Customer Reviews

Complete Library of Congress Recordings

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A portion of these recordings was released on a 12 lp set many years ago. My dad had a copy of the set when I was in my teens. I determined that as a fan of early jazz, I should listen to the whole set. I decided to make myself listen to one side of one lp every day. The first day I sat down and went through 3 1/2 lps. There was something hypnotic and fascinating about listening to Jelly talk and play, even though the speed was way off and the sound quality not good. It was hard to stop listening. With these disks it will be harder.
These are not for everyone. Someone just wanting to sample Jelly's music should buy a Red Hot Peppers CD. Jelly's language, in places, is not fit for young children or the faint of heart, particularly in sessions in which he had consumed a fair amount of whisky while recording. But this is a historic set of recordings. It is a first hand account of a largely undocumented world that existed a century ago and still has a profound effect on present day jazz and popular music. The speed has been corrected and the sound is much improved over the old Circle and Riverside issues.
I think it was Danny Barker who pointed out that Jelly was the product of an era in which there weren't publicists, so he can be excused if he engages in self-promoting hyperbole. While not everything Jelly says is the gospel truth, others have pointed out that many of the things he described have been authenticated by totally independent sources. Jelly may not have been the inventor of jazz, as he claimed, but he is probably closer than any other person. He was a generation earlier than Louis and Bix, and is one of the few primary sources of jazz prehistory.
I think everyone seriously interested in early jazz should consider this set. It is a monumental historic document in the field of jazz. For the price of an evening at a good restaurant, you get eight CD's, a copy of the Lomax book, and a new booklet which I must confess I have not read yet since I only have had the set for a couple of days.
I did notice a couple of things that might be corrected if there is another edition. The tracks on the CDs are in the order as stated in the printed material, but if played on a computer, some of the track names are wrong. Also, on Disk 8, in addition to the material that is supposed to be there, there is a repeat of an earlier track in which Jelly talks about Tony Jackson. These are minor items and shouldn't put anyone off from buying the set.
Rounder is to be congratulated. 67 years after the recording of a historic and entertaining document, we finally get to hear the whole thing at the correct speed and with much better sound than the earlier excerpted versions.

The below reviewer (a reader) is absolutely right. The new audio restoration has impressively gotten rid of almost all of the extraneous hissing and popping that you heard on the 1993 release, but unfortunately, this has been carried out at the expense of the bass! It now sounds like you're listening to something recorded in 1903- everything is tinny and jarring. What's really a shame, though, is that the lower register of Jelly Roll's rich, rolling God-like baritone is attenuated, so though he's still chilling and wonderful to listen to, his voice no longer carries the same kind of authority it did in the old releases.

That said, this is an absolutely invaluable historical document, and even though it's no longer as pleasurable to the ear, Jelly Roll is still Jelly Roll, and listening to his unexpurgated conversation is sublime and worth twenty times the price of admission.

These recordings are legendary, and it's taken 67 years for them to fully emerge. Though they are complete here for the first time (including all of Morton's spoken narration and incidental music), I feel this release has been mishandled.

The audio "restoration" here is vastly inferior to the 1993 Rounder issue of these sessions. Some pre-release apprehension arose when Rounder announced their use of the notorious Cedar remastering system for this 2005 edition. Concern was well-founded: the sound is thin, sharp and tinny. Even turning the treble response all the way down seems to have no effect. I've listened on different systems, with the same frustration--the material is great, but enjoyment is limited. The 1993 (music only) discs had a few minor speed/pitch inconsistencies, but the sound was rich and full, and made for pleasant listening.

This 2005 set does have some positive features. The booklet includes 25 pages of Morton's fascinating 1938 prose writings; another highlight is Disc 8, an audio/data CD with over 200 pages of written material, including a complete transcript of the Library of Congress interviews and other documents, enough to keep Morton scholars and enthusiasts busy for a while...

About the packaging: the box is rather unwieldy (shaped like a piano), a bit flimsy, and about twice as large as it should have been.

To conclude: a disappointing release (I recommend hanging on to those 1993 discs, if you have them). However, it contains much additional material (especially the data disc) essential to those interested in jazz history.

Let me first say that the box this is packed in, though unique, is in fact a bit flimsy. I have reinforced mine with clear packing tape. End of problem. That said, I have listened to 2 of the 8 discs and they are wonderful. Who would want to just hear the music? The story telling is first rate. It is the story of a by-gone era, when Jazz was forming, when New Orleans was in it's prime (Morton played in the fabled "Storyville"). It is story of the players, the personalities, the songs, the city, with some music theory thrown in ....absolutely fasinating. No, the music has not been worked over by a sound engineer. It is true to the raw material, and it IS raw, but I love it JUST AS IT IS. I am new to Morton's music and have not been swayed by the sound quality of previous releases. It is a "no-brainer" that this an important historical document. I am looking forward to reading the book which comes with this set. I was surprised by the size of the box. It is BIG! Check out the measurments. If you appreciate a great story and great music then you can't go wrong. Get this while you can. You won't be sorry.

I had downloaded a few tracks from iTunes and decided that I wanted more. I wasn't disappointed. This is a treasure trove of first-hand accounts from a great and famous musician of what his life was like. The style and tone of Jelly's speech as much as the stories he told really helped paint a picture of being a musician and just being around in the early 1900s. I wish there were more recorded accounts like this--it's sort of like spending a weekend with my grandpa listening to what it was like for him as a youth. There's a lot of great music here too, and language that will offend many, but it's a rough-and-tumble account of rough-and -tumble times. I couldn't recommend these CDs highly enough to anyone interested in the formative years of jazz, when ragtime was still hot, and New Orleans was an incubator for music that eventually swept the nation. I've listened to the entire set several times, and still listen to parts of it every week.

I believe Duke Ellington once said that to listen to jazz with no knowledge of its history is to miss much of its charm. This is a real treasure of recordings that will broaden and deepen my appreciation of the many charms of jazz for years to come. The recordings themselves, as well as the accompanying notes and book, have already changed my concept of the roots of early jazz, Jelly's contributions to it, and his character as a human being. I no longer believe he was the outrageously self-aggrandizing braggart that some writers made him out to be. While not a flashy virtuoso like Hines or Tatum, there are some gorgeous pianistic moments.

Nearly every jazz-friend has heard about the legendary recordings, Jelly Roll Morton made for the Library of Congress, and that there he declared to have invented this music in 1904 or so....
I play jazz as an amateur since more than 50 years, and I never expected to be able to have these recordings. Now I hear his voice, I hear him play and declare, what he plays. And suddenly an important time of history of jazz, an important musician and composer got to be living for me. It's great, and I wish that every oldtime-jazz musician would listen to the stories he tells.
And I think: it does not matter, whether they are true or not - they in any case are full of a musicians life.

All the previous releases of these timeless recordings, especially the 1993 Rounder release, have been plagued by speed problems and muddy sound issues. This new presentation of the Jelly Roll/Lomax Library of Congress Recordings has been made using high resolution DSD technology along with the brand new Cedar Cambridge System. All disc transfers were done at The Library of Congress. The results are remarkable. Finally at the right pitch and restored using original discs lost until today, this is the definitive story of Jelly Roll, New Orleans and the history of Jazz. Not to be missed!!!

Uma das figuras mais geniais e polêmicas da história do jazz foi Jelly Roll Morton, considerado por vários estudiosos o primeiro compositor do jazz. Morton, um mulato de New Orleans que se considerava branco descendente de franceses, iniciou a carreira tocando em bordéis e esteve em quase todas as cidades onde se podia ganhar algum dinheiro tocando jazz. Costumava se apresentar com um cartão onde constava a inscrição "inventor do jazz". Se ele realmente acreditava nisso ou estava apenas brincando, nunca vamos saber. O fato é que Morton foi o primeiro músico a conseguir colocar na partitura alguns dos principais elementos musicais que realmente diferenciavam o jazz de seus ancestrais: spirituals, blues e ragtime. Para aqueles que não apreciam gravações repletas de estalidos e chiados, o álbum traz registros cujo tratamento técnico torna a audição agradável até para as orelhas mais exigentes. Um prato cheio para os estudiosos do jazz.

These 1938 library of congress interviews and recordings are a very important part of jazz and music history and are just as important in music history as Elvis' Ed Sullivan performances, Michael Jackson's Thriller music video, and Woodstock. Jelly Roll plays many of his original compositions from his early years in Chicago, to his newer pieces he just created not long before his death. Jelly Roll talks about the history of his songs, his life, important figures who helped influence his style and jazz, as well as his opinions on music theory and style. Hours of interviews and music full of rich history make this essential for any jazz, piano, or history fan. Although some of the songs in this are quite controversial, containing strong language and imagery, it is all historically important and part of the history and evolution of music. Of course, most sites will rip you off, you probably can find it for less than $40, the MP3 download is only $20, which is well worth the price. Jelly Roll's music is better than ever, and his piano compositions are some of the most advanced and best for his time. You hear from the man himself the significance of his music and history. The remastering isn't too bad either, it doesn't ruin the experience.