Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz"

by Alan Lomax

Traces the jazz musician's career journey from Storyville to Broadway, showing the ways in which his unique compositions reflected the problems of America's poor

Genres: Music, Biography, Jazz, Nonfiction, History, Memoir

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended and entertaining.

Jelly Roll Morton wasn't a super-likable character--he was a braggart, at times he thought of himself as a pimp and pool hustler first and a musician/composer second. Most of his conversations revolved around himself and he claimed to be the inventor of jazz.

However, his stories and misadventures are highly entertaining. And his music is brilliant, fresh and full of surprises. He's one of the first (if not thee first) jazz composers and his work is an important bridge between ragtime and early jazz.

[Vicki Seldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of performing playwright George C. Wolfe's Tony winning musical "Jelly's Last Jam" for several weeks this past Spring as a member of the pit band. Ironically, while trying to find some novel or other in my mostly uncatalogued personal library, I came across Alan Lomax's book. Its origins are fairly well known. In the early 50's, Texan folklorist Alan Lomax spent weeks interviewing and audiotaping Morton at the Library of Congress - time spent watching Morton playing, singing, and telling his own story. Lomax uses Morton's own words and other research to recount the facts (at least up to that time) of the pianist/composer's life as well as highlighting the conflicts and the contradictions in his personal life and career, contradictions that George C. Wolfe also develops in the musical in a completely different manner. Ferdinand Le Menthe Morton,pianist, composer/arranger, bandleader, known as "Jelly Roll" was indisputably one of the most important jazz pioneers from New Orleans,a young teenager playing in the bars and brothels in the first decade of jazz, long before the early recordings of the 1920's. His life reads like a travelogue, a "beat" odyssey, a colorful lesson in American History as he traveled, sometimes working as a musician, sometimes hustling pool or running other scams from New Orleans across the South, north to Chicago, west to Los Angeles,and east to New York City. His life story, and the story of jazz which Morton claimed to have invented is one of precocity, genius, bravado, as well as a story of rejections, disappointments, and heartbreak. The edition I own is an earlier one. I would love to hear from readers who have the later edition with additional material, especially those who may be familiar with the musical "Jelly's Last Jam" as well. A colorful and at the same time thought-provoking read.

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz"
by Allan Lomax
University of California Press, Berkeley, 2001

This book is a classic of jazz biography and oral history. It was first published in 1950, based on the recordings and interviews conducted in the end of the thirties by Allan Lomax for the Library of Congress, where he, together with his father John Lomax, created the Archive of American Folk Song and were responsible for innumerous and important interviews and recordings of American folk music, blues and early jazz, with a large number of its original practitioners that, in most cases, would have remained in total obscurity without their endevour. Jelly Roll Morton, born in 1890 in New Orleans, was the first great jazz composer, arranger, and band leader, and its first recorded great pianist, famous for his boastful claim of having "invented jazz in 1902". He was also a pool player, a gambler, and a pimp. Having achieved some notoriety in the twenties and early thirties with a wonderful series of recordings for RCA Victor with his Red Hot Peppers, he has gone down oblivion by the time Lomax interviewed him, and this book was largely responsible for his posthumous recognition as one of the great early jazz creators. His colorful life and the lively first person speech of most of the chapters turned the reading of this book into a delightful time. And to listen to his RCA Victor recordings and to his Library of Congress music recordings published by Rounder while reading the book was a very enjoyable experience indeed.

[Ronn · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3 1/2 stars. A lot of this is based on Morton's Library of Congress recordings, so I am of the belief that this conforms to Jelly Roll's version of history, and a very entertaining history it is. I have a bit more of a problem with the parts filled in by Alan Lomax; the Lomaxes [John a lot more than Alan] were not above telling tales that bore out their own preferred versions of history. [A hood example is the John Lomax-Leadbelly film from the 40s; I've included a link.] So while his parts are certainly reverential, a fair bit of salt is advised.
https://youtu.be/w-t9YlYa_S8

[Mary Licking · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable read. There's the music history part, but what drove the page turning was the life of self-invention led by Jelly Roll Morton. A plentiful dose of New Orleans, but Jelly Roll also spent part of his life in Alaska. He put his musical genius to use in fueling his urges, which included musician and bandleader, but also women.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know that I’ll read this book again or even keep it, I still think it deserves this rating because of its experimental nature and what Alan Lomax did with the Library of Congress recordings of Jelly Roll Morton. If you are a lover of Jazz, this book is a must read.

[Jay Resnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Lomax' book while listening to Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress recordings was enthralling.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A view into a place that long ago and VERY far away, but still with us. Towards the end, Alan Lomax's evaluations take over from Jelly's memories, and the text loses some of its spirit.

[Dylan]

Mythic, otherwordly, hilarious. I’ve forgotten who I was before I started reading it

[Djll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this book in high school and promptly stole it. Jelly Roll and his music changed my life.

Although I recognize now the book is deeply flawed -- only a product of its time and place -- I still regard it highly as a quintessential American story of self-invention, filled with voices and sounds forever lost to time. It contains a portrait of New Orleans that seems absolutely homegrown and true, yet which few today would recognize. For instance, if one hears Jelly's voice (on the Smithsonian edition of the original records, now available on Rounder Records), most listeners will be surprised to hear him pronounce his home town "Newell-eans" instead of the Dr. John-inflected "Nawlins" that so many accept as genuine today.

And there's a hidden critique of American slavery-based capitalism, a tale that ultimately leads to terrible, tragic ends. There are other versions of Jelly's story that go into this aspect in a more dispassionate and nuanced way, but Jelly's own uncomprehending words -- to the end, his motto was "What's the use of talking about the past, only the future holds any promise" (paraphrased) -- are perhaps the most touching.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on the origins of jazz .... informative, complex (treats the person of Jelly Roll Lamothe/Morton as well as the composer and the performer/pianist), going back to the roots of the jazz in early 1900 New Orleans. One of the key ideas in the book - submitting that jazz appeared as a "interracial marriage" from the Creole (Spanish/French white ancestry - after generations living in the Caribbean) and the Black (African descent) somehow forced mixing (i.e. given the tougher segregation rules, and the move of the lighter skin "creole" type together with the rows of the oppressed black population in the benches of the unemployed).

The book made me curious enough to search for Jelly Roll tunes on youtube! I believe that Lomax makes an important contribution to understanding jazz's origins; the book is a historical account of those times (and manages to capture facts from those early days that few other jazz books succeed in doing).

[Jim Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jelly Roll Morton was not a humble man, the most famous example is his flat statement, "I invented Jazz." Well, he's not far off. While reading this I realized Morton was performing his "jazz" while the great Louis Armstrong was still in diapers. The book was OK but Lomax's work at getting the Library of Congress recordings of Mr. Morton telling the story of jazz with musical examples was what brought me to the book. Listen to the recordings if you have the slightest interest in jazz and one of it's most colorful characters. Morton was a genius. There is a comparison in the book with Morton and Muhammed Ali and how they both claimed to be the greatest and how they were in fact, at least in their time, that which they claimed.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told through the words of Jelly and a few other New Orleans musicians of the time, this book captures both the sense of excitement and the sense of sense of tragedy in the early jazz years.

Previously unknown to me, many of the musicians at the time had a great deal of self disgust at what they were doing. "They turned a violist into a fiddler," laments one musician, who thought that his classical training had gone to waste.

Jelly himself emerges as a tragic figure, fueled by resentment and envy, but an undeniable genius.

[Toby Galloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of early jazz will appreciate this account of Jelly Roll Morton’s life. Jelly roll was undeniably influential and undeniably talented. But he embellished his own contributions, and led a less-than-exemplary life. In any event, this is an excellent work of history that touches not only on the music, but racial discrimination, segregation, life during Jim Crow, and the colorful characters and vice that pervaded New Orleans’ red light district.

[Steve Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite my suspicions about Alan Lomax's motives for putting this book together, its subject, the great Jelly Roll Morton, offers a wealth of anecdotes, attitudes and bad decisions. The book is a cultural artifact (he knew Buddy Bolden!) and, alas, so is the music, which won't be turning up on your radio anytime soon.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

O, didn't he ramble? An electric read, filled with the voice of one of the true fathers of jazz music. Jelly Roll's memories of turn of the century New Orleans, Buddy Bolden, hoodoo women, gangsters, skin game con men, pool sharks, Storyville window women, hoboeing, chain gangs, and a bevy of crooked white men is not to be missed. I wish this book had been twice as long as it was.

[Robert Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

excellent book if you are interested in the history of Jazz and blues - this may change your mind about what you think you know to be true - he was clearly the first proper musician to compose and write out the scores for his early Jazz pieces variously called blues stomp and Jazz

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morton himself is pretty pompous, but the book was an interesting biography. I found myself appreciating Lomax's writing and editorial style more than anything else. If you're interested in jazz-era New Orleans, I'd recommend it.

[David]

Also sold as a set with the complete recordings of Morton by Rounder Records

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful. Jelly Roll., much of it in his own words, brought to life. Have to re listen to his recordings.

[Brian Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it. Jelly Roll is hilarious and Alan Lomax is a fine historian to place him at the piano and record over 200 pages of anecdotes.

[Chandler Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to the Library of Congress recordings. Book will do in a pinch though.

[Cheryl McEnaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing and compelling biography of one of American music's most colorful and controversial characters.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Störtskön! Om hur jazzen blev till i New Orleans.