Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 Library of Congress recordings are a brilliant, bodacious account of the birth of jazz in turn-of-the-last-century New Orleans.

Every jazz fan who has ever heard of Morton (circa 1885-1941) has also heard of or wondered about the mythic maestro's famous -- some say infamous -- recollections recorded with young folklorist Alan Lomax, who oversaw the Library of Congress' folk song archive.

Over the decades, the Morton/Lomax recordings have been issued periodically in 78 rpm, vinyl and CD formats that have varied in the amount of content covered and in the sound quality.

Now, for the first time, this celebrated landmark in the oral history of American popular culture is available in what seems like the best possible package.

Rounder Records and the Alan Lomax Archive have released a handsome, scholarly and digitally remastered boxed set of the recordings dubbed ``Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax'' (list price: $127.98).

With cover art by noted artist J. Crumb, the first seven of the box's eight discs contain all of Morton's pungent, sometimes hilarious recorded recollections of his early career as an itinerant pianist, particularly his stints as a whorehouse piano player par excellence.