1 Jazz Articles III Collection of Jazz Articles - III Albert Nichols Talks about Jelly Roll 1 Jelly Roll in Chicago (1927) 12 Jelly Roll 18 Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith 19 The Taping of Bessie Smith 25 Visit with Satchmo 27 When Satchmo Was Zulu 29 Origin of Word “Jazz” 33 Impact of Creole Music on Jazz 36 Jazz! First As Dance 40 Jazz Dancing on the Way Back 45 Notes on the Banjo 48 The Problems of Provenance 51 Abbie Brunies and the Halfway House 52 Irving Fazola & the Glenn Miller Sound 54 Weeks Hall & Bunk Johnson 57 The Unknown Hoagy 60 I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” 64 A Song from Westwego, “Lazy River 66 12th Street Rag 69 John Philip Sousa’ Impact on Jazz 69 Louisiana Brass Band & History in Relation To Jazz History 72 The Piano in New Orleans Jazz Ensemble 84 Chris Kelly-King of the Blues 85 Willie Parker 101 Jim Robinson 106 Harrison Barnes 120 Anita Gonzales (Jelly Roll’s Wife) 125 Second Line 134 Does jazz Belong to Art? - Gershwin 135 The Question of King Oliver’s Birth date 138 What is Dixieland 139 The Original Hot Five 141 Backroom Boys 143 Sleepy Time Down South 146 Lou’siana Swing 148 The Tio Family 152 Oscar “Papa” Celestin 158 A Handy Homage 162 Albert Nicholas Talks About Jelly Roll by William Russell Ever since I was a kid coming up in New Orleans I had heard of Jelly Roll and what a great pianist he was. They called him “Windin’ Boy” then. I didn’t meet Jelly Roll 2 Morton until 1922 when I went to Chicago to take Johnny Dodds’ place with King Oliver’s band for several months. Jelly was living in Chicago and doing little gigs with small groups. I admired him as a person - a great man like that - and he was happy to meet a kid from New Orleans you know. Now I didn’t play with him in 1922 but went back to New Orleans after a little tour. Then in December, 1924 Oliver sent for Barney, Luis Russell, Barbarin and me. The Chicago union musicians were jealous because Joe always sent to New Orleans for musicians. So we acted like we came on our own and gigged around with a few local musicians awhile before we joined Oliver. One night Jelly said - and I’ll never forget this - he says, “Hey, I’ve got a gig for you boys. Paul and you and Barney.” And I think he had Mitch and somebody else and himself. Anyhow it was a Saturday night in a big hall and it was the first time I played with Jelly. This man was so inspiring and it was a happy affair, well accepted by the public. The gig lasted until around 1:30 and when he got through playing I remember Jelly called me and said, “All right, Albert, let me pay you off,” and Jelly went into his pocket and took out a roll of bills and started peeling off fives until he got $50, which he handed me. I said, “Thank you.” Now I’d never played a $50 gig before. It was my first big money. Coming from New Orleans where the little gigs paid three or four dollars a night it was a big deal. So when this cat gave me this $50 I’m thinking it was to split up. So I put it in my pocket and before I opened my mouth he said, “Hey Barney,” and he paid him, and then he called Paul. So we got our heads together and I whispered, “How much did you get?” Barney said, “ I got 50.” I said, “Me too.” Jelly was looking at us and said, “I know what you all are talkin’ about. I know you never made that much money in your life before.” That was Jelly. Oh what a character. “You see, if you all’d be playing with me you’d be making money.” He was very braggadocios, and humorous. Here is another incident with Jelly. When the Luis Russell band was playing in the Saratoga Club in New York Jelly came to New York and we had a break for about a week. We were working at that time 52 weeks a year, booked solid. When we’d finish at the Saratoga we’d go to Roseland Ballroom for two months, then go on tour, Loew’s State Theatres, for about two months, then come back to the Saratoga. So when we were off this week Jelly booked a little tour in Pennsylvania using Luis Russell’s band. Now, when he came to hire the band, this is funny. Luis Russell had a good band, with Red Allen, Pops Foster, Higginbotham, on trombone, Paul Barbarin, Bill Johnson, on guitar. So Jelly said, “Say Russell, I want to use your band to make a little tour. Now I’ll tell you what. I’m going to pay you to stay home.” That was Jelly. We all laughed. “I’m going to pay you to stay home. I don’t need you and another thing, you’ve got a good band but you don’t know what to do with it.” Aw Man! Jelly didn’t tell anybody about money, how much it paid or anything like that. So we went on this tour and the first night was in Wiles Barre, Pa. Jelly had been there several times with different musicians every time. He didn’t have a regular band. We arrived that afternoon and the ballroom was a park and in those days the people stood outside by the window to hear what happened before they paid their admission to come in to the dance. When we arrived that afternoon the organizer of this place happened to see us but Jelly said quietly, “You boys keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell him who you are, what band you are. This is my band,” I said, “Yeah, “So everybody kept cool, and no one knew us because there were no radios at that time. So Jelly said, “Well, I got a band tonight. I guess we’ll have a line outside.” 3 The man said, “Aw Jelly, aw come on man, if we get 150 people we’ll be happy.” “150! How many people does this hall hold?” The man said, “Aw Jelly, now stop it man. This hall holds four hundred people.” Jelly said, “We’re goin’ to pack it up. We’re goin’ to call the police to keep the people in line.” The man said, “Aw Jelly, stop it man.” Jelly said, “No, no, you watch. You’re going to have to call the police to keep the people in line. I’ve got a band. I’m bringin’ a band in here.” “You said that last time Jelly.” Well anyhow, that night around 8 o’clock we had to hit. We had rehearsed well in New York, playing Jelly’s arrangements and we had some of our original arrangements from Luis Russell’s band. And sure enough, they have about 100 people outside the hall and nobody came in. We got on the stand and we bust down and we hit, and the people said, “Wait a minute, what’s this?” And they started comin’ in - comin’ in, and in about ten minutes all that outside bunch was in. They called up their friends, “Come on here man, things are happening tonight.” And I remember well, around 10 o’clock - intermission - people were coming in droves and the place was full, as Jelly predicted. Jelly was so proud. And people were saying, “Man you fellows can play. Where you from?” “Oh we play with Jelly Roll Morton, we’re from New York.” “Man, what a band.” I’m sure they never knew it was a band already organized. Well at the end of the night the man was very, very happy. We had over 400 people and were to play two nights in this place. Jelly said, “You see what I told you, but tomorrow night there’s going to be a line out there. So you gotta get the cops to keep everybody straight.” The man said, “Well Jelly, if I get just half as many people tomorrow night I’ll be very happy.” Jelly said, “Just wait man.” The next night when we came at 8 o’clock the hall was half full before we hit. “You see.” When we got through playing around 10 o’clock for our intermission you couldn’t get in, and they had a line outside and the police were there telling people, “You can’t go in, no more.” Jelly says, “You see what I told you man, you see. I’m Jelly Roll Morton!” And it was really a miracle. Everybody was happy and the man said, “Well Jelly, how soon can you come back?” Jelly said, “I can’t man, I’m booked up for this year; maybe next year.” And dog-gone it, news travels you know. When we hit the other towns they had the news that Jelly Roll was coming in with a band this year. Those Pennsylvania towns were only about 50 miles apart. When we’d arrive everybody was meeting us and they’d fill the joint up - success - and that happened on the whole tour. At that time we didn’t get paid after every night. Jelly kept the bread for us until the end of the week.