Candid shot of Jelly Roll Morton playing a piano. Jelly Roll Morton was an African American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was the first published jazz composition.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b22_f14_005.tif ark:/21198/z1h14k5p
Subject
African American composers African American jazz musicians Morton, Jelly Roll, -1941
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