He played the vaudeville stage in blackface, worked as a boxing promoter, a bartender and a bouncer, but most often as a piano player. Jim Cullum says, "Jelly Roll had the real thing—musical genius so huge it put his outrageous personal bravado in second place. Jazz" with Dick Hyman on piano, and others with special guest jazz singer and actor Vernel Bagneris. Pianist Dick Hyman's study of many historical piano styles—including that of Jelly Roll Morton—began early in his career in New York City, where he imbibed one-on-one instruction at the hands of legendary jazz piano figures such as Willie "The Lion" Smith and Teddy Wilson.
I found out that if you take it very slow, it takes on almost an operatic, dramatic character which I think even the composer didn't have in mind. Vernel Bagneris performs excerpts from his off-Broadway show, Jelly Roll! Vernel's script is based on interviews of Morton recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in Vernel and Dick Hyman perform "Mr.
Though a few of his tunes, such as King Porter Stomp, were popularized by swing era big bands, Jelly Roll Morton and his music were largely forgotten in the s. Morton spent the rest of his life struggling to get by, writing letters to publishers, ASCAP and periodicals to recover lost royalties and reputation.
His tunes have been staples of traditional jazz performances for over 70 years. Photo in public domain. Skip to main content. Leave this field blank. As Morton traveled around the South, he came in to contact with many other musicians who influenced his style and ability. Over the next few years, Morton continued to play at clubs and other venues across the South while he arranged to have his compositions published out of Chicago. By , Morton had moved to Los Angeles where he ran several thriving businesses with his girlfriend of the time, Anita Gonzales.
Despite his prosperity in Southern California, Morton grew restless and moved to Chicago. In Morton married Mabel Bertrand, a professional dancer who had spent time in Europe and who is credited with limiting at least some of the excesses in his life. Many of his recordings survive today in the Library of Congress. In , Morton was stabbed twice, in the head and above the heart, at the Jungle Inn in Washington, D.
About Jelly Roll Morton moved west to California, where he played in nightclubs until He made his recording debut in , and from to he made, with a group called Morton's Red Hot Peppers, a series of recordings that gained him a national reputation.
Morton's music was more formal than the early Dixieland jazz, though his arrangements only sketched parts and allowed for improvisation.
His piano solos and trio recordings are well regarded, but his band recordings suffer in comparison with the Chicago sides where Morton could draw on many great New Orleans musicians for sidemen. Morton generally had trouble finding musicians who wanted to play his style of jazz, and his New York sessions failed to produce a hit.
With the Great Depression and the near collapse of the phonograph record industry, Morton's recording contract was not renewed by Victor for Morton continued playing less prosperously in New York, briefly had a radio show in , then was reduced to touring in the band of a traveling burlesque act while his compositions were recorded by Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman and others, though he received no royalties from these recordings.
In , Morton moved to Washington, D. The sessions, originally intended as a short interview with musical examples for use by music researchers in the Library of Congress, soon expanded to record more than eight hours of Morton talking and playing piano, in addition to longer interviews during which Lomax took notes but did not record.
Despite the low fidelity of these non-commercial recordings, their musical and historical importance attracted jazz fans, and they have helped to ensure Morton's place in jazz history. It wasn't until a decade later that these interviews were released to the public.
Jelly Roll died just before the Dixieland revival rescued so many of his peers from musical obscurity. He blamed his declining health on a voodoo spell. As well as being a brilliant piano soloist, Jelly Roll was an important bandleader. He developed ragtime and instrumental blues into a new ensemble style which embraced collective polyphony, solo improvisations, and ever-changing textures and timbres.
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