Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll

Subject: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 11:56 AM

Jelly Roll, Unexpurgated at Last - by Terry Teachout

Jelly Roll Morton: The complete Library of Congress Recording by Alan Lomax

http://www.rouder.com

Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal "Leisure and Arts -
Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Rounder Records has release Morton's recorded reminiscence in an unabridged form for the first time on an eight-CD set called "Jelly Roll Morton" The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax." It is to jazz what the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is to American history - only more fun.

In 1938 the 47 year-old Morton, a compulsive braggart with a diamond mounted in his front tooth, was living in Washington and scuffling for work. His sturdy, fat-bottomed piano playing was dismissed as quaint by big-band buffs unaware the "King Porter Stomp," one of Benny Goodman's biggest hits, had been composed by Morton years earlier, Back than he was a colossus, one of the hottest pianist to play in the whorehouses of New Orleans, and though his oft-quoted claim to have "created jazz in 1902" was mostly rodomontade, he was almost certainly among the first musician to loosen up the written-out syncopation of ragtime and set them to swing. Later he moved to Chicago and, starting in 1926, recorded with his Red Hot Peppers a series of kaleidoscopically scored small band performances that won him posthumous recognition (he died in 1941) as jazz's first great composer.

No less riveting are Morton's recollections of Storyville, the red-light district of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, among which are interspersed his renditions such lewd ditties as "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor." "Of course when a man played piano, the stamp was on him for life - the femininity stamp," Morton told Lomax. "And I didn't want to on, so, of course, when I did start to playin', the songs were kinda smutty a bit." (They are, in fact, unabashedly obscene.)

Your grandparent's tax dollars, incidentally, went to pay for the blank recording discs (and whiskey) that Alan Lomax used to preserve Morton's memories. Rarely has the U.S. Treasury been more profitably tapped.

Sincerly, GARGOYLE

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 12:12 PM

Sound Clips - including "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" in the second part first-available-clip (is he saying "I want to pigtail peter with you today"?)

http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&musicalGroupId=559&catalog_id=6763

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: greg stephens
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 05:26 PM

News of this release has made my year. I can't justify the expense on myself, but I am seriously hoping that some nearest and dearest is going to surptise me with a surprise packet of jelly Roll for Christmas.

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Nov 05 - 04:28 AM

Sounds like "I wanna pick some peter with you today...so with your man you will not stay"

Click here.

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 27 Nov 05 - 05:33 AM

Sounds to me like pitch some peter

Mick

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 27 Nov 05 - 05:36 AM

I've just done a search on pitch the peter and here is a site with transcriptions of the recordings which seems to agree that the word is pitch: Library of Congress Narrative Jelly Roll Morton and Alan Lomax Transcribed and annotated by Michael Hill - Roger Richard - Mike Meddings

Mick

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Flash Company
Date: 27 Nov 05 - 11:04 AM

This sounds like magic! Lomax's Mr Jelly Lord is another book I loaned to someone and never saw again.
There is a musician here in the UK called Martin Litton who has, in the past put on a show called Mr Jelly Roll, which is based on an 'interview that never happened'.
After Robert Ripley introduced W C Handy as 'the inventor of the blues' on his 'Believe it or not' radio show, Jelly wrote to him pointing out that he was the only true and original inventor of jazz and the blues. Ripley never interviewed him, but the show is based on what would have happened if he had. It has a two man cast (Jelly & Ripley) and a band playing the music. I caught it at The 100 Club in a previous life.
It was produced by a company called 'Jazz & Arts Directions'

FC

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Flash Company
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 09:23 AM

Had a look at Rounder Records on the net. This sounds like a marvellous set, complete with book!
Have started saving!

FC

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 03:05 PM

For those interested, current prices seem to be Rounder ~$100, Amazon US ~$95, Amazon UK ~£70.

Mick

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Hamish
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 03:56 PM

But what IS jelly roll?

Subject: RE: Review: UNEXPURGATED - Jelly Roll
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 06:26 PM

Well Hamish, sadly for you I believe a lady once said: "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of this Jelly Roll", so it's more lonely nights for you.

Mick