JELLY ROLL MORTON'S
PRE-VICTOR BAND RECORDS
A Comparative Discography Model

Compiled and annotated by Allan Sutton
   

Author's collection

Classical jazz discography is in a state of transition. Increasingly, collectors and researchers are repeating the very basic question posed by Tim Brooks in the ARSC Journal several years ago: "Who says?"  Or — to paraphrase a famous Watergate-era query, "What do you know, and how do you know it?" The comparative discography that follows is a preliminary step in determining the sources and credibility — or lack thereof — of data cited in various jazz discographies, using the early Morton band recordings as an example.

Jazz fans who have never inspected 1920s recording files may be surprised to learn that the personnel listed in jazz discographies are largely conjectural, although often not disclosed as such. Recording companies in the 1920s rarely documented band personnel, other than the occasional studio musicians or outside "extras" who were paid to supplement a group, and who were listed in the files only for accounting purposes. To compound the problem, the recording files for several of the most interesting companies, including those for most Okeh recordings made prior to the Columbia takeover, Paramount, and Marsh Laboratories (Autograph) are long-lost.

Thus, much of what has been published in the way of classical jazz discography has necessarily been arrived at by less-than-reliable means, including vague anecdotal reports, the sometimes-hazy recollections of aged musicians, often-flimsy circumstantial evidence, outright guesses (some "educated," some abysmally ignorant), and wishful thinking. None of this would pose a particularly serious problem were jazz discographers to honestly disclose the sources of their "data" — good, bad, or indifferent — but such is rarely the case. In some instances, one has to wonder if various writers were even listening to the same record — note, for example, the discrepancies in the instrumentation cited for the 1923 and 1926 Okeh sessions.

In the personnel listings that follow, the righthand column indicates the published source of information; the abbreviation "n/s" indicates that the author of the listed work did not cite his source for the information. The major discographies cited are Laurie Wright's Mr. Jelly Lord (Stoyville) [MJL]; various editions of Brian Rust's Jazz Records, 1892-1942 [JR]; and the anonymous article "Jelly Roll Morton Disc Recordings" in the Doctor Jazz [DJ] online edition. The Morton personnel listings in Tom Lords' Jazz Discography were taken verbatim from later editions of Rust's Jazz Records; therefore, that work is not cited here. Very early seminal works, such as the Delauney discography, are not sufficiently reliable to merit inclusion.

Only 1920s issues are listed here; the numerous later dubbed reissues are not.

JELLY ROLL MARTON [sic] AND HIS ORCHESTRA

Chicago: June, 1923

Note: DJ speculates that Morton named "Big Fat Ham" for comedian Ham Tree Harrington (a Broadway stage comedian who imitated Bert Williams). This seems unlikely given Harrington's diminutive stature, as evidenced in photographs of the performer and the recollections of Perry Bradford, unless the title was meant ironically.
    

1434-1
1434-2

Big Fat Ham (Morton)
   Paramount 12050
   Paramount 12050

Note: Pressings of take 1 exist in both black- and red-shellac pressings. The record was advertised as "Big Foot Ham" in the Chicago Defender, and some reissues have used that title, but no original pressings are known to be thus labeled.
     

1435-1


1435-2
"
"
"
"
"
"

Muddy Water Blues
   Paramount unissued?
Note: Rumored on Paramount 12050, but no copies have been reliably reported

   Paramount 12050
   Paramount 20251 (most issues labeled “Muddy River Blues”)
   Claxtonola 40251
   Famous 3245
   Harmograph 834
   National 12251
   Puritan 11251
   

   
JELLY ROLL MORTON’S JAZZ BAND

Chicago: Late 1923 (Wright MJL, based on a Phonograph and Talking Machine Weekly report for November 7, 1923, which mentions that Morton’s Okeh records “will be out soon.”)

Chicago: October 1923 (Rust JR-2) (n/s)

Chicago: c. October 30, 1923 (Rust JR, later editions) (n/s)

Note: Although all sources agree on the following personnel, none identifies the source of this information. Wright (MJL) goes so far as to to state that this is a "confirmed" Roberston session, but cites no source in support of that claim. Wright also states that Okeh mxs. 8497 and 8500 are untraced and may be “other unissued titles from this session.” In fact, mx. 8500 is a novelty piano solo by Axel Christensen, while mx. 8497 remains untraced but may belong to a session by Greek tenor Haris Patrinos.
 

Someday, Sweetheart (Spikes-Spikes)
   Okeh 8105

London Blues (Morton)
   Okeh 8105
     

   
JELLY ROLL MORTON'S STEAMBOAT FOUR

Chicago (probably Rodeheaver Laboratories): c. April 1924

Note: These recordings have been ascribed in various works to the Marsh Laboratories (makers of Autograph records). However, Marsh was recording electrically by this time, and these are acoustic recordings. The matrix numbers belong to a series normally used by the Rodeheaver Laboratories, to which Paramount sometimes contracted sessions.
 

Mr. Jelly Lord (Morton)
   Broadway 11397
   Carnival 11397
   Mitchell 11397
   Puretone 11397
   Triangle 11397
   Paramount 20332
   Puritan 11332

Note: All known copies of the above, except Paramount 20332, are mislabeled "Mr. Jelly Roll."

Steady Roll (Stitzel)
   Paramount 20332
   Broadway 11397 (as Jelly Roll Morton's Jazz Kids)
   Carnival 11397 (as Jelly Roll Morton's Jazz Kids)
   Mitchell 11397 (as Jelly Roll Morton's Jazz Kids)
   Puretone 11397 (as Jelly Roll Morton's Jazz Kids)
   Triangle 11397 (as Jelly Roll Morton's Jazz Kids)
   Paramount 20332
   Puritan 11332 (as Jelly Roll Morton's Stomps [sic] Kings)

Note: Mxs. 8066 (no take shown) and 8066-1 are identical. DJ inexplicably lists only the Carnival and Paramount issues of this recording.

  
JELLY ROLL MORTON’S KINGS OF JAZZ

Chicago (Marsh Laboratories): c. September 1924

Note: The following personnel was recalled by Lee Collins, and has been accepted by various discographers, appearing verbatim in all published discographies, with the exception of DJ's claim of a possible second cornetist on "Weary Blues." Intervening mx. 637 is a talk on traffic safety, not a Morton item.

   
JELLY ROLL MORTON AND HIS JAZZ TRIO / VOLTAIRE DE FAUT

Chicago (Marsh Laboratories): c. May 1925
     

My Gal (Melrose) — Jelly Roll Morton and his Jazz Trio
   Autograph 623

Wolverine Blues (Morton) — Voltaire De Faut, Piano accompaniment by Jelly Roll Morton
   Autograph 623
     

   
JELLY ROLL MORTON’S INCOMPARABLES

Richmond, Indiana: February 23, 1926  (Rust JR, all editions)
Richmond, Indiana: February 24, 1926  (Wright MJL, from re-inspection of the Gennett files)

Note: Wright (MJL) states that this is the band in which Morton toured the South in early 1926, based on a statement made by Ray Bowling in The Chicago Defender of March 27, 1926. Discographies list Bowling as playing trumpet, but the Defender articles states he plays cornet with this band. The Gennett recording sheet for this matrix exists at Rutgers but does not identify any personnel.
   

ST. LOUIS LEVEE BAND

St. Louis: May 12, 1926 (consensus; confirmed from the Okeh files)

The recording sheet for this session exists at Sony-BMG, but does not identify Morton or any other personnel.