Customer Reviews

Red Hot Peppers Session

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While there are many Jelly Roll Morton recordings on the market today, none are as superbly digitally remastered or include such a fine selection of tunes from Morton. Jelly Roll indeed was his hottest between 1926-27. These songs are IT -- the essence of New Orleans jazz. "Black Bottomed Stomp," "Sidewalk Blues," "Dr. Jazz," "The Chant" -- they're all here. Quite frankly, I have over 100 jazz CD's and this one ranks in my top ten. I could write a paragraph about each song on the album -- from the sizzling clarinet solo in "Black Bottomed Stomp," to the shouting and car horn included in "Side Walk Blues," to the sad melodic wailing in "Dead Man Blues." In recent years, many jazz artists, such as Dick Hyman, have tried re-create these old recordings themselves. But the truth is no one can quite capture that frenetic yet completely coherent excitement that is distinctly Morton. I highly recommend this CD.

Simply some of the best music ever recorded. The opening bars of "The Chant" sound like something Stravinsky would have liked to compose. Sizzlin' soloists, cookin' compositions, the tastiest remastered sound with steamin' highs and punchy lows -- buy it, baby, buy it! Jelly always serves it up hot and smokin'!

As a new fan of jazz, I picked this up to see where it began. Jelly Roll claims to be the father of jazz and this cd will make you think he just might have been. Each of the songs are excellent, masterful and will make even the most stoic person tap their foot. All of them are great and memorable. Jelly Roll played jazz with spirit, pizazz and mastery. One song especially good was "Dr Jazz" because you get to hear him sing but all of them are great. He put his heart into his music and that shows. The sound is also very good and adds to the enjoyment.

They truly don't make music like this anymore and this cd will show you that Jelly Roll was one of the best performers of last century. If you want something original and enjoy music from the golden age, pick this up. Its the best!

I have this at work all the time & is my #1 listenin' CD. I can stop people in their tracks when they here the sounds. The only complaint I have is it has a slighly uneven quality between tracks. But due to the age of the recordings (20's & early 30's), it is understandable that it is that way. Even so, I absolutely LOVE IT!

Morton was very influential as a composer and pianist, and was a great singer. He was irascible, cantankerous, and had trouble keeping a band together and dealing with the public. He was hard to get along with and it was hard for him to get along with himself! Unlike most musicians and composers of the day, Morton was determined to get paid his royalties and this alone helped to make him a pariah among the record companies, hard to get gigs or make recordings. Yet his efforts later helped to bring better conditions for composers and recording artists. On this CD, he managed to gather a very compatible group of New Orleans players. I love every cut and the re-mastered sound is far better than the older copy I have. If you like traditional jazz, if you want a window into jazz history, if you enjoy great playing, get this one! And then listen to Mr Jelly's stories, playing and singing on the Library of Congress recordings and read the recent biography of him. One of the all time greats, one of the all time characters.

Jelly Roll's recording sessions with his Red Hot Pepper band are essential to the history of jazz and this compilation is a perfect collection of his music he recorded with them, although it does not contain all his recordings with them, it does contain a good portion and the recording quality is perfect for its age, it hasn't been tampered at all like other remastered CDs. The Red Hot Peppers sound as good as ever and had lots of rhythm and some of the finest music in early dixie land. Of course, if you want all the recordings Jelly made with his Peppers you might want to get the 4 disc box sex JSP, but if you are just a casual fan or want some good early jazz recordings, this will be good enough.

"Jelly Roll" Morton's Red Hot Peppers, one of the greates jazz bands to ever assemble, recorded the song, "Dead Man Blues" in 1927 and the title quote is at the beginning with two brothers arguing if there is a New Orleans funeral or not. The funny quote is when the other brother says that he thinks somebody must be dead, and then the other guy snaps back with that hilarious quote. HA HA!

Jelly Roll was the first important composer of 1920's jazz and these are his finest recordings. They are strongly recommended to the classic jazz fan and are among my all time favorite pieces of jazz from an era which it named

in remastered sound quality.

I have a 1990's issue of this same material,
on the same label. So I was able to do
a side by side.

The good news is that, if they want to take the
time and effort, it is now possible to make stuff
like this from the late 20's clean, clear,
enjoyable listening. No more sounding like
there's a pillowcase over your head.

The bad news is that I'm probably looking at
replacing a lot of older masters of historic
music. At least much of it is cheaper now.

Thats all I have to say. Jelly roll is amazing. Especially the Dr. Jazz track.