Jelly Roll Morton The Style Of Sammy Davis Lyrics

For a . . . Er, for a little illustration of Sammy
Davis.

[microphone repositioned]

I will see if I can imitate him just a bit.

Sammy Davis’ Ragtime Style

That’s a stomp.

[inaudible comments]

Well, I don’t know the name of this tune. It’s . . . I
only remembered a little bit of it. Of course, it’s
been years since I’ve seen Sammy and . . .

Is that a ragtime tune?

Yeah, that’s considered ragtime. That was one of his
styles though. Most everybody had a different style.
And among ‘em we had, er, no doubt, according to what I
can understand from throughout, throughout the country,
Tony Jackson always frequented this place. And Tony was
considered among all who knew him, the greatest single-
hand entertainer in the world. His memory being
something like nobody’s ever heard in the music world.
There’s no tune that would ever come up from any opera,
from any show of any kind, or anything that was wrote
on paper that Tony couldn’t play by memory.

One of Tony’s great tunes that he wrote some years ago,
about the year of nineteen-thirteen or fourteen, was
“Pretty Baby.” I guess we all remember “Pretty Baby”
all right. It was a million dollar hit in less than a
year. I’ll demonstrate a little bit of it.

Pretty Baby
[sings falsetto]

Pretty Baby . . .

[clears throat]

Oh, boy, when I’d, I’d do that.

[laughs]

He’d know I was coming in when he’d hear me do that,
you see? And then he’d sing it.

You can talk about your jelly-rolls,
But none of them compare.
Pretty baby o’ mine,
Pretty baby of mine.

Then among, er . . . Er, he would be among the great
favourites. He was no doubt the outstanding favourite
in the whole city of New Orleans. I have never known
any pianist to come from any section of the world that
would leave New Orleans victorious. We had so many
different styles, that whenever you came into New
Orleans — it wouldn’t make any difference if you just
came from Paris, or any part of . . . England, Europe,
or any place — whatever your tunes were over there,
they were the same tunes in New Orleans. Because the
boys always played every type of tune, and especially
Tony. He played all the high-class numbers, same as the
low. He was the outstanding favourite, no doubt in the
city of New Orleans, by both white and black.

Was he coloured, too?

He was very coloured. He was real dark, and he wasn’t a
bit good looking. But he’s . . . had a beautiful
disposition.