[Dixielandjazz] Was Louis Armstrong the greatest?

[Robert Smith]

Not in the opinion of Jelly Roll Morton.
He ranked Freddy Keppard first, Buddy Petit second, King Oliver third, and Louis Armstrong fourth, but he does say that they were all great men. This is taken from Alan Lomax's book "Mister Jelly Roll" (page 153 in my edition).
What do we think of Jelly Roll's ranking?
I think Buddy Petit (Joseph Crawford, but changed his name when his mother remarried to trombonist Joseph Petit) drank himself out of the picture before he got a chance to record, but he was highly regarded in his heyday with a style not unlike Bunk Johnson's.

Cheers

Bob Smith