King Porter Stomp (Gil Evans)

For Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman. These cats effectively 'modernized' the classic stomp for the 1950s. Cannonball Adderley really carries it. 

Black Bottom Stomping Today

Randomly encountered a modern group, Swamp City Six, performing a masterpiece of 1920s jazz by Jelly Roll Morton. "Black Bottom Stomp" has long been a personal favorite due to its complex structure and amazing banjo playing. This group does not disappoint, giving one a sense of what the group may have sounded like if they had not been restricted to the 3 minute recording format of their era. 

"White" Black Bottom Stomp

Sometimes the contrast between white and black jazz bands in the 1920s in their interpretations of the same material is quite stark. While interesting and "cool" in its restrained approach to the Jelly Roll Morton composition, Red Nichols and his band do not capture any of the "hot" quality of Jelly Roll Morton or 1920s New Orleans jazz artists. Nor does their take come close to the matching the multi-sectioned structure encompassing everything in the New Orleans style. Nevertheless, it is always interesting to hear different interpretations of "Black Bottom Stomp."

Original Jelly Roll Blues

Listening to an interpretation of Jelly Roll Morton's composition by a white band from 1923 immediately brought me back to the definitive 1926 recording by Morton and his band. While the Original Memphis Five recording is not bad, it certainly sounds more like the late 1910s/early 1920s white bands rather than the hard-swinging Morton recording from a few years later. Morton's band sounds not only jazzier but employs his characteristic breaks and the irrepressible joy of the New Orleans sound.  

Doctor Jazz

A classic piece of Morton's from 1926. Somehow, I have forgotten about this rousing number which shows Morton's excellent use of breaks Nothing like that old-time jazz to soothe the soul.

Chicago Breakdown

An excellent band consisting of Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong playing Jelly Roll Morton's "Chicago Breakdown." The two seem to push each other to greater heights, perhaps a glimpse of the best of 1920s jazz in Chicago. 

Mournful Serenade

Jelly Roll Morton's "Mournful Serenade" sounds eerily similar to Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo," an excellent example of the blues informing Ellington's tonal jazz compositions. Morton's number, of course is more obviously rooted in the blues with growling trombone and the New Orleans sound.

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

Grandpa's Spells

Classic Jelly Roll Morton recording from the 1920s. Gunther Schuller's Early Jazz has increased my respect for the contributions of Jelly Roll Morton to the evolution of jazz. Looking past his boastful claim to have invented jazz, one can see how his best work with his Red Hot Peppers represented the height of the New Orleans polyphonic ensemble style in terms of composition. Through the musical stew of New Orleans, Morton drew from all genres to offer the world something new. Of course, one could also discuss the influence of "Latin" music on Morton, who was a descendant of Saint Dominguans, knew of Cuban music, and had a father who ended up in Haiti during the US Occupation.

Elio Villafranca's Caribbean Tinge

Watch this fascinating video with Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca. Villafranca discusses his origins, his Cuban upbringing, and the 'Caribbean tinge' that is part of jazz's history. Instead of calling it 'Spanish tinge' like Jelly Roll Morton, Villafranca assertively reclaims jazz's broader pan-Caribbean origins. For more, check out "Caribbean Tinge" from Villafranca's band.

The Spanish Tinge in American Music

So I've realized that my earlier post about Latin/Spanish-influenced American music is incomplete. Very incomplete. American music has always been influenced by Caribbean and Latin American music. New Orleans, a cosmopolitan city in the 19th century that was more Caribbean and Creole than Anglo-American, had always been exchanging people, language, religion, and music with Haiti, Cuba, Spain, and other Caribbean cities. That's why New Orleans music tends to sound very similar to Caribbean music: very melodic, polyrhythmic, syncopated, light-hearted, dance music. However, Caribbean music is obviously not monochromatic; Spanish, French, English, indigenous and African influences combined to form unique rhythms and musical styles that continue to separate various forms of Caribbean music in spite of a common African origin for most music of the region. Thus, Jamaican mento or reggae is clearly distinct from Cuban son or mambo, just as Haitian rara is different from Dominican merengue or Trinidadian calypso.

 However, their common African substratum and incessant cross-cultural exchanges between the Islands and New Orleans have led to a lot of commonalities that abound today in New Orleans jazz, ragtime, some blues, and even R&B and rock. Indeed, I was quite surprised after attending a Haitian rara concert by how similar the music is to New Orleans dixieland and jazz. Anywho, here is an interesting article about the similarities that exist between Caribbean and New Orleans jazz. It provides several examples of Caribbean influences in New Orleans jazz and explains how referring to the Caribbean connection as "Spanish" is quite far from the truth. While the habanero and other Afro-Cuban rhythms influenced a lot of early jazz, including W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues, other Caribbean islands such as Haiti and the French Caribbean influenced Cuba's rhythmic diversity and New Orleans.
http://www.prjc.org/roots/nojazzandcarribe.html

Anywho, another oft-overlooked American classical composer of the 19th century, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, of Louisiana origin, also drew from African-American and Caribbean music and rhythms for his own compositions. His music, along with some early ragtime, laid the foundation for more Caribbean influences in American music beyond classical (of course other composers, including black composers of the 19th century, were aware of Caribbean music and wrote compositions based on it, along with the numerous dance bands that shifted between New Orleans and the Caribbean).

So here's what y'all have been waiting for, a list of several songs that exemplify what Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the Spanish Tinge, or influences from Afro-Caribbean music. Indeed, Morton once stated that the Spanish tinge was necessary to make jazz.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk has several compositions with Afro-Caribbean themes, including Bamboula, Souvenir de Cuba and Souvenir de Porto Rico. Le Banjo is another interesting composition that refers to the American banjo, which was historically associated with African-Americans because of the instrument's African provenance. I will post multiple youtube links to some of his Caribbean-themed compositons that sought to capture the sound and spirit of the Caribbean.

Now Scott Joplin, the master ragtime pianist best known for composing "The Entertainer," was also influenced by Latin/Caribbean music. One of his pieces, Solace, endeavors to sound "Latin."

Of course there are several examples of New Orleans jazz music which uses habanera rhythms as well as other forms of Caribbean music. Here are examples from the 1920s-1940s:

Of course future jazz songs took more from latin music. Dizzy Gillespie stands out in that regard...

Bill Evans' Nardis takes more from Spanish music than Latin or Caribbean.