Ferdinand “Jelly Roll“ Morton :: Mamie’s Blues (Two Nineteen)

Phonogram Copyright 1997 GRP Records, Inc. Lyrics and Music by Mamie Desdunes Notice: Copyright Disclaimer MiM does not own the copyright for this video. This is a publically released not-for-profit music video permitted under the “Fair Use“ doctrine. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use“ for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. MiM considers that this video is part of an on-going scholarship project which constitutes a critical commentary and which adds transformative content regarding unjust conditions and perceived causes of those injustices now existing on planet Earth. MiM also considers that any copyrighted lyrics quoted in this publically released not-for-profit music video are also part of the scholarship project and appear in context along with transformative commentary that provides analysis of the explicit and implicit content of the lyrics. Fair Use: a doctrine in United States copyright law Though Ferdinand Morton’s claim to have invented jazz in 1902 has been met with disbelief and derision by some, there is reason to believe that he learned something he called the blues while listening to and watching Mamie Desdunes play at that early date, and that he used the blues of Mamie Desdunes as his template for the genre. Mamie Desdume wrote “Mamie’s Blues“ in the late 90’s. I don’t like to take credit for something that don’t belong to me, I guess she’s dead by now and there would probably be no royalty to pay, but she did write it. -- Ferdinand “Jelly Roll“ Morton This is the first blues I no doubt heard in my life. Mamie Desdunes, this is her favourite blues. She hardly could play anything else more, but she really could play this number. Of course, to get in on it, to try to learn it, I made myself the ... the can rusher. -- Ferdinand “Jelly Roll“ Morton These were two fast trains; the first [the 219] took the gals out on the T&. to the sportin’ houses on the Texas side of the circuit, Dallas, Texarkana, and so forth. The 217 on the S.P., through San Antonio and Houston, brought them back to New Orleans. -- Ferdinand “Jelly Roll“ Morton 1901-1906: Jelly Roll Morton hears Mamie Desdunes playing “Mamie’s Blues.“ Is influenced by her piano style, possibly by her approach to blues with habanera rhythm. Mamie Desdunes plays piano and sings in Storyville brothels, including those on Perdido Street, and Lulu White’s and Hattie Rogers. [...] Mamie Desdunes was the pianist and singer that Jelly Roll Morton often credited as influencing his approach to the blues in the early 1900s. This approach was distinguished by the aforementioned fusion of blues with habanera or clave rhythm favored by Creole of color musicians. We may never know exactly what Desdunes’s role was in this development, yet we do know that she had an influence on Morton who, in turn, popularized the style. -- Sherrie Tucker One of the most flamboyant extroverts jazz has ever known, Morton was led by his musical and personal frustrations to exaggerate and embellish the truth as freely as the occasion seemed to demand -- at least in his public utterances. However, his many unquestionable talents, his real contributions to jazz as a performer and composer, and the statements of many of his fellow musicians produce a total picture which tends to make even his most hyperbolic assertions seem plausible. When, for example, Jelly Roll said that he wrote his first jazz tunes in 1902, or that he used scat-singing as far back as 1907, there is not only no proof to the contrary, but Jelly’s own considerable accomplishments in themselves provide reasonable substantiation. -- Gunther Schuller The “can rusher“ at a New Orleans party was the boy who was sent periodically to the corner to refill the beer bucket. -- Butch Thompson Two nineteen done took my baby away, Two nineteen took my babe away, Two seventeen bring her back someday. Stood on the corner with her feets just soakin’ wet (her feets was wet), Stood on the corner with her feet soakin’ wet, Begging each and every man she met: “If you can’t give a dollar, give me a lousy dime, “Can’t give a dollar, give me a lousy dime, I wanta feed that hungry man of mine.“