Known as much for his bumptious personality and flashy ways as for his
revolutionary piano style, Jelly Roll Morton was a giant of jazz in the first
half of the 20th century. He emerged with the Dixieland movement that grew out
of brass bands and blues in New Orleans; that traditional sound came to be
derided for years in the bebop era but he later regained his position in the
esteem of jazz fans, players and scholars and he ranks with Louis Armstrong as
one of greatest jazzmen ever.
Born to a musical family, Morton learned to play from members of the New Orleans
orchestral ...