Pretty baby. Jelly Roll Morton
In 1917, in the red light district Storyville, New Orleans, the prostitute Hattie (Susan Sarandon) lives with her twelve year-old daughter Violet (Brooke Shields) in the fancy brothel of Madame Nell (Frances Faye), where she works. Photographer Ernest J. Bellocq (Keith Carradine) has an attraction to Hallie and Violet and he is an habitué of the whorehouse. Then Hattie marries a wealthy client and moves to Saint Louis, leaving Violet in the brothel alone. Violet decides to marry Bellocq and she moves to his house.
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (1890-1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana.Widely recognized as James Booker sings Jelly Roll Morton's ‘Whinin' boy blues’. The title is a reference to the singer being a fast-living man of great, sexual prowess. Morton compares himself to ‘Stavin’ Chain’, a renowned male hooker.