Tom Roberts, Duke Ellington

Pianist and jazz historian Tom Roberts for an evening of music you've probably heard about but have never heard before: This 78 rpm listening session shares the music of Jelly Roll Morton -- world’s greatest hot tune writer, the first jazz arranger, pool shark, piano wizard, misunderstood by many, subject of two Broadway plays and a children’s book. Come and hear what made Mr. Jelly Roll a lord of jazz.

Pianist/composer/arranger/historian/writer Tom Roberts has been acclaimed as one of the world's foremost practitioners of the art of Harlem Stride Piano. He has been featured at Jazz in July at the 92nd St Y, the Professor Longhair Societyʼs Piano Night at Tipitina's New Orleans, Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and the International Stride Piano Summit in Zurich, Switzerland. He has toured throughout the world as pianist and musical director for Leon Redbone. As a jazz historian, Tom also presents lectures on 'Why Louis Armstrong Matters' and 'The Forgotten History of Pittsburgh Jazz'.