JELLY ROLL MORTON
1885-1941

Morton, Ferdinand Joseph ("Jelly Roll") (b. Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe) (b. October 20, 1890, New Orleans, La.; d. July 10, 1941, Los Angeles, Calif.), early jazz pianist and composer who since his death has risen to the highest tier of critical acclaim for his mastery of the piano.

Jelly Roll Morton was born to fair-skinned Creole parents in New Orleans, and all his life he considered himself more white than black. His father, who left the family when Morton was young, played trombone, as did Morton's stepfather, Ed Morton. Morton received guitar lessons by the age of six but soon abandoned guitar for piano. At the age of 12 he began playing piano in the bordellos of New Orleans's Storyville district, and as a teenager he traveled the gulf coast, mingling with famous regional musicians, including ragtime pianist Tony Jackson. Morton also received some formal musical training at St. Joseph's Seminary College in Saint Benedict, Louisiana.

Beginning with his trip to the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, Morton embarked on a decade of itinerant music-making that carried him throughout the South and to New York and Chicago. Morton played with vaudeville troupes and minstrel shows, supplementing his income with profits from pool-hustling, card-playing, and pimping. Indeed, his notoriety as a swindler, braggart, and womanizer often preceded his reputation as a musician.

Morton settled in Chicago from around 1911 until 1915, playing music with a small ensemble. He published "Jelly Roll Blues" in 1915, an accomplishment that set him apart from other jazz pianists of the time. While his performances evinced high passion and spontaneity, Morton made music with a composer's fastidious mind. Even when fast and improvised, Morton's playing reflected rational, intentional calculations. In 1915 Morton uprooted once more, traveling up and down the West Coast until he resettled in Chicago in 1923.

In Chicago Morton observed the new and thriving recording industry and decided to cut his own takes. In 1923 and 1924 he recorded as a solo pianist, and from 1926 to 1930 he worked with the Red Hot Peppers, an ensemble led by Morton and featuring such legendary players as clarinetist Johnny Dodds and trombonist Kid Ory. With the group Morton recorded some of his most famous compositions, including "Kansas City Stomps" and "Smokehouse Blues." Critics often describe Morton's style in these recordings as orchestral; instead of backing the melody with the chords and steady rhythm in the bass, he created one or two lines of counterpoint where his left hand emulated a trombone for the cornet of his right.

Morton moved to New York in 1928 and began running an all-girl revue that doubled as a prostitution racket. He continued to record but both the advent of big-band music and the onset of the Great Depression diminished his popularity. Morton moved to Washington, D.C., in 1935, managed a nightclub, and eventually worked with folklorist Alan Lomax on a set of recordings for the Library of Congress. In the hours of collected footage, Morton expounds upon his playing style and reconstructs a history of jazz. Although many of Morton's observations have historical and musicological value, his arrogance and hyperbole limit the recording's veracity. Morton claims he "invented jazz in 1902," the year he turned 12.

Morton moved to Los Angeles, California, at the end of his life and died in 1941, with the bulk of his popularity seeming to have passed. Throughout his life Morton had managed his career poorly, often spoiling business relationships with displays of arrogance and pomp. He is now recognized as a musical genius, however, and jazz pianists today cite his direct influence on style, approach, and repertoire.

Contributed By: Eric Bennett