Butch Thompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton Solos

Today the premier interpreter of early piano jazz, Thompson showed even on this recording debut, at age 25, that his early promise as a piano prodigy would be fulfilled. On 12 tunes from the first half of the early jazz-piano master's career, Thompson lacks none of Morton's later sophistications. He has interpreted Morton's recordings afresh, though without modernization or one-upsmanship. He misses none of the tunes' nuances, including hints at ragtime, stomps, and Morton's tinge of tango. He also finds ways--in, for example, "Kansas City Stomps"--to allude to Morton's arrangements of many of these tunes for his famed Red Hot Peppers band. He summonses up the banjo, the clarinet, and entire trad bands, not to mention the brothels and gambling dens that Morton frequented. --Peter Monaghan