, they note that If a Gulf Coast hurricane had blown into the French Quarter before Russell's death, the documents that reveal ...