Producer: Kristy Anderson

In Production

Ahead of his time, Jelly Roll Morton held tight to the idea that jazz was America’s quintessential form of music — an ever-changing democratic art, embracing our multi-ethnic roots. As classicists resisted the art, waiting for time to bring the classics back to a height they never again achieved, jazz moved into the mainstream.

His business card said it all: Morton claimed to be the “Inventor of Jazz”. But much like the tragic salesman Willy Loman, he was a business failure. Embodying the desire to leave a legacy that makes one’s life meaningful, to achieve immortality, Morton was stymied by class-conscious Americans, not yet ready to embrace jazz as anything but a fad, the music of commoners and brothels.

Like many musicians, his fame was a roller coaster, with tremendous notoriety in the 1920’s then relative obscurity until long after his death. Even today, people know only his name, not his music nor his life story.