---
title: "Artist Spotlight: Jelly Roll Morton | American Jazz Museum"
description: "Jelly Roll Morton did not invent jazz, whatever he claimed — but he may have been one of its first true ambassadors, carrying original music across the country years before the first jazz record. Hear his Red Hot Peppers play “Original Jelly-Roll Blues.”"
canonical: https://americanjazzmuseum.org/artist-spotlights/jelly-roll-morton-ambassador/
---

Artist Spotlight

# Jelly Roll Morton

By Houston Gonzales, Education Programs Manager  
October 27, 2026

![Jelly Roll Morton in a dark suit and patterned tie, smiling broadly in a head-and-shoulders studio portrait. A handwritten inscription runs across the lower right corner, and the studio’s mark reads “Bloom, Chicago”.](/_astro/morton-bloom-1927.KXbczhWy_2b3g9l.webp)

[Jelly Roll Morton, publicity photograph](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jelly_Roll_Morton_\(publicity_photo,_Bloom_photographic_studio,_c._1927\).jpg). Bloom photograph studio, Chicago, circa 1927. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

> “…He started his upward climb from there, winding up as a respectable innovator and creator of jazz (although he didn’t invent the music as he claimed)”
> 
> — [Rex Stewart](/artist-spotlights/artists/rex-stewart/)

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, more commonly known as “[Jelly Roll Morton](/artist-spotlights/artists/jelly-roll-morton/)”, may not have invented jazz, but he was certainly still an important figure to its early development. It could even be argued that he was one of the first “true ambassadors” of jazz music[1](#user-content-fn-1). This is evident from many aspects of his professional career[2](#user-content-fn-2), but his innovations to jazz make for an interesting starting point. Morton brought his New Orleans upbringing to the ragtime tradition and most likely preferred performing his own original music[3](#user-content-fn-3). Gunther Schuller notes that his compositional style was mature by the 1920s, which indicates that he must have developed his ideas much earlier[4](#user-content-fn-4). Harlem stride pianist, [James P. Johnson](/artist-spotlights/artists/james-p-johnson/) remembers hearing Morton play “Jelly Roll Blues” in New York in 1911. “The place was on fire!”, Johnson reminisced. In 1912, Morton himself notes that by writing out some music for a local pickup band in St. Louis, he was able to help them play “some pretty fair jazz”[5](#user-content-fn-5). Morton was a creative force and a credible composer/arranger at a time when a widely understood “jazz idiom” did not yet exist the way it does today. Well before what has been commonly accepted as the first jazz recording in 1917, Jelly Roll Morton was performing and sharing original ideas across the country, which certainly should earn him the title of “ambassador”.

## Listen

### Original Jelly-Roll Blues, Jelly Roll Morton

Recorded 1926. Released on Birth of the Hot: The Classic Chicago “Red Hot Peppers” Sessions 1926–27 (RCA Bluebird, 1995).

*   [YouTube: Original Jelly-Roll Blues, Jelly Roll Morton (opens in a new tab)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1VfPojiWWY)
*   [Spotify: Original Jelly-Roll Blues, Jelly Roll Morton (opens in a new tab)](https://open.spotify.com/track/5yUXVwuVsCxXjEBCzzEvmt)
*   [Apple Music: Original Jelly-Roll Blues, Jelly Roll Morton (opens in a new tab)](https://music.apple.com/us/album/original-jelly-roll-blues-remastered-1995/298294223?i=298294792)

## Notes

1.  Alyn Shipton, _A New History of Jazz_ (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007), 71 [↩](#user-content-fnref-1)
    
2.  In addition to having a talent for composing, Morton was also known for having a rather boastful personality to match his fashion style. This helped him stand out as he traveled across the country playing his music. [↩](#user-content-fnref-2)
    
3.  Alyn Shipton, _A New History of Jazz_ (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007), 69 [↩](#user-content-fnref-3)
    
4.  Gunther Schuller, “Morton, Jelly Roll,” _The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz_, Barry Kernfeld ed. (London: Macmillan, 1988); “The First Great Composer,” Chapter 4 in _Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development_ (New York, Oxford University Press, 1968). [↩](#user-content-fnref-4)
    
5.  Alyn Shipton, _A New History of Jazz_ (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007), 69 [↩](#user-content-fnref-5)
    

[More Artist Spotlights](/artist-spotlights/)