When I think of Jelly Roll Morton I’m seeing him as played by the actor Clarence William III in The Legend of 1900. That movie from 1998 tells the romantic tale of a pianist that was born on a ship. 1900 Is a natural talent on the piano, doesn’t want to leave the ship where he was born. One of the stories in it has him playing a contest with the visiting Morton.
The self proclaimed inventor of jazz starts the contest, and he shows himself a bit of a buffoon in his style. The contrast with the modest main character of the movie cannot be bigger. He mocks Morton by playing silly songs, and mimicking tunes by Morton himself. Only when he gets a bit angry, he takes it seriously and plays Morton’s socks off. The superstar disappears silently from the ship, humiliated.
He did actually claim he invented jazz. In 1902, when he was 12. It is like someone claiming to have invented pop music. Sure, some have done that, but are they taken seriously? Jelly Roll Morton was a big name in jazz, sure. He was in many ways the earliest of his kind. He was the first to write down his music, even though jazz is all about improvisation. Be that as it may, this collection is still the oldest jazz that I have.