The "Original" Jelly Roll and the Dirty Early Blues

In 1938, jazz/blues pianist and singer Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe—better known as Jelly Roll Morton—sat down behind the grand piano at the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium. It was at the invitation of the august institution, and Alan Lomax was ready for him.Morton was 47 (or 52…accounts vary, just like the spelling of his last name) and considered by many a washed-up dinosaur in music. His abrasive and bragging ways had also made him a few enemies over the years.Lomax, at 23, was already an experienced folklorist and scion of the...