Few serious scholars believe that famous boast, made by the notoriously braggadocious Jelly Roll Morton, in which he claims to have single-handedly invented jazz. But let’s assume for a thousand words or so that it is true, just for fun. If Morton—whose contributions as a composer, arranger, transcriber and player cannot be underestimated—really did originate the entire idiom, then he either conjured the entire thing out of the void like some jazz Jehovah, or else evolved it from conditions which preceded it in an act of notated natural selection.
And while one might expect Morton (who was allegedly a devout Catholic, and whose grave marker bears a string of rosary beads) to claim divine inspiration, he did in fact acknowledge one major earthly influence on his creativity—and, as in so many cases, the supporting character behind the leading man was a woman. Mamie Desdunes (pronounced day-doon) was a neighbor of the young Ferdinand Joseph Lemothe, as Morton was born, while living at his godmother's home in New Orleans’ Garden District from 1901 to 1905. Her playing was “among the first blues that I’ve ever heard,” he later said, “happened to be a woman.”
Born between 1879 and 1881, not much is known about the life of Mamie Desdunes. She was a Louisiana Creole of color who may have been born Mary Celina Desdunes, the daughter of an English-speaking black woman name
