We continue our series of ‘How Music Changed’ with a second segment on the incredibly influential Jelly Roll Morton. The best part of this episode is that, like the first episode, Jelly Roll himself tells the lion’s share of the story.

Now, the book on Jelly Roll Morton was that if you let him talk long enough, he’d eventually take credit for every little thing that popped into his head. Granted, there are moments of exaggeration in his boasts, and times when it’s hard to determine (or downright doubtful) that he’s being truthful. Nevertheless, history has come full circle, and now it appears that much of what Jelly Roll claimed as rightfully his invention more often than not was his own.

Call me gullible, but I love listening to Jelly Roll Morton tell his own story, and I can’t help but give such a great storyteller the benefit of the doubt, especially since it is quite apparent that nobody else in the history of music has played the piano and composed classic material quite like Jelly Roll Morton.

Here’s a list of what we cover in today’s program;

Jelly Roll Blues

Story of 'Alabama Bound" (Jelly Roll Interview)

Georgia Swing

The Story of "King Porter Stomp" (Jelly Roll Interview)

King Porter Stomp - JRM

King Porter Stomp - Benny Goodman

When the Hot Stuff Hit - (Jelly Roll Interview)

Improvised Scat Tune - JRM

The First Hot Arrangements (Jelly Roll Interview)

Grandpa's Spells - Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers