Jelly Roll Morton's life was nothing but colourful. He was a great tall tale teller and one of the most flamboyant extroverts jazz has ever known. Trying to separate fact from fiction in Jelly Roll Mortonâ??s life is a difficult task. Morton was an outsize braggart who never underestimated his own importance. Hustling formed an important part of his life's work. He was a pool player, a pimp, a bellhop, a tailor, a peddler, a cardsharp, a minstrel, a nightclub manager and a fight promoter, but it was as the first important jazz composer that he made his mark. Jelly Roll Morton was not only the first real jazz composer; he was the first jazz musician to make his entire approach to the music compositional. Whether as a piano soloist or as a leader of orchestras over which he had undoubted control, Morton emerged, and will be chiefly honoured, as the creator of total conceived jazz masterpieces. His grandiose claims as an innovator should not be allowed to obscure the fact that he was a virtually self-contained master of invention, the originator of orchestral jazz.
Doctor Jazz - Morton, Jelly Roll
Disc 1
1. Big Fat Ham
2. Muddy Water Blues
3. Sobbin' Blues
4. King Porter Stomp
5. New Orleans Joys
6. Clarinet Marmalade
7. Mr. Jelly Lord
8. Grandpa's Spells
9. Kansas City Stomps
10. Wolverine Blues
11. The Pearls
12. London Blues
13. Milenberg Joys
14. Someday, Sweetheart
15. London Blues
16. Mr. Jelly Roll
17. Steady Roll
18. Thirty-Fifth Street Blues
19. Mamanita
20. Froggie Moore
21. London Blues
22. Tia Juana
23. Shreveport Stomps
24. Mamamita
25. Jelly Roll Blues
26. Big Foot Ham (Big Fat Ham)
Disc 2
1. Bucktown Blues
2. Tom Cat Blues
3. Stratford Hunch
4. Perfect Rag
5. King Porter Stomp
6. Tom Cat Blues
7. The Pearls
8. Sweetheart O'mine
9. Fat Meat And Greens
10. King Porter Stomp
11. Black Bottom Stomp
12. Smoke-House Blues
13. The Chant
14. Sidewalk Blues
15. Dead Man Blues
16. Steamboat Stomp
17. Someday, Sweetheart
18. Grandpa's Spells
19. Original Jelly Roll Blues
20. Doctor Jazz
21. Canon Ball Blues
22. Hyena Stomp
23. Billy Goat Stomp
24. Wild Man Blues
25. Jungle Blues
Disc 3
1. Beale Street Blues
2. The Pearls
3. Wolverine Blues
4. Mr. Jelly Lord
5. Georgia Swing
6. Kansas City Stomps
7. Shoe Shiner's Drag (London Blues )
8. Boogaboo
9. Shreveport Stomp
10. Mournful Serenade
11. Red Hot Pepper (Stomp)
12. Deep Creek (Blues)
13. Pep
14. Frances (Fat Frances)
15. Freakish
16. Burnin' The Iceberg
17. Sweet Anita Mine
18. New Orleans Bump (Monrovia)
19. Tank Town Bump
20. Sweet Peter
21. Jersey Joe
22. Mississippi Mildred
23. Mint Julep
24. Smilin' The Blues Away
25. Turtle Twist
Disc 4
1. My Little Dixie Home
2. That's Like It Ought To Be
3. Each Day
4. If Someone Would Only Love Me
5. That'll Never Do
6. I'm Looking For A Little Bluebird
7. Little Lawrence
8. Harmony Blues
9. Fussy Mabel
10. Pontchartrain Blues
11. Oil Well
12. Load Of Coal
13. Crazy Chords
14. Primrose Stomp
15. Low Gravy
16. Strokin' Away
17. Blue Blood Blues
18. Musmouth Shuffle
19. Gambling Jack
20. Fickle Fay Creep (Soap Suds)
21. Winin' Boy Blues
22. Ballin' The Jack
23. Don't You Leave Me Here
24. Mamie's Blues
25. Michigan Water Blues