Jelly Roll Morton

Also known as "Jelly Roll LaMothe" (real name Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe) played a lot of rags. However, the key think is that he started swining it, bringing it into the earliest form of real Jazz (Definition) music. There's a lot of audio clips of him claiming to have invented jazz in its own right.

Compare this version of Maple Leaf Rag (actually composed by Scott Joplin, and recorded by Alan Lomax). He plays it very, very quick!

• He bridged the gap between Ragtime and Jazz (Definition).
• He added the swing feeling.
• He started to improvise, a huge thing of jazz! He specifically turned it into an art (ex: he would comp with the left hand for the improv. on the right hand).

More tunes from him and his band, the Red Hot Peppers (with drummer Dee Dee Chandler):

• Black Bottom Stomp
  • Everyone is playing at the same time! This is in contrast to what we saw say Sonny Rollins do later down the line. This was an early form of Collective Improvisation.
  • Also we saw more clarinet, which would later be replaced by saxes.
  • We even see the banjo, which would also see its exist relatively soon.
  • We'd even see Jelly Roll start to take his own solo, along with the trumpet player and clarinetist.
• King Porter Stomp
  • Halfway through he picks up new Jazz Form. Namely he picked it up from marching bands, like the AABBCCC (trio) form (the C is a whole new theme!) like in The Stars and Stripes Forever.