The Lucky One

Many may have taken this or that credit, like Jelly Roll Morton, but he didn't really invent jazz music. He may have been the first to write it down and sell it to publishing companies, but he was still in diapers when the wondrous boy brought blues, rag, and gospel together in one, sprinkled some military march attitude on it and set it all to African drum beats-Jass. That's what they called it once they started calling it anything; for a long time, it was just "dance music." The dancers called it "hot" when it was up-tempo or "sweet" when it was slow and sultry. Some of the piano players continued to call it ragtime until the day they died. Eventually, America-and the world-would call it "jazz." It would later branch off into swing, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, disco, funk, soul, grunge, and even hip hop. But if you listen closely to anything that came after jass, you can hear Honey Boy Golden-the one who started it all-the lucky one.