Elijah Wald uncovers the censored world of early jazz in 'Jelly Roll Blues'

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The author and musician examines how ribald rhymes heard in fields, jails and queer-friendly underground parties in the early 20th century were buried for decades by folklorists and record companies who were either uninterested or simply not allowed to collect and issue such material.

In 2005, fans and scholars of early jazz and blues were handed the keys to a buried treasure chest: an eight-CD set of recordings that New Orleans pianist Jelly Roll Morton hadin 1938.

In many cases, self-censorship as much as government codes resulted in the material being neglected by music histories. Wald found that folklorists kept binders of explicit material they couldn’t publish. Cities like New Orleans and Chicago had such vibrant red-light districts that visitors could pick up Blue Book directories, which listed sex workers and bordellos, as well as businesses that thrived in such districts like pharmacies, liquor supplies and lawyers. Wald says he discovered through his research that piano players in brothels were often hired so that patrons would stay after going upstairs and spend money on liquor.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

 

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