Jelly Roll Morton was the diamond-toothed pianist from New Orleans who claimed, loudly and often, to be the sole inventor of jazz. Critics dismissed him. Musicians mocked him. Historians forgot him. But Morton’s music—composed with ruthless precision and built on syncopated genius—never lied.

Jelly Roll Morton: The Making and Unmaking of America's First Composer of Jazz is the definitive portrait of a man both glorified and ghosted by history. Drawing from over a hundred sources, including Library of Congress recordings, out-of-print interviews, court documents, and rare session logs, this book tells the unvarnished story of a composer who shaped jazz before it had a name. From Storyville’s brothels to Chicago’s cutting sessions, from superstition to lawsuits, from brilliance to breakdown—Morton's life was a chaotic fugue of genius and fury.

Written in the voice of a jazz sideman who backed everyone from Bird to Billie, this isn’t sanitized history. It’s the syncopated, scuffed, and brutally honest chronicle of a man who claimed the flame and paid for it. Morton wasn’t just ahead of his time—he was buried by it.

This is not a myth-making biography. It’s a reckoning. One that restores Morton’s rightful place not just in jazz history, but in the very foundation of American music.

Perfect for readers of music history, Black cultural studies, and anyone who knows the downbeat never tells the full story.