The great pianist Jelly Roll Morton who popularized jazz, claimed to have been the inventor of it. He would have been a little too young for that, being born in 1890. Storyville, the notorious red-light district where he eventually played as a piano “professor,” was already in full swing with this music when he was still a kid.
Although no known photo of Desdunes has surfaced, this photo may be Mamie Desdunes Photo courtesy of the University of Mississippi
