Jelly Roll Morton is considered by many to be America's first great jazz composer. He claimed to have coined the term jazz and invented the style in New Orleans' Tenderloin district in 1902. Although it would be impossible to concede the invention of jazz to one person, Morton was one of the most influential musicians in jazz history.

Morton was raised by his aunt, Lallie Echo. The two were incredibly close, and she is said to have taken him to everywhere — including saloons and jail. Like Perry Bradford, Morton sites the singing of prisoners as a great influence on his musical development.¹⁰⁶ He learned the harmonica at age five, the harp at age six, and the guitar by age seven. As a teenager he learned the piano and his aunt sent him to a private instructor for lessons. In 1900 he composed his first blues, the New Orleans Blues.

In 1902, Morton met the famous ragtime pianist and composer Tony Jackson, who became his mentor. He traveled from New Orleans to Tulsa, Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, and Mobile. In 1911 he settled in New York where he first played Jelly Roll Blues. Jelly Roll Blues was published in 1915, becoming the first ever published jazz composition. In 1917 Morton was offered a position as a bandleader where he lived until 1923. For the next five years he lived in Chicago, where he was the staff arranger for Melrose Publishing House. The 1920s marked the height of Morton's creativity, several of his songs including London Blues, Grandma's Spell, and The Pearls, were recorded by 1923.

In 1926 he formed a band, The Red Hot Peppers, which produced several classic recording for Victor Records. Morton carefully planned how each piece would be played, devoting substantial preparation time before each recording. The band's most acclaimed recordings for Victor were Kansas City Stomp, Sidewalk Blues, The Chant Mournful Serenade, and Ponchatrain Blues. In 1928 Morton played a short stint at Harlem's Rose Danceland Club; he returned to Harlem in 1934, as the house pianist at the Red Apple Club.

By the mid-1930s, Morton's career was in decline. The music industry, of course, did not escape the Great Depression and the record industry slowed its pace. With a narrow field of musical options, Morton came to be regarded as outdated. The music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington began to gain favor, and Morton could not adapt. In 1938, Alan Lomax, curator of the Music Division at the Library of Congress honored Morton by inviting him to record his version of the history of jazz for the Archives of American Folksong. A few years later, in 1941, Morton died of heart failure. His great legacy to the history of American music is unquestionable. In 1992, George C. Wolfe paid tribute to Jelly Roll Morton with his play, Jelly's Last Jam, based loosely on his life.¹⁰⁷