Jelly Roll Morton - Compositions

Compositions

Some of Morton's songs (listed alphabetically):

  • "Big Foot Ham" (a.k.a. "Ham & Eggs")
  • "Black Bottom Stomp"
  • "Burnin' the Iceberg"
  • "The Crave"
  • "Creepy Feelin"
  • "Doctor Jazz Stomp"
  • "The Dirty Dozen"
  • "Fickle Fay Creep"
  • "Finger Buster"
  • "Freakish"
  • "Frog-I-More Rag"
  • "Ganjam"
  • "Good Old New York"
  • "Grandpa's Spells"
  • "Jungle Blues"
  • "Kansas City Stomp"
  • "London Blues"
  • "Mama Nita"
  • "Milenberg Joys"
  • "Mint Julep"
  • "My Home Is in a Southern Town"
  • "New Orleans Bump"
  • "Pacific Rag"
  • "The Pearls"
  • "Pep"
  • "Pontchartrain"
  • "Red Hot Pepper"
  • "Shreveport Stomp"
  • "Sidewalk Blues"
  • "Stratford Hunch"
  • "Sweet Substitute"
  • "Tank Town Bump"
  • "Turtle Twist"
  • "Why?"
  • "Wolverine Blues"

Several of Morton's compositions were musical tributes to himself, including "Winin' Boy", "The Jelly Roll Blues", subtitled "The Original Jelly-Roll"; and "Mr. Jelly Lord". In the Big Band era, his "King Porter Stomp", which Morton had written decades earlier, was a big hit for Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman; it became a standard covered by most other swing bands of that time. Morton claimed to have written some tunes that were copyrighted by others, including "Alabama Bound" and "Tiger Rag". "Sweet Peter," which Morton recorded in 1926, appears to be the source for the melody of the hit song "All Of Me," ostensibly written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931.

His musical influence continues in the work of Dick Hyman and Reginald Robinson.

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