Jelly Roll Morton

Alain_Patrick, Apr 07, 2006

During the nineteenth century, people from all over the World would come to New Orleans, creating a melting pot of different ethnical and cultural origins. A fine example to illustrate this situation is the ‘Créoles’. Descending from French and African families, they had whiter skins than the blacks, but darker skins than the whites; they identified themselves with their European parents and learned the ways of classical music, though they also had a strong attachment with their afro origins.
Jelly Roll Morton, an essential character of the American music history, is a shine example. Born Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe, this proud ‘créole’ of color was claimed an essential name on the origin of Jazz, for he was among the first to create a relevant amount of compositions for the genre. Before him, the piano was basically a lady’s instrument on his environment – but one day, he saw a man playing a beautiful piece of Ragtime, and then he realized piano was not only an instrument for women, but for anyone - as long as this anyone could play the keyboards with excellence. Jelly Roll Morton, whose nickname was a synonym for sexual movements, became an exceptional piano player. After all, knew how to blend the elements of Ragtime, Ministrelcy and Blues together into a new, complex and improvised kind of music. This new-born style of improvising, dynamic and creative patterns would become by the way Americas main musical identity on the years to come.

Was the above review useful to you? Yes  No  (report)