Jim Hession / Perfect Rag / Jelly Roll Morton

http://www.artistopia.com/hessionsession
Jim Hession performs Jelly Roll Mortons Perfect Rag. Please excuse the stuck sustaining pedal on the piano-just part of things a professional deals with.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jim
• Hession
• Jelly
• Roll
• Morton
• New
• Orleans
• trad
• rag
• early
• jazz
• two
• handed
• piano

[CBasie2856]

Do you know where I can get more recordings of Fats playing Handful Of Keys other than the most well known recording that everyone knows?

[jazznbear]

Not offhand. If I have the opportunity I will go through our collections of Waller recordings and see what I can find.

[CBasie2856]

Is this performance more based on stride than Jelly Roll Morton?

[jazznbear]

No. Check out etude91's audio of Perfect Rag,as performed by Morton. The improvisations begin following the initial statements and repeats of the A,B,and C sections.

[slackmaster2000]

The version of Sporting House Rag I heard was on some Jelly Roll compilation CD and isn't available on youtube ( much like the good version of The Crave). Maybe someone else might know the name of that CD.

[Squarerig]

JPJohnson.A sporting house is,or was,a euphemism for a brothel,whorehouse,bordel,stew or whatever else you wish to call it.The music is wonderful isn't it?And Mr.Hession with his eight hands is the master of the music.

[JamesPriceJohnson]

this song is also called sporting house rag. i love his recording of it, do u know what a sporting house is?

[jazznbear]

Two of the most recent stride books are:

1. Harlem Stride Piano Solos (transcribed by

Riccardo Scivales-1990) ISBN# 0-943748-43-7.

2.JAZZ, BLUES BOOGIE and SWING for PIANO(1977-edited by Ronny Schiff.)

I have not myself seen a copy of Thomas "Fats" Waller:The Great Solos,1929-1941but would certainly like to take a look at it. We have long collected original music associated with Waller, Morton, Johnson, Smith, Roberts, etc as well as original manuscripts. Always room for more!!!!!!!!!!!

[CBasie2856]

There are only a few other books out there with sheet music for the stride pianist to learn. At the top of my head, here's a few:

Thomas "Fats" Waller: The Great Solos, 1929-1941

Harlem Stride Piano Solos/F0693 (Paperback)

I don't know if you're aware of these, but those are the ones I can come up with.

[jazznbear]

If this is the book by James Dapogny, it has an excellent reputation. However, I don't have a copy and have not seen this collection so I can't give you a definitive answer. My "arrangements" are based on Morton's recordings and improvisations in that style. Morton himself was highly improvisational if you look at multiple recordings over the years. I have incorporated many ideas directly from Morton that I have not seen in written arrangements.