Phil Pastras. Dead Man Blues: Jelly Roll Morton Way Out West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. xx, 246 pp.
Author Phil Pastras opens his biographical study of legendary pianist Jelly Roll Morton with an epigram from poet Dylan Thomas-"Oh make me a mask"-and with that signal, Dead Man Blues: Jelly Roll Morton Way Out West takes us on the road with trickster Ferdinand Joseph LaMenthe, a.k.a.Jelly Roll.Pastras appreciates the facility with which Morton, li