Customer Reviews

Jelly Roll Stomp

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This is a fascinating album of solo and band recordings by the Jelly Roll Morton - influenced barrelhouse pianist Frank Melrose, drawn from the collection of legendary Chicago jazz fan John Steiner.

Tracks 1 - 8 are 1929-30 commercial recordings, some well known but including rare alternate takes. All have a strong Morton flavour, combined with a percussive barrelhouse attack. Tracks 14-15 , "Farewell Blues" and "Sugar Foot Strut" are delightful small band jazz from 1939, featuring some magnificent washboard work. Tracks 16 - 21 are from a 6 piece band recorded on the obscure Signature label in 1941, and suffer from some heavy bass saxophone work.

For Melrose fans, the highlight of this CD is tracks 8 -13, six solos from 1936-40 only one of which has been released previously. They show how Melrose had developed from his earlier solos, becoming more deeply blues influenced, showing stride touches in "The Boy in the Boat", and ability in the novelty piano genre in "Cosmics".

Recommended for all those interested in barrelhouse piano and 1920s - 1930s Chicago jazz.

if you like original really good foot stompin piano music, this is it. just too bad they didn,t remaster some of the tracks because they sound like they were recorded from half wore out 78's

Kansas City Frank Melrose is said to play in the style of Jelly Roll Morton and to a degree he does. Melrose is in no way as inventive as Morton and by way of comparison Melrose displays a limited musical vocabulary. The recording do however drip authenticity as an example of solo stride piano as played in the Kansas City, and Chicago clubs of the era. Unfortunately little effort went into improving the quality of the primitive original recordings when the CD was mastered. Frank deserved better treatment