[Dixielandjazz] Jelly Roll Morton/Dead man blues

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

Well, blow me down - Fred S and Bill H have Phil Pastras' "Dead man blues"
and haven't read it. Oh, dear   :-)  Luckily, Ivor J has bought it.

As one of the two or three people on this list who both have the book and
have read it I can most strongly urge people to seek it out.

The material on Morton's early years in Los Angeles is fascinating socially
and of great value historically. It fits well with Larry Gushee's work on
the Original Creole Band and, together with that work, should lay to rest
the inaccurate and misleading generalisation of the "jazz went up the river
after the closure of Storyville" received opinion.

The material on the "final years" is quite poignant and the discussion of
Morton's will is revelatory. How did "Sweet" Anita Gonzales manage to
marginalise "Fussy" Mabel Bertrand? Did Anita actually write Jelly's will?
Poor, poor Mabel.

All the best
Anton