27 Jelly Roll Quotes

The original name of Jelly Roll was Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe.

Jelly Roll was a legendary jazz pianist and composer. He is often claimed to have invented the jazz genre.

Some of his famous works include 'Wolverine Blues', 'Black Bottom Stomp', and 'I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say'. Extracted from the discussions and his songs, here are 27 Jelly Roll Quotes for you.

Famous Jelly Roll Quotes

The following Jelly Roll Quotes give you an idea of why he was supposedly considered the inventor of New Orleans Style Hell, Kansas City Style, and Chicago Style music.

"Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm."

"I have been robbed of three million dollars all told. Everyone today is playing my stuff and I don't even get credit. Kansas City style, Chicago style, New Orleans style hell, they're all Jelly Roll style."

"Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge."

"Get up from that piano. You hurtin' its feelings."

"It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of jazz, and I, myself, happened to be creator in the year 1902, many years before the Dixieland Band organized."

"The main idea of playing jazz — there’s no jazz piano player can ever really play jazz unless they try to get, er, to give the imitation of a band."

- 'Library Of Congress Recordings'.

"I was Sweet Papa Jelly Roll with the stovepipes in my hips"

- 'Jelly Roll's Storyville', Marybeth Hamilton.

"In 1908 Handy didn't know anything about the blues and he doesn't know anything about jazz and stomps to this day."

"I myself figured out the peculiar form of mathematics and harmonies that was strange to all the world but me."

"The first man that ever did a scat number in history of this country was a man from Vicksburg, Mississippi, by the name of Joe Sims, an old comedian."

- 'The Saga of Mister Jelly Lord'.

"He said that I only used the piano for a decoy, which he was right."

- 'Jelly Roll's Storyville', Marybeth Hamilton.

"My contributions were many: First clown director, with witty sayings and flashily dressed, now called master of ceremonies."

"Rejoice at the death and cry at the birth: New Orleans sticks close to the Scriptures."

- 'Mister Jelly Roll', 1950, Allan Lomax.

Jelly Roll Lyric Quotes

Here are Jelly Roll Quotes extracted from some of his song lyrics.

"Can’t stand the things you do/ Eatin’ and drinkin’, sittin’ at the inn/ Grinnin’ in my face and winkin’ at my friends/ When my back is turned you’re like a rooster at a hen."

- 'I Hate A Man Like You', 1930.

"I thought I heard Buddy Boldеn shout/ Open up the window an' let this foul air out"

- 'I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say', 1968.

"Wherever you go,/ take a look at your feet,/ & down six feet deep/ there's dead man's bones!"

- 'Dead Man Blues', 1927.

"I hate a man like you/ Don’t like the things you do/ Just like a woman, you're always carry tales"

- 'I Hate A Man Like You', 1930.

"I thought I heard Judge Fogarty say/ Give him thirty days in the market, take him away/ Give him a good broom and take the prisoner away"

- 'I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say', 1968.

"Walkin’ ‘round with a switch and a rock/ Shootin’ dice, always playin’ cards/ While I bring a pint from the white folks’ yard"

- 'I Hate A Man Like You', 1930.

"Deny my name/ I'm the winin' boy don't deny my name/ Pick it up and shake it, like sweet Stavin' Chain"

- 'Wining Boy Blues', 1939.

"You should know, /what's really going down, below."

- 'Dead Man Blues', 1927.

"Dressed in their best clothes,/ there are rows & rows & rows"

- 'Dead Man Blues', 1927.

"Can't give me a dollar, give me a lousy dime/ Just to feed that hungry man of mine"

- 'Mamie's Blues', 1940.

Jelly Roll Quotes On Struggle

Jelly Roll was often criticized when he considered himself the founder of jazz. Here are some Jelly Roll Quotes about his reaction to the criticism and how he rose from nothing.

"In the year of 1902, when I was about seventeen years old, I happened to invade one of the sections [in New Orleans] where the birth of Jazz originated from."

"I do not claim any of the creation of the blues, although I have written many of them even before Mr. Handy had any blues published. I heard them when I was knee-high to a duck."

"Er, by the way, scat is something that a lot of people don’t understand they…and they begin to believe that the first scat numbers was ever done, was done by one of my hometown boys, Louie Armstrong."

- 'The Saga of Mister Jelly Lord', 1950.

"The sporting houses needed professors, and we had so many different styles that... it wouldn't make any difference that you just came from... whatever your tunes were over there, we played them in New Orleans."

- 'Mister Jelly Roll', 1950, Allan Lomax.