Jerry Roll Morton—”I’m Alabama Bound” (1938)

Between May and October 1938, pianist/composer Ferdinand Joseph LaMotte (1890-1941) -- better known as Jelly Roll Morton -- was given the opportunity to make a series of Library of Congress recordings organized by folk-archivist Alan Lomax. Morton, accompanied by his own piano, talked about his compositions and played and sung 52 illustrative songs, which were all recorded on matrices. The first one was “Alabama Bound.”

Most of these matrices, which were recorded in the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium, were dubbed from the original acetates and released on Circle Records. This series of Lomax interviews was the first serious attempt to trace the origins of jazz. John Chilton describes them as remaining vital to the close study of music.

During the 1930s, Morton had, what was for him, a quiet decade. Quiet that is until the moment in 1938 when he heard W.C. Handy described in a “Believe It Or Not” radio program as “the originator of jazz, stomps and blues.” Morton reached for his pen and fired an angry missive at the program’s creator Robert Ripley. Morton’s letter was later published in Down Beat magazine. Never modest, Morton began:

“It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of jazz, and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902, many years before the Dixieland Band organized…” The letter which went on for over 3,000 words, was Morton’s attempt to put the record straight, as he saw it.

A week later Jelly Roll Morton was contacted by 23-year old Alan Lomax, Assistant-in-Charge of the Archive of American Folk Song, at the seedy club in Washington, D.C., where Morton was reduced to earning a living as a pianist-barman and doorman combined. Morton agreed to start the Library of Congress recordings on May 21, 1938.

Based on these interviews, Lomax later wrote a biography about Morton called, “Mister Jelly Roll.” In 2006, Rounder Records’ “Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax” won in two categories at the 48th annual Grammy Awards ceremony.