Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton by Howard Reich, William Gaines Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton
Book Review: An interesting new view of Jelly Roll
Summary: 3 Stars
This book provides a different perspective on the life of Jelly Roll Morton and an insight into the music publishing world in the early 20th Century.Although there is reference to his recordings and later life I have the impression that there is an imbalance, much attention is focused on who he was and where he came from which is excellent and helps to understand the character of the man.
Being very familiar with his music and recordings I was disappointed at the lack of information and insight into the recording sessions, where the first part of the book had given new information and a lot of detail, this section seemed cursory. The list of music publications by Jelly Roll at the end of the book does not seem complete, in particular the music from the trio recordings with Zutty Singleton and Barney Bigard is missing as is reference to the recording session itself.
Also despite great play on the huge amount of information now available about his later life, the section dealing with the end of Morton's life and his struggle with Melrose,ASCAP etc is not covered in sufficient detail nor is there reference as to where the detail can be found.
My feeling is that a revision to the title would be beneficial to potential readers, perhaps "Jelly's Blues: The Life of Jelly Roll Morton" would be more honest.
That said, this is a fascinating view of New Orleans and Jelly Roll Morton's effect on the future of jazz music.
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