Jelly Roll Morton

There are two different ways to acquire pianist/composer Jelly Roll Morton's famed Library of Congress recordings. Classic Jazz and the Australian label Swaggie on eight LPs have reissued virtually all of Morton's monologues and music; Jazzology is currently working on making these important recordings available on CD. The alternative method is to acquire Rounder's four-CD series. Rounder has pitch corrected all of the music but unfortunately decided to leave out most of Morton's storytelling, lessening the impact of these unique sessions. Vol. 1 in the Classic Jazz series (all eight are recommended to true early jazz historians) finds Morton talking about his childhood, discussing the origin of his "Jelly Roll Blues," performing "King Porter Stomp" and "Panama" and, most interesting of all, doing his famous transformation of "Tiger Rag" from a quadrille into jazz. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide