What inspired Jelly Roll Morton to become a jazz player?

"Jelly Roll Morton," states Eddie Edwards, Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong Foundation in New Orleans, "was first and foremost, a musician. He had the respect of other musicians. read more

By the time he was in his early twenties, according to Martin Williams in his book, Jazz Masters of New Orleans, Jelly was traveling throughout Louisiana, Memphis and the entire Gulf Coast as a somewhat in demand musician. By 1915, Morton had written and published"Jelly Roll Blues". read more

Jelly Roll Morton's Last Night at the Jungle Inn: An Imaginary Memoir (1984), by the ethnomusicologist and folklorist Samuel Charters, embellishing Morton's early stories about his life. Morton and his godmother, who went by the name Eulalie Echo, appear as characters in David Fulmer's mystery novel Chasing the Devil's Tail. read more

Jazz players like Kid Ory and Barney Bigard, two giants in the evolution of jazz would rush to work with Jelly, that's the type of respect he held." New Orleans native Ferdinand Joseph Le Menthe, enshrined in jazz folklore as Jelly Roll Morton, was born in 1885 to a middle class Creole family on Frenchmen Street at the corner of Robertson. read more