Black Bottom Stomp tells the compelling stories of the lives of nine seminal figures in American music history, including Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. It also tells how ragtime and popular dance music fed into and changed the development of early jazz. Drawing on original archival research, the authors give and entirely new and more complete look at the music, lives, and impact of these figures. Written for the general reader, the stories told range from the frustrations Scott Joplin faced trying to be taken "seriously" as a composer to the many protean changes that Jelly Roll Morton made in his life to adapt to changing musical times and tastes. Richly illustrated with rare photographs from newspapers, sheet music, and other hard-to-find sources, the work will appeal to the reader interested in popular music, ragtime, and early jazz.