Jelly Roll Morton

Play Radio

615,918 plays (88,804 listeners)

Shop now at Amazon | Send Jelly Roll Morton Ringtones to Cell
More options
Add to my Library

New Orleans, United States (1890 – 1941)

Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton was a New Orleans French Creole born Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe (October 20, 1890 / July 10, 1941). He was an American virtuoso pianist, bandleader, and composer of songs including “Whining Boy Blues,” “King Porter Stomp,” “The Pearls” and “The Crave, ”Alabama Bound,” “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor,” “My Gal Sal,” and various other rags, blues, stomps, marches and stride numbers. . Morton was a highly intelligent, colorful character whose business card referred to him as the “Originator of Jazz.”

New Orleans
He was (along with Tony Jackson) one of the best regarded pianists in the Storyville District early in the 20th century. According to Morton, Jackson was the only pianist “in the world” better than he.

In his prime through the 1920s, Mr. Jelly Roll was at the the top of his game as a composer and piano player, making money handily to the point where he could afford custom tailored suits, new cars, and other trappings of musical success.

He recorded numerous sides for Victor Records and fronted a number of jazz bands in New Orleans, New York City and Washington DC including the Red Hot Peppers and The Incredibles. But his personality – unlike that of, say, African American bandleader King Oliver – was not amenable to band leadership, the reason why he couldn’t hold onto a band for very long.

By the late 1930s, at age 48, he had become reduced to penury – thanks in part to the rise of the big bands, the ascent of the vocal blues idiom and the cultivation of blues shouters and chanteuses like Big Joe Turner and Bessie Smith.
Read more… Edit

Popular tags: jazz, ragtime, piano, new orleans, blues  See more

Shouts: 51 shouts

Share this artist:

Top Albums

See more

Top Tracks

1
167
2
131
3
103
4
97
5
95
6
77
6
77
8
62
9
59
10
57
11
48
12
43
13
38
14
35
15
31
Buy all tracks at Amazon MP3
See more

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).
See all 51 shouts

Videos

Listening Now

Top Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more

More Information

Links
Labels

Email Newsletter

Universal Music Group Get exclusive tour, release & promotion updates on Jelly Roll Morton from Universal Music.