Complete Morton Project #41 – The Pearls

We’re celebrating Jelly Roll Morton’s birthday this week (Oct 20, possibly 1885 or 1890, we aren’t entirely sure because he constantly lied to make himself seem older than he was), with his greatest composition “The Pearls.”  It’s a masterful tune with multiple sections, textures, and melodies which he wrote in the teens at the Kansas City Bar in Tijuana, Mexico and dedicated to a waitress there.  He said the sections fit together like pearls on a necklace, and he considered it his hardest composition to perform, which is very interesting as it’s not particularly fast or virtuosic, but very contrapuntal and difficult to pull off.  Here’s our version of it, hope you enjoy!