In this week's Vintage Tribune: 'A partnership was formed that made a Black man famous and a white man wealthy. Some jazz aficionados celebrate Lester Melrose as its first promoter. Others consider him a thief.'
American jazz pianist and composer 'Jelly Roll' Morton plays piano with his band The Red Hot Peppers, circa 1926. The band featured trombonist Kid Ory, drummer William Laws, bassist John Lindsay, banjo player Johnny St. Cyr and clarinetist Omer Simeon.
But while Melrose’s motive wasn’t laudable, he created an invaluable anthology of jazz’s tricks of the trade that subsequent generations of musicians could study: The distinctive sound of an ensemble rather than a singer accompanying himself on a guitar or piano, and syncopated rhythms and riffs on the blues and Latin music.
Brothers Lester and Walter Melrose owned Melrose Music near the Tivoli theater at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago. “Old Jelly was a good orchestra man, but he couldn’t write music, so we had to have an arranger take down his stuff,” Lester Melrose would claim.In fact, it was the other way around. Lester Melrose could neither read music nor play or sing a note. Morton is credited with demonstrating that jazz can be set down in musical notation without losing the feeling of improvisation that birthed it.
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