Search - Jelly Roll Morton :: Vol II: Chicago

As colorful a character as jazz has produced, Jelly Roll Morton backed up his big talk (he claimed to have "invented" jazz) with a body of work that shuts up the naysayers. Of this imposing catalog, the recordings he made in Chicago in 1926 and 1927 with the shifting personnel dubbed the Red Hot Peppers rank among the landmarks in 20th-century American music. This is ensemble playing of the first order, much of it with Morton accompanied by New Orleans stalwarts who would close out the decade by again reconstructing jazz in Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens. Five of the 19 songs here are post-Chicago cuts from 1928, but the other 14 showcase Morton's jaw-dropping piano commentaries as well as his genius for composition and arrangement in the soaring melodies, the irresistible syncopation, the breathtaking solo flights, and the sheer joy the band exudes in playing together. A number of titles do justice to the Chicago years, but this one shows, in its inclusion of the New York sessions at the end, Morton taking his art to the next level. --David McGee