Jelly Roll Morton

# Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton stands as a pioneering figure in early jazz composition and arrangement. As jazz's first major arranger, Morton demonstrated that improvisation-based music could be successfully transcribed and preserved through notation—a revolutionary approach that shaped how jazz was documented and performed. His 1915 composition "Jelly Roll Blues" ranks among the earliest published jazz compositions, establishing him as a foundational voice in the genre's development.

Morton's innovative approach to orchestration and his prolific output of original compositions influenced generations of musicians and established critical frameworks for understanding jazz structure and arrangement that remain relevant today.