Black Bottom Stomp

While randomly listening to Jelly Roll Morton's "Black Bottom Stomp" today, I noticed a similarity with "Castle House Rag" by James Reese Europe, recorded in 1914. The 1926 recording by Jelly Roll Morton demonstrates the clear link to ragtime in "Black Bottom Stomp," particularly in a brief banjo solo that nearly echoes the "hot section" around 3 minutes into "Castle House Rag." Alternatively, the inspiration for Jelly Roll Morton's ragtime-inspired segment could hail from "12th Street Rag," but the banjoist's rollicking style brings to mind the banjo and mandolin players of Europe's Society Orchestra.  While Reese Europe's Society Orchestra in 1914 was still not quite jazz, it's interesting to note how Jelly Roll Morton was deeply aware of ragtime black music and incorporated elements of it into his own compositions, which were complex arrangements showing Morton's skills as what Gunther Schuller called the first great composer of jazz