Customer Reviews

Piano Rolls

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I am very familiar with these Morton piano rolls from their previous incarnations on Biograph, Pianola, and other indie jazz labels, and so am well aware of their assets and limitations. On one LP transfer, "Grandpa's Spells" sounded very natural and fluid, but there was no pedal used and so the thumping bass notes sounded odd and hollow. On the Biograph CD, "Shreveport Stomp" came out very well but, again, no pedal...and Morton was a master of pedal effects.

On this CD, Odis Wodehouse (I wonder if she's any relation to 1920s author P.G. Wodehouse??) has done a remarkable job of emulating Morton's touch, dynamics and pedal effects. Often I caught my breath listening, the immediacy of Morton's presence was so strong! Each and evry track sounds perfectly natural, and the wonderful presence makes every fingering detail stand out.

And what's so wrong about listening to Morton on a Steinway grand??? That's what he played at the Library of Congress in 1938, and no one has complained about those discs!!

The trouble with these rolls is that they were recorded in the cheaper way, without any dynamics, unlike the expensive rolls by Rachmaninoff and other classical pianists. Ms Wodehouse has attempted to supply the missing dynamics, but the result doesn't sound at all like Morton's playing as you can hear it on the JSP set or the Lomax recordings. It is more like, perhaps, Dick Hyman playing Morton's music. Also, a big concert grand doesn't seem very suitable for this music.

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 disco abaixo traz registros feitos em 1924 em rolos de pianola cujo tratamento técnico torna a audição agradável até para as orelhas mais exigentes. Um prato cheio para os estudiosos do jazz.