Jelly Roll Morton: Red Hot Jazz

The pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader, Ferdinand Joseph ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton (the original French name of the Morton family was ‘Le Menthe’, meaning sweets or candy, which suited this rather flamboyant man), was born in New Orleans in 1885, and was, in 1902, aged 17, already playing piano in the whorehouses of the infamous Storyville district, and playing with such a style and built-in swing that he was attracting more paying customers than the whores.

When he was 19 he began to work the river steamers as a gambler, pimp, and pool shark, and for the next thirteen years travelled the Southern States not only working the rivers but building quite a reputation on the vaudeville circuit as a comedian who just happened to play the piano rather well too.

In 1917, complete with a diamond stud fitted between his front teeth, he headed west, and for the next five years played the vaudeville houses, bars and dance halls of the West Coast, before, in 1922, heading east for Chicago (just as Hemingway was leaving) where, in a city increasingly run by hoodlums, and desperate for more and more entertainment, he hit his stride and began to make some of the most influential jazz recordings ever.

His first recording were solo piano affairs for the Gennett label and sold well – especially his recording of ‘Wolverine Blues’ which was quite a hit – but it was when formed his first band, the Red Hot Peppers, in 1926 that things began to take-off big time.

Most members of the band came from the recently disbanded Lil Harding and Louis Armstrong outfit, The Dreamland Syncopaters. Over the handful of years the Chicago version of Morton’s band existed it included such legendary names as Barney Bigard, clarinet; Kid Ory, trombone; Johnny Dodds, also on clarinet; his brother, Warren ‘Baby’ Dodds, on drums; Johnny St Cyr, banjo; George Mitchell, trumpet; John Lindsay, bass; and the now almost forgotten clarinettist, Omar Simeon.

The band were recorded extensively by the Victor label, and had immediate hits with their first two releases: W.C. Handy’s ‘Beale Street Blues’, and Morton’s own ‘Black Bottom Stomp’, which is a superbly strutting piece of jazz that was a great influence on the arrangers of the Swing Era. These Chicago recordings created what quickly became known as the ‘Jelly Roll Style’, which was pretty much the sound of jazz throughout the 1920s and early 1930s.

In 1927 Morton moved to New York, and with such luminaries as James ‘Bubber’ Miley (who would soon grace the Duke Ellington Orchestra) on trumpet, George ‘Pops’ Foster on bass, and perhaps one of the greatest drummers ever, Zutty Singleton, driving the new Red Hot Peppers, Morton was the hottest jazz property in town.

To Be Continued…