Jelly Roll Rag

SKU: MB.31060M

ISBN 9781513468051. 8.75x11.75 inches.

As aspiring fingerpicking guitarists started expanding their horizons from folk, blues, and ragtime in the 1970s, it was only logical to look towards early jazz tunes as a vast source for new possibilities. For one thing, they could follow the same evolutionary path from ragtime to jazz that had been taken by pianists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Harlem stride players like James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. These musicians all composed in a variety of styles, but their most ambitious piano solos expanded on the classic ragtime format developed by the likes of Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Joseph Lamb, using several strains that usually changed keys at least once. Morton, the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz, would record versions of tunes like King Porter Stomp and The Original Jelly Roll Blues that are similar to straight ragtime performances, and others where there is lots of room left for embellishment and jazz improvisation.

The present collection is a bonanza for guitarists who want to tackle advanced arrangements along the lines of ragtime but featuring jazz age harmonies from the playing of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, WC Handy, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and other early jazz legends. The 32 arrangements included are by a wide assortment of guitarists including Ernie Hawkins, Pat Donohue, Lasse Johansson, Duck Baker, Ton Van Bergeyk, Sandy Shalk, Steve McWilliam, and Dorian Henry.

Titles include: Oh, You Beautiful Doll, I’ve Got The Blues, High Society, St. Louis Blues, Davenport Blues, Poor Butterfly, Dixie Jass Band One-Step, Memphis Blues, Big Foot Ham, Grandpa’s Spells, The Original Jelly Roll Blues, Midnight Mama, Milenberg Joys, Fizz Water, Back Home in Indiana, Sweet Georgia Brown, Red Wing (An Indian Intermezzo), There’ll Be Some Changes Made, Way Down Yonder In New Orleans, Charleston, Where The Morning Glories Grow, Limehouse Blues, Susie (of the Islands), I Need Some Pettin’, Weather Bird, Cornet Chop Suey, Kansas City Stomps, King Porter Stomp, Jubilee Stomp, Take It Easy, If I Had You, Moonlight Serenade

SKU: PE.EP68488A

ISBN 9790300758909. English.

At the end of 1938, Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941) returned to New York from his years in Washington, D.C. Recent publicity had made a comeback seem possible, and he hoped to recapture the prominent place in the jazz world that he had held in the 1920s. Still well known, though mainly as a New Orleans music pioneer, he understood that in order to be taken seriously as a contemporary artist, he needed to form a big band like those of his competition, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. In the 1920s Morton's recordings and tours featured a ten-piece band following the first-generation big-band format. But in the late 1930s, larger groups were popular, so Morton assembled a conventional '30s band consisting of four saxophones, six brass, and four rhythm. The band was to open at the Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem on April 17th, 1939, but on opening night Morton collapsed before going onstage. During his recuperation from the asthma and heart problems that dogged him, the band broke up, never to reassemble. Only six items written for that band's instrumentation are known to exist: Morton's arrangements of his own compositions -- Finger Breaker, GanJam, Good Old New York, Mister Joe, and Stop and Go -- and an arrangement, Mamies' Blues, by another artist. -- James Dapogny (Editor)

As an editor, Dapogny shows his customary sound musical scholarship and deep knowledge of Morton's style....The publishers are to be congratulated for bringing this fascinating work into the public domain, which throws a totally new light on 'Mister Jelly Lord.' Who knows what he would have achieved had he lived beyond his alleged 51 years? --Martin Litton, for JUST JAZZ (Feb 2011)