Jelly Roll Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (or Lemott) around September 20, 1890 (he gave his birth year as 1884 on his WWI draft registration card in 1918, and 1885 to interviewer Alan Lomax). At the age of fourteen, Morton began as a piano player in a brothel. He claimed to have invented jazz in 1902.
Around 1904, Morton started touring in the US South, working in minstrel shows such as Will Benbow’s Chocolate Drops, gambling, and composing. His songs “Jelly Roll Blues,” “New Orleans Blues,” “Frog-I-More Rag,” “Animule Dance,” and “King Porter Stomp” were composed during this period. Stride pianists James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith saw him perform in Chicago in 1910 and New York City in 1911.
After working on the West Coast for a number of years, Morton returned to Chicago in 1923 to make piano rolls and to record for Gennett. In 1926, he signed a contract with Victor as leader of the Red Hot Peppers, making numerous classic recordings. After moving to New York, he continued to record for Victor until 1930.
In 1935, his 30-year-old composition “King Porter Stomp,” arranged by Fletcher Henderson, became Benny Goodman’s first hit and a swing standard, but Morton received no royalties from the recordings. In May 1938, while Morton was manager and entertainer at a Washington DC club called The Music Box, Alan Lomax heard him and invited him to record music and interviews for the Library of Congress. The recordings span over eight hours, with Morton talking, singing, and playing piano. Morton gave an uncensored view of the New Orleans of his youth and its bawdy songs.
That same year, Morton was stabbed at The Music Box by a friend of its owner and never fully recovered his health. He moved first to New York (where he recorded in 1939 and 1940) and then to California in an attempt to restart his career. The stress of travel exacerbated his health problems. After an eleven-day hospital stay, Jelly Roll Morton died on July 10, 1941, in Los Angeles.
– adapted from Wikipedia
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