ABSTRACT
When Jelly Roll was a boy, his loving godmother sold his soul to the devil in return for a gift of boundless musical talent. For him, I believe, this bargain with Satan became quite real. In spite of his outcaste origins, he fulfilled all of his ambitions. He defeated all comers on the piano and at the pool table and, as the leading composer and conductor of early jazz, could afford to wear diamonds in his teeth and on his sock-supporters. When he lost all that he had gained, he attributed his misfortune to sinister unseen influences. And on his deathbed, so his mistress said, he was calling for holy oil to cheat the devil of his godmother’s bargain.
