The interviews took place over the better part of a month, not a single day (as you seem to imply) so the notion of Lomax “liquoring” Jelly Roll up on the way to the tunes on disc five is unlikely.

You’ve probably already done this, but reading the liner notes accompanying that set can be very illuminating. They’re by John Szwed, a respected musicologist (and someone I’ve had the pleasure of spending personal time with) and contain a lot of valuable information on the context and content of Jelly Roll’s music, something any composer would want to familiarize himself with before attempting to write something with Jelly in mind. Just as Mozart was a product of 18th century Salzburg, with it’s wealth of master teachers, players and composers, so Jelly Roll emerged from the fecund musical environment of turn-of-the(20th)-century New Orleans. There’s also a big chunk of Jelly Roll’s own writings and letters, and a narrative relating to how he wound up at the Library of Congress and Alan Lomax’s situation there (and it was precarious indeed).

The tunes on disc 5 that you speak of (mostly variations of “the Murder Ballad”) are not Morton’s own compositions, but widely played ‘vernacular’ blues things that Lomax more or less pestered him into playing. Lomax was really only interested in recording ‘folk’ music and was initially resistant to Morton’s entreaties to record him. Lomax viewed jazz in all forms as ‘commercial’ music, unworthy of inclusion in the ‘folk’ canon. If you listen closely you can hear Morton’s reluctance to record these tunes (he says “there’s a lady present” at one point, possibly a secretary) and he certainly wasn’t anxious to be recorded playing ‘blues,’ in a style he regarded as unlettered. He called the guys who played this stuff “knucklers,” and saw them as far below his own level of expertise, which the recorded evidence of his own (much more technically demanding) music shows to be considerable.

Sorry if this is all redundant to you, I just didn’t want your readers to get the idea that Morton was some kind of “Blind Melon Chitlin” character off a Cheech and Chong record, bought off with 10 dollars, a hooker, and a jug of corn likker.

By the way I’m absolutely delighted that the CBC is finally acknowledging Morton’s tenure in Vancouver. It’s a vitally important piece of Vancouver jazz history that’s been shamefully neglected.

If you listen to modern stuff your sister tells you about, does she listen to old jazz? Seems fair.

As for being broke, um… yeah. I don’t know what to say. Set up a PayPal button on your site so people can donate to you.