S.O.D. "Jelly Roll Blues" by Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton Lamotte

6/9/2015      It is very likely that this musician, bandleader, composer, arranger and Vaudeville comedian invented the jazz genre.  He was born in New Orleans Louisiana in 1890 and in 1915 composed and produced this number which is considered to be the first jazz composition ever.  The tune was published in 1915 but not recorded until 1924 in Richmond Indiana when he did so as a piano solo. Two years later with his band the Red Hot Peppers, a recording was made in Chicago.  Originally the title was "Original Jelly-Roll Blues." 

     This man was ahead of his time using instrumental breaks with suspended rhythms to give the horns and piano a chance to solo.  He also included an Argentine tango-like rhythm and flavor in several passages, which Morton claimed was essential to real jazz.  Although this flavor did not last throughout the years of jazz, it is certainly noteworthy within the international cultural differences that helped produce New Orleans Jazz.  

     Morton's early style and recordings as a collective blend of instruments varying the basic melody by means of composed, written notes, and improvisation single-handedly took New Orleans Jazz to it's peak of artistic development.  This man was a monster on the piano sometimes playing the melody of a song entirely with his right thumb and inspiring many other artists to continue his work that had pretty much laid out other genres without being realized.