Jelly Roll Morton:

A visit to a music shop in Decatur Street in New Orleans, one of the streets where Jelly Roll Morton played piano in a river side bordello, started my journey with MIDI music. I bought his collected piano works and started from there. Some of the arrangements based on my transcriptions are included on this page together with arrangements based on other MIDI file sources such as Warren Trachtman. Morton wrote initially for the bordello pianos he played but latter he worked with small jazz bands and rearranged his compositions for them. My recordings include a mixture of piano rearrangements on my own percussion ensemble of Marimba, gamelan, vibes and Steel Drums and band rearrangements which include the ocarina. His compositions include rags, stomps and blues and his own New Orleans / Spanish influenced originals. Many were given that extra swing that became known as Jazz when they were taken up by the bands which began to flourish in New Orleans and further north.

New Orleans style:

Big Foot Ham Grandpa’s Spells Mamanita

Rags:

Frog I More Rag Perfect & Frog I More Rag

Stomps:

Black Bottom Stomp Kansas City Stomp King Porter Stomp Shreeveport Stomp

Blues:

Buddy Bolton’s Blues Buffalo Blues (Mr Joe) Jungle Blues London Blues New Orleans Blues Original Jelly Roll Blues Tom Cat Blues Wolverine Blues

Donationware - How it

works

Copyright: we retain the copy right on our arrangements for public performance or any other commercial application but grant you the right to download it free of charge for your own personal use.  Donation: If you enjoy the music I would be grateful if you would make a donation to the charitable Trust Fund run by Croydon Whitgift Rotary Club.