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5 days ago · Even Jelly Roll Morton, who called himself the inventor of jazz, called Bolden “the most powerful trumpet in the world” and paid homage to him by recording the “Buddy Bolden Blues,” which most likely stemmed from a composition by Cornish.
4 days ago · September 28, 2024. Jazz Birthday. Jelly Roll Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (or Lemott) around September 20, 1890 (he gave his birth year as 1884 on his WWI draft registration card in 1918, and 1885 to interviewer Alan Lomax). At the age of fourteen, Morton began as a piano player in a brothel. He claimed to have invented jazz in 1902.
3 days ago · The genre experienced a revival in the 1940s and 1950s, thanks to musicians like Bunk Johnson and George Lewis, who sought to preserve the original style. Festivals like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, founded in 1970, have also played a crucial role in keeping the tradition alive.
4 days ago · Elijah Wald was speaking with Kansas Public Radio’s Tom Parkinson. Wald will be discussing his book, Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories, at the Kansas Book Festival at Washburn University in Topeka tomorrow (SAT) and Sunday afternoon at the Lawrence Public Library.
2 days ago · Cornetist Bunk Johnson said he taught the eleven-year-old to play by ear at Dago Tony's honky tonk. [23] In his later years, Armstrong credited King Oliver. Armstrong said about his youth, "Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans ... It has given me something to live for." [24]
5 days ago · Jelly Roll Morton recorded “Black Bottom Stomp” for Victor on this date in 1926. He recorded it with his Red Hot Peppers, an ensemble featuring among others the great trombonist Kid Ory. The song is recognized as a quintessential New Orleans style jazz composition, as it features many of its characteristic traits.
5 days ago · Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition, in 1915.
