# Mister Jelly Roll, Mister Lomax and the Invention of Jazz

In 1938, Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe, also known as Jelly Roll Morton (1885-1941), sat down at a piano in the Library of Congress to record the first oral history of jazz. Seated nearby, asking questions and operating a small portable disc recorder, sat Alan Lomax, 23-year-old assistant in charge of the Library's Archive of American Folksong. Writer and jazz scholar John Szwed and pianist Dave Burrell explore this unique legacy right where it was created -- on the stage of the Coolidge Auditorium.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2006
- By: American Folklife Center
- Genres: History, Music
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687989/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687989?play=1)