New Orleans Joys: The Earliest Recordings, 1923- 1926 is a two disc set from the always compelling Tompkins Square. Its 53 tracks chronicles definitive early work by the pianist / composer / arranger Jelly Roll Morton. Though he claimed to have invented jazz in 1902 he was certainly its first arranger and one of its compositional architects with tunes including “King Porter Stomp” “Original Jelly Roll Blues,” “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say,” “Black Bottom Blues” and enduring masterpieces from early 1900s New Orleans. Morton developed his musical persona as a child by absorbing the sounds all around him, including blues from whorehouses, gospel hymns, Latin sounds and rhythms, brass bands, opera, and ragtime piano players.

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