- Michigan Water Blues · 1996
- Jazz Collection: Jelly Roll Morton · 1930
- Original Rags · 2000
- Bluebird's Best: Jazz King of New Orleans (Remastered) · 1926
- The Piano Rolls · 1997
- Bluebird's Best: Jazz King of New Orleans (Remastered) · 1926
- Birth of the Hot - the Classic Chicago "Red Hot Peppers" Sessions 1926-27 · 1995
- Ferd 'Jelly Roll' Morton 1923-1926 · 1995
- Bluebird's Best: Jazz King of New Orleans (Remastered) · 2002
- The Piano Rolls · 1997
- Ferd 'Jelly Roll' Morton 1923-1926 · 1995
- Ferd 'Jelly Roll' Morton 1923-1926 · 1995
- Deep Creek · 2008
Essential Albums
Artist Playlists
- Jazz's first arranger was also the catchiest songwriter in ragtime.
- His compositions merged blues with jazz.
- 2019
- 2017
- 2016
- 2016
- 2016
Appears On
About Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton may have been indulging in typical hyperbole when he advertised himself as the inventor of jazz, but one has to concede his role as the idiom's first important composer. A wonderful pianist who could also sing, he brilliantly distilled the polyglot influences of his native New Orleans into masterpieces of pulsating polyphony on his classic recordings of the 1920s, including "Dead Man Blues" and "Black Bottom Stomp." Morton's later career was short-circuited by ever-shifting musical trends, but his Library of Congress interviews with Alan Lomax provide a unique insight into the nearly vanished musical culture from which he had sprung.
- HOMETOWN
- New Orleans, LA, United States
- BORN
- 20 October 1885
- GENRE
- Jazz