Jelly Roll Morton, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1890)

Jelly Roll Morton

American ragtime and jazz musician (1890–1941)

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential…