July 10

This Day in History

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Lead Story
Monkey Trial begins, 1925
American Revolution
British General Richard Prescott captured in Rhode Island, 1777
Automotive
U.S. Patent issued for three-point seatbelt, 1962
Civil War
Siege on Battery Wagner begins, 1863
Cold War
Gorbachev re-elected as head of Communist Party, 1990
Crime
The Exxon Valdez captain's conviction is overturned, 1992
Disaster
Dam collapses in Switzerland, kills 70, 1887
General Interest
Allies land on Sicily, 1943
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, 1985
Hollywood
Hugh Grant appears on Tonight Show after Hollywood arrest, 1995
Literary
Alice Munro is born, 1931
Music
Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton dies, 1941
Old West
"Buckskin" Frank Leslie murders a prostitute, 1889
Presidential
Millard Fillmore sworn in as president, 1850
Sports
U.S. women win World Cup, 1999
Vietnam War
MiGs shot down as bombing of North Vietnam continues, 1965
Heavy fighting continues near An Loc and the Central Highlands, 1967
World War I
German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg resigns, 1917
World War II
The Battle of Britain begins, 1940

Music

Jul 10, 1941:

Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton dies

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On this day in 1941, Jelly Roll Morton—a native of New Orleans who became the first great jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader—dies in Los Angeles, California.

Born Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe in New Orleans (his year of birth is recorded variously as 1885 and 1890), he was the son of racially mixed Creole parents; he later took his stepfather's last name, Morton, as his own. Young Ferdinand learned to play the piano as a boy, and by the age of 12 he was performing in the bordellos of Storyville, New Orleans' famous red-light district. Talented and precocious, Morton blended the popular music styles of ragtime, minstrelsy and the blues and flavored the mixture with Caribbean dance rhythms; the result was a hybrid that resembled a then-emerging style later known as "jazz."  

Morton left home and went on the road at 17, traveling to cities around the country to perform his music; he also earned money as a vaudeville comic, gambler, pimp, pool shark and door-to-door salesman. He was keenly aware of his own talent and never hesitated to promote himself, insisting on being called by his nickname, Jelly Roll (which had sexual connotations), and claiming to have "invented" jazz. Such claims were false, but he was in fact the first great jazz musician to write his music down.

Morton lived for a time in Los Angeles and Chicago, and around 1923 began making his first recordings. He performed with a sextet (on such numbers as "Big Foot Ham" and "Muddy Water Blues") and won acclaim for a series of piano solos of his own compositions. Around 1926, Morton began recording and performing with his seven- or eight-piece band, the Red Hot Peppers. Morton's arranging and performing style was more formal than early Dixieland jazz; the performances were a mixture of composition and improvisation, and were carefully rehearsed. As a composer, some of his best-known works were "Black Bottom Stomp," "King Porter Stomp," "Shoe Shiner's Drag" and "Dead Man Blues," which became jazz standards.

Morton's career declined in the early 1930s, and emerging artists such as Louis Armstrong exceeded him in popularity and influence. He moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where he managed a jazz club and occasionally performed. In 1938, Morton gave a series of oral interviews in which he recalled the early days of jazz in New Orleans and revealed himself to be an astute historian of the genre. The interviews sparked renewed interest in Morton; he recorded again briefly in 1939-40 but was by then in failing health (which he blamed on a voodoo curse). Morton died before the great Dixieland revival; his eventful life later became the subject of the acclaimed musical "Jelly's Last Jam," performed on Broadway in 1992 with Gregory Hines in the title role.

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This Week in History, Jul 10 - Jul 16

Jul 10, 1941
Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton dies
Jul 11, 1960
The Hollwood Argyles' "Alley Oop" leads a novelty-song outbreak
Jul 12, 1979
Disco is dealt death blow by fans of the Chicago White Sox
Jul 13, 1985
Live Aid is held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia and broadcast live throughout the world
Jul 14, 1995
A revolutionary new technology is christened "MP3"
Jul 15, 1986
Columbia Records drops country legend Johnny Cash after 26 years
Jul 16, 1966
Tommy James and the Shondells are rescued from oblivion by their #1 hit "Hanky Panky"

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