Jelly Roll

John Handy and Shafi Hadi (alto sax), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Jimmy Kneper (trombone), Horace Parlan (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Dannie Richmond (drums). From the album Mingus Ah Um (1959).

Jelly Roll Morton was an American pianist and composer who played ragtime and Dixieland (style of jazz based on the music that was played in New Orleans in the early 20th century). He can be considered as the first jazz arranger, proving that a genre based on improvisation can keep its essence when it is written down. He generated controversy by claiming to have invented this music, but Morton was a braggart who spent his life exaggerating.

However, a study of his personal testimonies by Alan Lomax, including interviews and recordings, revealed that this figure could be one of the most accurate sources in relation to the first jazz. Further research confirms the validity of his recreations of previous musical styles. Although Morton didn’t invent jazz, he was the first one to articulate a coherent theoretical approach to its emergence.

With this theme you could dance the Charleston, seems to have been composed in the mid-1920s. Handy comes in to perform his solo, using simple phrases in the first chorus, but employing the language of modern jazz in the second. Parlan follows him with a discourse with plenty of swing and good taste in choosing his phrases. Next Ervin comes in exposing a melodic line typical of the mainstream style. Then Mingus arrives with a well-measured solo that resembles Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll”. To conclude, the group re-exposes the theme and add a small arragement at the end.