Jellyroll morton biography

Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe Morton, more popularly known as “Jelly Roll” Morton, was an influential early 20th Century composer and pianist. Jelly Roll, the son of Creole parents, E.P. La Menthe and Louise Monette, was born in Gulfport, Mississippi in His father, E.P. Morton, was a trombonist who encouraged his son’s musical abilities. Morton’s early childhood was somewhat turbulent as he spent much of his time with his wandering father, who had deserted Louise Monette.

Morton showed fairly prodigious musical talent, gaining proficiency in many instruments quickly. He learned the harmonica at age 5, and his repertoire grew to include the violin, drums, trombone, and his claim to fame, the piano. Jelly Roll’s bohemian lifestyle under his father’s influence continued until his father’s disappearance. Jelly Roll returned to Gulfport to live with his mother and step-father, Willie Morton, until his mother’s death when he was At that time, he and his two sisters were in the care of his godmother, Eulalie Echo, and his Aunt Lallie. Like many poor youth, he quickly found menial employment for 3 dollars a week.

In addition to this employment, he also began making money by performing in the gambling dens and other houses of ill repute, for wages of over twenty dollars a night. His talents as a musician quickly became his primary source of income, and also led to his eviction from the familial home when his Aunt realized the source of his income.

As Morton traveled around the South, he came in to contact with many other musicians who influenced his style and ability. In when he was 17, Morton composed “King Porter Stomp,” a well-recognized tune of the era. Over the next few years, Morton continued to play at clubs and other venues across the South while he arranged to have his compositions published out of Chicago.

By , Morton had moved to Los Angeles where he ran several thriving businesses with his girlfriend of the time, Anita Gonzales. Despite his prosperity in Sout

When trumpeter Lee Collins was hired by Jelly Roll Morton, the first thing Morton told the astonished Collins was, “You know you will be working for the world's best jazz piano player … not one of the greatest — I am The Greatest," according to jazz historian Martin Williams.

When Morton introduced himself, he often said, "I invented jazz."

Cocky? Definitely. Arrogant? Certainly. But as it turns out, he was probably right. 

According to jazz historians, when Jelly Roll Morton said, “I invented jazz,” there was a lot to his claim. Buddy Bolden may have been the first musician to add improvisation to what would eventually become known as jazz, but Jelly Roll Morton is regarded as the first true jazz composer. He was the first to write down his jazz arrangements – and a number of his compositions became jazz staples. 
 
Jelly was born Ferdinand Joseph Le Menthe in to a middle class Creole family on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans. At the age of 8, Ferdinand received formal guitar lessons. A relatively short time later, he was employed as a piano player by Countess Willie Piazza, a Storyville madam, who was said to speak seven languages, wear a monocle and punctuate her speech with a foot-long cigarette holder. She also knew great music when she heard it.
 
By the time Jelly was in his early twenties, he was an in-demand musician, playing the entire Gulf Coast. From to , he was conquering the West Coast. And in , he left California for Chicago. During that period, he created some of the most innovative and creative music that ever emerged – tunes like “King Porter Stomp,” “New Orleans Blues,” “Kansas City Stomp,” “Shreveport Stomp” and the “Original Jelly Roll Blues.” In his typical humble way, Jelly once said, “Everyone today is playing my stuff and I don't even get credit. Kansas City style

American ragtime and jazz musician (–)

Musical artist

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (néLemott, later Morton; c. September 20, – July 10, ), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in , was one of the first published jazz compositions. He also claimed to have invented the genre.

Morton also wrote "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the last being a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century.

Morton's claim to have invented jazz in was criticized. Music critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Jelly Roll Morton did himself a lot of harm posthumously by exaggerating his worth Morton's accomplishments as an early innovator are so vast that he did not really need to stretch the truth."Gunther Schuller says of Morton's "hyperbolic assertions" that there is "no proof to the contrary" and that Morton's "considerable accomplishments in themselves provide reasonable substantiation.”

Biography

Early life

Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (or Lemott), into the Creole community in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans around ; he claimed to have been born in on his WWI draft registration card in Both parents traced their Creole ancestry four generations to the 18th century. Morton's birth date and year of birth are uncertain, given that no birth certificate was ever issued for him. The law requiring birth certificates for citizens was not enforced until His parents were Martin-Edouard Joseph Lamothe, also known as Edward Joseph Lamothe, a

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Who Was Jelly Roll Morton?

Jelly Roll Morton cut his teeth as a pianist in New Orleans' bordellos. An early innovator in the jazz genre, he rose to fame as the leader of Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers in the s. A series of interviews for the Library of Congress rekindled interest in his music shortly before his death, on July 10, , in Los Angeles, California.

Early Years

Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe was born on October 20, (though some sources say ), in New Orleans, Louisiana. The son of racially mixed Creole parents — he was a mix of African, French and Spanish — he eventually adopted the last name of his stepfather, Morton.

Morton learned to play piano at age 10, and within a few years he was playing in the red-light district bordellos, where he earned the nickname "Jelly Roll." Blending the styles of ragtime and minstrelsy with dance rhythms, he was at the forefront of a movement that would soon be known as "jazz."

National Star

Morton left home as a teenager and toured the country, earning money as a musician, vaudeville comic, gambler and pimp. Brash and confident, he enjoyed telling people that he had "invented jazz"; while that claim was dubious, he is believed to have been the first jazz musician to put his arrangements to paper, with "Original Jelly Roll Blues" the genre's first published work.

After five years in Los Angeles, Morton moved to Chicago in and produced his first recordings the following year. Beginning in , he led Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, a seven- or eight-piece band comprised of musicians who were well-versed in the New Orleans ensemble style. The Red Hot Peppers earned national fame with such hits as "Black Bottom Stomp" and "Smoke-House Blues," their sound and style laying the foundation for the swing movement that would soon become popular. Morton's four-year run with the group marked the pinnacle of his career, as it provided a pr