Jazz in the Public Domain

Eine kleine Morton

DO NOT DOWNLOAD IN MEXICO Bucktown Blues, New Orleans Joys, Big Foot Ham, Kansas City Stomp, Tom Cat Blues, Frog-I-Moore Rag, London Blues, Original Jelly Roll Blues, Mamanita, Milenberg Joys (with NORK),Perfect Rag/Sporting House Rag, Shreveport Stomp, Stratford Hunch, 35th St Blues, London Blues (with band), The Pearls, Tia Juana, Wolverine Blues, Grandpa's Spells, King Porter Stomp, Mr. Jelly Lord (with NORK). The soft touch here, the high keys plink and sustain. Morton’s approach seemingly not jazz highlights the beauty of the touch and sound. Morton’s father was a bricklayer and he understood meticulous crafts. His tunes are indestructible regardless of the skill level, they sound good if the players play the notes. Here the piano gives the composer’s world and is complete by itself. These are definitive performances by the composer, not piano rolls. Morton put a lot of music into every tune. As with Heraclitus or the Mississippi, never the same river twice. The tunes meander through different strains so that they do not lend themselves to memory as does a theme and variations form. In the woods of notes there opens from time to time the clearing of an iconic strain, King Porter Stomp being an example. Lots of space in a tune and you feel it when it is taken away as in Grandpa’s Spells, as torrid background music to a silent slapstick, or the Perfect Rag or Shreveport Stomp. America post-Emancipation was the environment for this free expression, the national musical expression made possible under Lady Liberty. May the torch stay lit. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.